If you really delve into it, the Movies can give you quite a ride.
The premise of the main single player game is that your th founder of a movie studio right from the early start of movie making in the 1920s. After the lengthy tutorial that you are forced to go through at the start of the game, you are free to manage your studio for as long as you desire. You can also play in a sandbox mode which allows you to turn off certain aspects of the game, such as your staff's mood, building degeneration, etc.
When managing your studio, you'll have to hire plenty of staff, including your stars, directors, builders, janitors, scientists, and more. The larger your studio gets, the more staff you'll have to hire, and the more you'll have to keep track of.
The basic sim game here is decent, but it gets repetitive really quickly. You'll have to constantly keep track of your star's and director's moods, and keep them happy if you want them to give good performances. This involves giving them trailers, letting them have snacks to eat, letting them take breaks to keep their stress level down, etc. It sounds like alot and sounds complicated doesn't it? But all of those things require basically the same action- dragging those stars to the necessary facilities to fullfill their needs.
Fortunately, the sim game isn't the main focus of The Movies. The main draw of The Movies is making your own films. The advanced movie maker the game has is surprisingly robust and entertaining to use, and only gets more powerful as you get later into the game. Not enough can be said about the satisfaction of making your own movies here. You don't have to wait terribly long to get into that action either, for the advanced movie maker is unlockable very early in the game.
The movie maker does have a minor issue however. The movie maker comes with hundreds of scenes available, so there's no worries about running out of scenes to use, but some people might be a little disappointed that they are stuck with the camera angles the game gives them. The camera angles given are well placed most of the time, but the ability to adjust the movie camera yourself would of been nice.
Graphically, the movies looks pretty good. The game has some nice textures for its buildings, and the animation is very well done. The character models look decent all around, though their expressions aren't terribly impressive. Sound wise, the game has some cheesy voice acting from the radio hosts you get to listen to over the years in the game, but its entertaining to listen to them. The actors themselves however don't get any actual lines, and instead just mumble. Kinda like the sims themselves actually- so if you found the sims' mumbling entertaining, you'll have more enjoyment with it here.
All matters considered, if your looking for a unique experience that you really want to delve into, The Movies is unquestionably a worthy investment.
Pros: The Movie Maker is surprisingly robust and entertaining to use. There's a good sense of satisfaction to managing your own studio if you like sim games. Great graphics.
Cons: The sim game of The Movies gets repetitive very quickly. You can't adjust the movie camera yourself in the Movie Maker.
Recommendable for: If you want a unique experience related to the movie industry, this is the game for you.