Adam Sandler’s
involvement in another lazily constructed comedy is not surprising, though I
find it oddly fascinating that the quality of his films seems to diminish as
the budget increases. While none have been masterpieces, some of his smaller
productions have fared far better than these sophomoric blockbusters. Pixels boasts the premise of a
special-effects driven action-comedy, but it has the approach of a mildly
immature family film made on autopilot.
Adam Sandler
stars as Adam Sandler named Sam Brenner, a former ‘80s video game champion in
arrested development. Although he is still mourning the loss of a video game
championship as a child, Brenner is also convenient best friends with the
President of the United
States
Pixels is so bland as a piece of film
that it is difficult to even criticize. Sure, there are moments within the
half-ass screenplay that are oddly weird and tainted with teen-fantasy
misogynist tendencies. These areas of the film are just plain bad, but much of
the movie is simply uninspired. Characters are turned to caricatures (with the
exception of Sandler, who merely plays himself again), jokes fall flat, and the
effects are surprisingly dull for a film about video games. Director Chris
Columbus is known for being a safe (albeit uninspired) choice, but Pixels is an
uneven endeavor even for him.
The screenplay based upon a short
film takes a compelling premise and does absolutely nothing with it. The
opportunity to spoof disaster films is wasted, and aside from brief spurts of
nostalgia, the same could be said of the way that Pixels addresses the topic of video games. While there are some
familiar characters for audience members old enough to remember the classics of
arcade games, Pixel’s humor is more
likely to cater to those too young to get the references. And then there’s the
bizarre misogynistic tone coming from that odd sequence where a video game
character becomes a mute living fantasy, going beyond bland entertainment into mindlessly
sexist.
The Blu-ray release attempts to
entice consumers with extras to make up for the film’s shortcomings, though it
is mostly just a continued shrine to the forgotten arcade game classics. Along
with featurettes for each playing a crucial role in the film, including a
cross-promotional new game called Dojo Quest, there is also a game app which
allows you to play along with the characters in the film on smart phones and
other devices. The only extra that doesn’t seem to be directly dealing with
video games is a music video by Waka Flocka Flame, featuring Good
Charlotte.
Entertainment Value:
6.5/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 4/10
Historical
Significance: 2/10
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