Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo, popularly known as the Russo brothers, might have a rather large cultural footprint since they're responsible for some of the biggest movies of the past decade. These films belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and include huge blockbusters such as Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and the $2.79 billion-dollar grossing Avengers: Endgame. But this doesn't mean these film directors aren't taking in what's going on in other areas of popular culture.
This includes video games. After all, video games vie with movies in terms of commercial size, generating colossal sums, and while some games create huge profits, there are blockbuster games that have commercial appeal while attempting to push the limits of the medium. The Russo brothers seem to recognise game.
In a video where the Russo brothers are made – forced you could say – to watch various clips from video games, we can observe their reactions. Yes, it's one of those YouTube reaction vids that seem to be a highly popular format and this one is courtesy of IGN. These movie directors are asked to rate action sequences from various video games.
Joe Russo immediately recognises a clip from Uncharted 4. "So we're looking at a clip from Uncharted here," he says. "This is, what?, a chase in Madagascar". He says place and geography on location is very important to filming an action sequence. "Uncharted is probably one of the best action gaming franchises of all time," he says later, but together they rate the particular sequence in question and score it only a 7 out of 10.
Other games they watch are Resident Evil 8, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, the award-winning It Takes Two, and Heavy Rain, but they have the highest praise for another famous series in Naughty Dog's catalogue. That would be, of course, The Last of Us Part 2, which is well known for its filmic sequences. "This is one of the greatest games ever made," Joe says quickly.
He praises the sequence – that one from the hospital, yes, that one – for its limited point of view, sound design, and Anthony notes how relatively little of the monster is shown. "It's the best of the bunch so far," Joe says. They give it a 9 out of 10.
So there you have it, these movie directors clearly know their camera work since they've been responsible for some of the most celebrated action sequences in some of the biggest films ever, so it's no little praise for Naughty Dog, but the indie title It Takes Two did earn praise from the dynamic duo too.