I went to see the newish Denzel Washington crime/suspence flick Inside Man last night. An excellent movie which included some great dialogue and great performances from an all-star cast. It also included a scene that poked some fun at children playing violent video games.

The background — a small band of four armed gunmen disguised as painters have taken 50 or so people hostage in a bank. All the hostages are tied up and gagged except for one — a child who’s allowed to play his PlayStation Portable in the bank’s unlocked vault. The boy is playing with the PSP as one of the (extremely gracious) hostage takers brings him some food.

The robber takes the child’s PSP and asks how to play the game. As he does, a fictional Grand Theft Auto-style urban crime simulator is shown on screen. The boy explains how the game gives you points for “jacking people rides,” killing hookers, and a variety of other unsavory acts. As we hear this description, the in-game protagonist (an overweight black man in a wife-beater — showing some obvious San Andreas allusions) plasters a thug with dozens of bullets as realistic blood splatters all over the street. As the screen flashes with the message “Kill the Nigga” the protagonist gets out of the car, sticks a grenade in the bleeding thug’s mouth, and steps back as his head explodes, spouting expletives all the while.

Obviously there’s a bit of irony in presenting a violent game in a movie that itself features armed robbery, hostage beatings, and a couple of bloody shootouts. This irony doesn’t seem lost on the filmmakers: when the robber comments on the content, the child replies that it’s “just like my man Fitty [Rapper 50 Cent] says… get rich or die tryin’, just like you’re doing.” The robber tells the child to finish his pizza so he can take him back to his father and “tell him about this game.”

The game itself, while a little over the top, is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of today’s popular urban crime simulator genre. The film doesn’t use the take the usual hollywood tact of exaggerating the technology or content of today’s games.

What’s more, it shows that video games, especially well-known ones like Grand Theft Auto, are becoming so ubiquitous that they can be used as set-pieces in major Hollywood movies. More than just a background prop, the game in Inside Man is integral to the scene and to an expanded understanding of the characters involved . The audience is supposed to recognize the obvious parody and incorporate that recognition into the movie itself. Hopefully we’ll see more examples of movies treating games as more than beeps and boops in the future.