Pixels
(2015)When 1980s-era arcade game characters attack the United States, the country's military call up the finest video gamers - Adam Sandler (Grown Ups 2), Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Josh Gad - to repel the threat. Directed by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone's Chris Columbus, and based on French director Patrick Jean's short film.
-
Directed by Chris Columbus
Starring Peter Dinklage, Adam Sandler, Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin James
Written by Timothy Dowling, Tim Herlihy, Adam Sandler (based on the short film of the same name by Patrick Jean)
On Demand, DVD & Blu-Ray
Available from 7 providers
Flicks Review
The Peoples' Reviews
Reviewed & Rated by
Your rating & review
Rate / Review this movieRate and/or review
Pixels
BY The_Chihuahua superstar
I was so looking forward to this movie when I heard about it. And even the trailer looked great. Yeah, that's where it ended for me, at the trailer.
I like a good laugh and who better to do it with than Adam Sandler. I don't know, but I felt like Adam Sandler has hit the bottom of the barrel and started to regurgitate all his jokes just the movie plot. The movie was like a Waldo book. Spot the celeb amongst the... More bad plot and bad lines.
Don't waste your money seeing it on the big screen. You'll get more thrills from actually playing those games on your Atari or space invader arcade. If you've inserted your coin already, hit the return coin button...now!Hide
BY JuliaLee lister
This movie did entertain and had some funny moments. It would be enjoyed by older children and adults of a certain generation.
BY Geronimo superstar
My son loved it. Much better than expected. Quite an enjoyable ride, totally silly but that is the point. Adam Sandler is more likeable in this. Good cast who gel well. Nice reminders of late seventies and early eighties arcade visits. No need to take your brain with you just enjoy the fun.
BY Gerd superstar
Sandler successfully finished another dumb flick I wouldn’t
even recommend it for your dog. Avoid at all cost!
Showing 4 of 4 reviews. See all reviews
The Press Reviews
17%
of critics recommend.
Rotten Tomatoes Score. More reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Desperately caters to Gen-X junk nostalgia without bothering to think that maybe those Reagan-era kids have grown up a bit. Full Review
This one-note comedy runs out of gas within an hour and should have been trimmed to a neat 90 minutes. Full Review
There’s no joy left in [Adam Sandler's] shtick. Full Review
There is an actual story backbone, told efficiently, with regular laughs, committed performances and a believable throughline on friendship, love and other well-worn themes. Full Review
Saving graces, almost: an insanely ripe performance by Peter Dinklage and a surreal moment involving Hall & Oates. Full Review
There's a certain thrill to seeing humans face off against Frogger. If only as much care had been put into the living characters as the pixelated ones. Full Review
Some movies are so interminable that it seems they might never end, while others are assembled with such indifference that you are essentially left waiting for them to start. "Pixels" somehow manages both. Full Review
Feels a little bit second-hand and slightly grimy. Full Review
BY Giles Hardie Flicks Writer
Here’s the pull quote, people: Pixels - It’s not as bad as you’ve heard.... More
Of course it isn’t. For Pixels to earn the sort of scathing reviews it has been receiving out of North America, it would have to slap each member of the audience in the face individually, arrange to have your pets murdered while you were at the cinema and then flaunt Adam Sandler’s genitalia in each and every scene.
It doesn’t. It doesn’t do anything that offensive. Nor anything memorable at all really. It’s just that it promised more than it was ever going to deliver. Way more.
The first trailer promised a rollicking comedy riffing on early ‘80s arcade games mashed with a Michael Bay-style Earth-threatening action flick. The world took notice. “Yes” they said. “Brilliant idea!”
Unfortunately it’s not the idea behind this film.
This film is actually the next chapter in Adam Sandler’s migration from making adult comedies about kidults (Happy Gilmore, The Waterboy, The Wedding Singer) to making family movies with actual kids (Bedtime Stories, Grown Ups 2, Blended). It features kids and it is made for them. The story sees President Kevin James (yes, really) ask life-long friend Sandler, a childhood arcade champ, to save Earth by playing aliens in Pac Man, Snake and Donkey Kong and in doing so overcome his childhood trauma. Plus, save the kids.
The problem is that the young target audience have never heard of the games – this is pitched at tweens, not even teens – while the generations who are arcade literate get a patronising snooze fest.
That disconnect has allowed adult audiences to vent their pent-up aggression built over years of Jack and Jill, That’s My Boy and Just Go With It. Sandler has indeed earned the vitriol directed at hime, but this film hasn’t.
Pixels is a harmless family film that kids can enjoy on TV even if they don’t quite understand the references. It’s not a great film about monsters attacking Earth, but it’s also not a monster itself.Hide
Care to comment?