Respond to these rapid questions in our Pixels quiz and we will tell you which Pixels character you are. Play it now.
As I walked into the screening of Adam Sandler’s newest comedy, “Pixels,” I felt a genuine anticipation that I cannot easily recall ever feeling in conjunction with one of his films, at least not of those that were churned out by his Happy Madison production company. The central premise behind “Pixels” is so undeniably promising on its most basic level that as I walked in, I felt an excitement that I have never felt in connection with one of his films. Unfortuitously, a film’s execution can only take it so far, no matter how strong the premise may be, if the execution is poor to begin with. Oh, “Pixels” does have a couple of laughs scattered here and there, and the film as a whole is certainly better than such recent Sandler disasters as “That’s My Boy,” “Blended,” and the truly inexplicable “The Cobbler,” but when one considers how good this material might have been if placed in the right hands, to see it squandered this way makes it almost more painful to view than the typical Sandler stinker. The film centers on a
The premise of this story is that in 1982, NASA launched into orbit a capsule that contained numerous examples of our then-contemporary popular culture as a way of reaching out to possible alien life forms that might be curious to know about that thing that we on Earth called “The Pirate Movie.” The capsule also contained a cassette chronicling a video game championship featuring young arcade masters showing how skilled they were at the top games of the era. In the video game championship, young arcade masters showed how skilled they were at the Unfortunately, a hostile alien force was able to intercept the tape, determine that the contents of the tape constituted an act of war, and begin sending down large and malevolent versions of the characters from those games to attack Earth as a response to the alleged challenge with the fate of the planet hanging in the balance. The tape’s contents had been interpreted as an act of war. The spaceships from “Galaga” rain pixellated horror in Peru, a “Centipede” game breaks out over London’s Hyde Park, and the grid-like layout of New York City sets the scene for what turns out to be the world’s largest Pac-Man game in what turns out to be New York City.
Extreme circumstances call for extreme responses, and as a result, the President (Kevin James) comes up with the idea of recruiting former video game players to offer advice on how to repel the attacking forces. Fortunately for him, his childhood best friend Sam Brenner (Sandler) was a young gaming prodigy back in the day. However, his life was ruined after he lost that championship when he placed second at Donkey Kong. Ludlow (Josh Gad), another competitor from that competition, joins him. Ludlow is a fan of paranoid conspiracy theories (he is convinced that JFK fired first, laughs), and he has an unhealthy obsession with Lady Lisa, the scantily clad heroine of “Dojo Girl.” (This game does not in fact exist, but as those keeping score at home will soon discover, the film’s verisimilitude is not exactly its strongest point.) The bloated egomaniac Eddie “The Fireblaster” Plant, played by Peter Dinklage, who was the one to defeat Sam in that fateful game of Donkey Kong, also joins the team, but he is hiding a shocking secret that has the potential to bring about the end of the world. The guys are finally joined by Lt. Col. Violet van Patten (Michelle Monaghan), a brilliant specialist who creates the strange weaponry that will be used against the invaders. This is a small concession to the fact that women also play games, and it is a small step in the right direction. (Of course, she is just a girl in a movie that is targeted toward adolescent boys, so her signature moves include zapping a Smurf and downing Chardonnay while sobbing about her romantic troubles at length to the guy who has arrived to install her flat-screen TV.)
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Pixels quiz.
As I’ve already mentioned, the basic idea behind “Pixels” (which was adapted from a short film from 2010) is a good one, and in an ideal world, the movie could have been a high-tech combination of “The Last Starfighter” and “Ghostbusters,” which is what it manifestly aspires to be. Even though their overexposure in the coming attractions previews has inevitably reduced much of their immediate impact, there are times when the sight of giant-sized arcade icons wreaking havoc does have a certain grandeur to it. In fact, there are times when this sight does have a certain grandeur to it. Unfortunately, even though the technologies that were used to bring these characters from their 8-bit roots into the CGI world are as cutting-edge as they possibly can be, the screenplay is more along the lines of “Oregon Trail” than anything else. Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, co-writers of the film and frequent collaborators with Adam Sandler, have essentially pushed the concept to the side in order to make room for the usual nonsense, which includes people acting like idiots for no apparent reason, an attitude toward women that should appeal to those Gamergate oafs, cameo appearances from Sandler’s friends, and the usual bits of gross-out humor. Instead of taking the time to really hash out the concept, the (It’ll blow your mind that a Q*Bert can whiz!)
Pixels Quiz
Chris Columbus, the director of “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” and the first two “Harry Potter” films, does what he can with the material, but while some of the large special effects set-pieces are nicely put together, he seems as bored directing all of the stuff in between as v. Although I can’t help but wonder what someone like Joe Dante, an excellent filmmaker with a genuine interest in the perils and pleasures of American popular culture, might have done On the other side of the camera, Sandler and James simply bounce from scene to scene delivering their shopworn material with such little effort that they somehow seem less substantial than the pixelated creatures they are battling, Monaghan is thoroughly wasted in a role that doesn’t even begin to hint at the talents that she has displayed in the past in such things as the little-seen drama “Trucker” and the first season of “True Detective,” and Josh Gad continues his cavalier attitude toward the film industry. But on the other hand, Peter Dinklage does end up scoring the lion’s share of the laughs here with a swaggeringly silly turn that has clearly been inspired by Billy Mitchell, the obnoxious real-life gaming champion who was the subject of the documentary “The King of Kong.”
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Pixels quiz.
It stands to reason that if you are old enough to feel nostalgic about playing “Donkey Kong” in the arcade, you are probably too old for an Adam Sandler film. However, viewers of a certain age may look at “Pixels” with a degree of nostalgia because it is a throwback to the era of video games known as the 8-bits. However, when you consider how good it could have been and how good it should have been, it has to go down as one of the season’s bigger disappointments in the way that it quickly gives up the ghost. This is one of the reasons why it has to go down as one of the bigger disappointments (s). On the plus side, Hollywood is remaking movies at such a rapid pace these days that it is probably only a matter of time before they get around to making another version of this one.
For more personality quizzes check this: Goosebumps Quiz.
