When is a jigsaw not just a jigsaw? When it is also a game, of course! Welcome to Night at the Movies, a 1,000 piece puzzle that will have you scratching your head in more ways than one.

Night at the Movies is 100% jigsawing action. You will be slotting those pieces together, box on hand should you need a little hint (or ten!). But the fun doesn’t stop with the picture. Once that’s done, you then have 101 riddles to solve!

And, as the title suggests, the hidden, cryptic puzzles all relate to movies. Within those cardboard borders hide 101 different film titles. Without giving everything away, some are hit-you-in-the face obvious; a “ram” holding a “bow” can only really be one sweaty, eighties action hero, now can’t it.

But others will have you tapping the table in pleasurable frustration! And, without doubt, there is a real mix of well knowns and not so blockbuster level hits in amongst the drive-in movie theatre setting.

Fortunately there is a handy chart inside the box for you to complete so you can keep track. Not only does it help identify the specific pieces forming each of the 101 titles, it also has the complete picture printed on the reverse.

Eco-friendly Solution!

I can’t really tell you how to play Night at the Movies, or give you any clues. That would be spoiler central! But I can tell you that we found this puzzle to be top notch quality from Big Potato Games. And I love the distinct lack of plastic packaging. For any of you who puzzle regularly, the first step when starting a new one is usually to cast off the cellophane on the box. Then comes the big release as the inner bag is emptied of all its contents. But here, there is a real focus on reducing non-recyclables as much as possible. Paper bag? Yes please! And that definitely gets a thumbs up from me as a puzzler, gamer, a mum, and a human being!

Quality Components

As well as the art-wrapped box, the pieces are nice and thick, with a glossy finish. This does mean that reflections from lights can sometimes obscure the picture. Speaking of the pieces, it is also nice to see some unusual shapes. The corners and edges still have the straight sides. But others include ones I hadn’t seen before, and they seem to compliment the artwork.

Blues & Hues

I think the thing that surprises me the most about Night at the Movies is the colour palette. I was expecting a zany, hyper-colour explosion across the tableau. But the colours are quite muted. There is a softness to the design that I wasn’t expecting. Particularly from a publisher who has brought us the hue-tastic Snakesss and Colour Brain (to name but a few!). In a way, however, this makes Night at the Movies feel more grown up. More of an artwork, independent of the puzzle and cryptic riddles, in fact.

Granted the gentle shades also make some of the characters and elements of the illustration a little tricky to see. A number of times, I struggled a little to work out what was on the pieces I had just slotted together. The black and white chart definitely helped to identify shapes, however, and the full colour picture is definitely sharper on the detail.

Whilst I was happy to puzzle my way through the 101 titles alone, this feels like it benefits from being a sociable experience. What started off as my husband and mother-in-law and son looking over my shoulder, soon became a shared after dinner activity. Over a series of evenings, we sat, chatted, and solved our way through Night at the Movies. And, as such, it really did feel like more of a game than just a puzzle. I can’t say that we got all of the titles ourselves. There were a few that stumped us. There were also several that we thought but then convinced ourselves otherwise. Handy for us (and you!), however, there is a QR code on the chart which takes you to the list of solutions at bigpotato.co.uk. This caused a number of facepalms and groans so loud, that we are surprised the neighbours didn’t knock to check everything was ok!

Overall, we really enjoyed puzzling out Night at the Movies. I expect it is made for an older audience – our almost 8 year old was great at lateral thinking in terms of the imagery but didn’t know any of the actual film titles. I am not sure if we made life harder or easier for ourselves, but we built first, riddled second. The box suggests you solve as you go, but we are bigger picture type people, so that wouldn’t have worked for us! If you like jigsaws and you love puzzles, then you should definitely check out Night at the Movies (together with the second in the series, Day at the Festival).