Customer Reviews
An expansion that added to a game that REALLY needed it. 
2008-04-05
The Movies:Stunts and Effects does add alot to the game. Now there is alot more options with certain types of action,sci fi and horror flicks, as well as romantic and comedy with a bit of creativity. It was over all a good expansion that allows the player to create movies in their own way. However, one of my annoyances with it is the fact that the lot does not get any bigger, it's annoying! However, I found a way around it after weeks of playing: don't buy all the lots at once, if there is a need for lets say, a jungle and its as big as the bombed city, break the bombed city and place the jungle there and vice versa. Do this during sandbox mode though.
Not Just Stunts 2008-03-22
As many have said, you should get this expansion if you are getting the movies. After you've played with the expansion once you will wonder how you ever played The Movies without it. But the stunts are only the title feature. Plenty of other things are new too:
MAKING CUSTOM MOVIES-
-Freecam. Allowing you to move the camera yourself allows you to get exactly what you want out of a shot.
-"Environment". The former weather button, now the environment button, lets you control the level of rain in outdoor sets, and gives you the new wind option, where you can choose what strength the wind is blowing and what it is blowing. You can also add overlays over the shots, to make it look like your video is on TV, a spaceship computer, or simply making the camera wet.
-Makeover Screen. You can now control how much you zoom in
with the scroll button on your mouse. You can also view a menu with all options for a certain part of their costume instead of just scrolling through forever.
-There's plenty more costumes, including... a Santa Suit!
-Copy scenes. Right clicking a scene in the timeline will copy it.
-View all your scenes together. Watch all your scenes strung together as a preview of what your movie will look like. An easy way to see any problems with your movie.
-More Sets. Not only are there the new blue screen, green screen, miniature, and scrolling sets for effects, you've got a couple more normal sets added too.
-New scenes, stunts or otherwise.
-New Props
SIMULATION-
-Stuntmen. Ah, more people to train.
-New facilities for the stuntmen. The hospital, some training facilities and a stunt school have been added to your facilities list in order to care for your stuntmen.
-Stunt Awards. Stunt awards have been added to the Lionhead Motion Picture Awards, as well as a new series of achievements for stunts, each one rewarding you with a new set.
This expansion is great. Lets hope Lionhead makes another.
Maybe they should add more events in the future?
Stunts and Effects is a must 2008-02-15
The tycoon element of The Movies is entertaining for gamers who enjoy that style of game. I certainly didn't mind it but the element that adds tremendous replay value is the ability to make your own movies. The expansion, Stunts and Effects, plays right into this. While it does enhance the "game" aspect, S & E really shows it's value in the "advanced movie maker" mode where you make your own films.
One of the main enhancements is the free-cam which gives the film maker the ability to move the camera and set up his/her custom shots. Without this function, one is limited only to the shots and angles offered by the game's developers. There are also advanced environment controls and the ability to use overlays. I would say, however, the free-cam mode alone makes it worth every penny.
Necessary for serious moviemaking 2007-12-11
This expansion pack provides added special effects and camera controls that are needed if you want to use "The Movies" for serious machinima or even more advanced filmmaking. Particularly useful is the ability to save a custom scene after it has been set up - something missing from the basic game.
For simple gameplaying, this expansion pack doesn't really add a lot as far as strategy goes, although the new costumes and effects are still probably worth the relatively low cost.
A nice addition 
2007-10-23
This expansion to the "much hyped but didnt live up to its promise", The Movies". This expansion adds more content such as special effects and explosions as well as allowing you to hire stuntman. This does add to the game and slightly makes it more enjoyable however it's still a little buggy and I wish that Lionhead Studios would of increased the length of the movies that we can make. Making a masterpiece doesnt come in 3-8 minute movies.
It would be nice to see throughout the game in real movie theatres to see how the movie you just created is doing. Seeing long lines or hardly any people in the theatre. How about seeing the stars of your movie coming out and meeting the press and fans at random theatres?
Again, this game had such promise. But I think Lionhead has given up on this game...this expansion is more than a year old.
okay 
2007-09-03
With The Movies: Stunts & Effects Expansion Pack, you can maximize your inner mogul with a fantastic array of new cinematic choices. Turn your motion picture projects from The Movies into empire-building epics. Add spectacular stunts, eye-popping effects and dramatic new sets. Become the ultimate Hollywood player, with greater power to build and run your own motion picture studio.
That hit the spot! 2007-08-01
Ahh yes... This is my new favorite game.
It definately adds a lot to the original. Great new scenes, Freecam (how did I live without this on the game?) overlays (also adds a lot, especially if you custom make your own) new backdrops, and the introduction of stuntmen, SFX sets, stunt facilities, and a few more things.
Ok, now it's time for...
THE GOOD
This adds so much to the game, if you have The Movies, you NEED Stunts and Effects. The quality of the movies you create greatly improve with this, and so does the amount of fun you have creating them, watching them, and even the fun you have while filming them.
THE BAD
Two problems with this version: Relationships and stuntmen.
Firstly, relationships.
To get to the highest star relationship level, you need to go from the bar, to the VIP bar, to the restaurant, to the VIP restaurant. In the end, you're almost guarenteed to recieve and addiction. That leads to Rehab, which can delay movies, and whatever else you may want to do.
Lastly, stuntmen.
Keeping it short: It takes pretty much the whole life of the stuntman to be able to do the really hard stunts.
~~~
Fun, but gets boring after a while 2007-04-14
I agree with a lot of the reviews on this and the main game page. I think I spent more time playing it than most of the reviewers - long enough to figure out how to work around the various annoying quirks of the game play. My wish for future expansion packs or versions of the game would be to make the characters better looking and include year changes after the alien contact. I played the game well into the future and it got REALLY boring once the new outfits, radio, announcements, stars from other lots, etc stopped. It became a tedious routine of writing and making the movies, getting my stars to relax and interact, and releasing the flick in hopes that I'd get a high enough rating to get that last award and finish the game. Overall it's definitely worth the current price, and here's one reviewer patiently waiting for the next (and hopefully improved!) release.
If you have the movies GET THIS EXPANSION 2006-11-08
THE MOVIES works best with this accompanying expansion pack STUNTS and EFFECTS. Do not buy THE MOVIES game without it. It makes ones life far easier in creating their own custom movies as it includes "free camera movement." This mode allows one to take a single "scene" and do many creative things with it. I'm not sure how many people are playing the game, but if the message board at LionHead are any indication, a large number got THE MOVIES primarily for "sandbox" mode prinrily setup to create films bypassing much of the tycoon mode.
The game includes a fair amount of canned scenes sets and costumes and it's not hard to come up with something western, science fiction, modern or something else entirely. The canned scenes, two actors conversing or a guy in a chair smoking or two people whaling the living daylights out of each other plus maybe some 50 more can be combined together with voiceovers, subtitles and music to form very interesting stories. Head over to [...] and one can see how marvelous and inventive some of these moviemakers actually are.
There are limits and some users complain endlessly about them For example: the actors in the stock scenes cannot be moved around on the stage and only follow preset paths. But fortunately the " freecam mode" allows a variety of shots to be created from that one scene and strung together in a variety of creative ways that allows deviation from the preset view to make that scene fresh and exciting. One should also invest in a three button scroll mouse to get the most out of the freecam. Freecam can be "emulated " via the keyboard, but in my opinion, a "poor" emulation.
I started the game in 1920, then switched to sandbox but was overwhelmed by the sheer amounts of choices. I decided to go back into the tycoon game and edit the "scripts" that the game automatically generated for the movie shoots. These generated movies tend to be small, 3 scenes or so but once the custom script facility is obtained, provide fertile ground to manipulate and learn the basics of THE MOVIES filmmaking style without being flooded by too many choices.
Finished films can be uploaded to LionHead's site for viewing by others or shared on other websites as they can be readily viewed in Microsoft's Media Player.
Mods, that is, user added content, can be also supplement the supplied stock art---a low end modder can take a picture, scanned it in and place it as a backdrop for a stage to set up a different location, currently not in THE MOVIES maybe Paris, London or one's own personal corner of their apartment. An artist might seize upon this to place their artwork in the game and use it as a commercial for an upcoming art show or explain their piece, as a backdrop is flat and projects on a wall surface. High end modders have gone so far as to create entire sets from retextures or scratch and added additional props and costumes to the game, all available for download.
I've had problems with the copy protection scheme of the game, and unfortunately, this did not go away with the expansion STUNTS and EFFECTS. When I tried to run the game, I got the perennial message that read something like "DVD emulation software in use. Please disable any DVD emulation software before proceeding." Unwilling to take up any of the typical tech suggestions offered for this sort of a problem -reinstall video drivers, cd Rom drivers, directx, Windows, get bios updates replace CD drive, processor, motherboard computer etc, I got a "no cd" file for the game from one of the "no CD" sites and the game ran fine without further problems. If it weren't for these sites, I could not play the game.
5 stars minus- 1 for the showstopping copy protection issues (I'd give it 0 stars if it weren't for the "no cd" sites)
One of the Best Computer Games EVER 2006-08-16
If you haven't played The Movies yet, you should, and definately add in the Stunts&Effects pack. The game plays on two levels. First, there is the game itself, the simulation in which you are the head of your movie studio, from scriptwriting to stunts (with the pack), to watching the filming, to post production, PR and Marketing and release. Simply put, its one of the most addictive games ever... a cross between The Sims 2, and say, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.
In addtion to that, though, with the Custom Script office, you have the chance to make your own incredibly detailed movies. A word of advice though, when you get to the point where you are making your own films, change the option to instantly make movies, as once you get started, you will make more "real" movies than the ones auto-generated for the game (those all have 9 scenes, yours will have 100+, and take for ever to film otherwise).
A great game that I can't reccommend enough
