Every Adam Sandler movie I watch I feel a piece of my childhood slipping away. Billy Madison, the Water Boy, or Happy Gilmore this is film not. Pixels takes an intriguing concept and dumbs it down to fart jokes and prat falls.
Pixels concept is pretty interesting and fairly simple. In the 80’s the government sent a satellite into space containing samples of our culture and way of life. Videos of our arcade games from that era were seen not as an example of a past time but a war like challenge to an alien race. They then mimicked the video games and sent them down to destroy the earth. The only people who can save us from the oncoming threat are washed up arcade nerds from the 80’s.
The concept for this movie is interesting but that was just about the only thing. I admit that I am in the middle of the dead zone for this movie. Meaning that the nostalgia is for people my dad’s age and the jokes are for children. Pixels missed the mark with me and I think it will miss its mark with you too. The love story seemed forced and obvious, the acting was sub-par and almost painful during some scenes and the actual videogame attackers became boring by the end of the movie. Even Peter Dinklage, who is an excellent actor, started out interesting but was playing a spoof of himself by the end of this film.
Overall this movie was just disappointing and the box office reflected that. Don’t rush out to go see this and maybe don’t bother at all.
My Ranting: Catch it on Cable