Stars: 3 out of 5
Pros: Very fun and creative 80’s video game nostalgia
Cons: Very immature main characters
The Bottom Line:
Video game film
Brought down by immature cast
Once and done movie
Wonderful Idea Brought Down by Antics of the Cast
Usually, when I see a preview for a disaster or alien
invasion flick, I pass on it. That genre
just isn’t my thing. I feel the same when
I see a preview for an Adam Sandler flick since the previews for those usually
annoy me. But I had to make an exception
for Pixels. A film with classic video games – the games I
grew up playing – come to life? I knew I
had to watch it. Sadly, it wasn’t as
good as I hoped it would be.
Back in the 80’s, Brenner was one of the top video game
players of the era thanks to his innate ability to recognize the patterns in
the games. However, that didn’t
translate to a well-paying job as the Brenner of today (Adam Sandler) makes his
living installing home theater and electronics equipment.
However, one day the US Naval base in Guam is attacked by a
mysterious enemy, and Brenner’s best friend Cooper (Kevin James), who also
happens to be President of the United States, calls on Brenner for help. He recognize the pattern for what it is,
Galaga. With help from conspiracy nut
Ludlow (Josh Gad) and his old video game nemesis Eddie (Peter Dinklage), he
must help repel attacks from an alien force using 1982 video games against
us. Can this unlikely group of geeks
succeed?
I had to smile as each new video game enemy was
revealed. These were some of my favorite
games as a kid, and I could spend hours playing them on my Atari 2600. (I didn’t spend as much time in arcades
playing the real games, but I loved my Atari.)
There are some great lines based on that nostalgia, and the battles were
great. Heck, the fight against Pac-Man
alone will make any member of my generation smile.
However, the nostalgic fun was covered in the haze of usual
Adam Sandler immaturity. The main
characters are just what you’d picture if you’ve seen one of his movies (or the
previews) with the typical immature but supposed to be funny antics, and the
movie is filled with PG-13 level sexual jokes.
I often found these parts painful to watch; I certainly didn’t find them
funny, and the very little bit of predictable character development we got
wasn’t enough to save this aspect of the movie.
I will give the actors credit for being good in their various roles, I
just didn’t like the characters.
I was very impressed with the effects. Naturally, there were a lot of them in the
film, and they were very well done. I
especially appreciated the fact that the effects for the video game characters
were very blocky, perfectly representing the level of graphics we had back in
the day.
Do I regret watching Pixels? Not in the least. I think anyone who enjoyed playing the video
games of the 80’s is going to want to watch it at some point for the pure
nostalgia of it. However, the immature
characters will keep me from rewatching the film.
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