5 Classic Board Games That Would Make Better Movies Than ‘Battleship’

Game of the States has been around since the 1960s. It's a great way for kids to learn US geography and state capitols. Gameplay revolves around trucking commodities from one state and selling them in another to earn money. If the TV shows 'Ice Road Truckers' and 'Shipping Wars' can make the mundane task of long haul trucking exciting, a Game of the States movie is a guaranteed blockbuster. Caution - no one will be admitted to the theater during the chilling 'border crossing' scene.

Mystery Mansion, originally released by Milton Bradley in 1984 didn't consist of a standard board, rather each 'room' in the mansion was a small paper square. The mansion was built as the game progressed so it was a different game layout every time. Clues were stashed in small plastic treasure chests (easy to lose and a choking hazard too!). Just because Mystery Mansion didn't feature any characters named after fruits or condiments doesn't mean it can't be just as classic as the original Clue.

What game could better capture the thrill and excitement of an auto road race than one that uses just a deck of cards? Kick that imagination into high gear, kids. Mille Bornes, originally a French card game, has players earning points with hopes of winning a 700 km road race. Hazards in the game include the 'Out of Gas' and the dreaded 'Flat Tire' cards.  Actually, there was a 1999 French film named after the game.

It's hard to comprehend how a family night of tossing the dice could compare to the Vegas glamour and murderous intrigue of mobsters as portrayed by Joe Pesci and Robert DiNero in the 1995 classic movie Casino. But imagine taking a zero in the Yahtzee box on your scorecard and THEN rolling 5 snake eyes. You'll make Pesci at the craps table sound like a nun.

The game Mousetrap is based on the Rube Goldberg concept of creating overly complicated machines for doing simple tasks.  In this case, capturing a mouse.  The game includes a large marble, chutes and buckets yet inevitably your contraption will brake down and never trap any mice.  The original movie score for Mousetrap? Performed by OK Go, of course.