Film Review: Pixels (2015)

Are you a child of the 1970s? A child of the 1980s? Or even just someone who loves the old style computer games – like Pacman, Donkey Kong and Gallagher? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘Yes’ then this is most definitely the summer film for you.

Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad and Michelle Monaghan this film is bundles of fun – providing you simply just don’t take it seriously. The film begins in 1982 at the first ever World Arcade Championships which are filmed and sent into space by NASA as some kind of space capsule. Picking the adventure up in the present day, the world is under threat from an unknown alien threat who have found the capsule and taken the footage of computer games as a declaration of war. The world then must then take part in challenges as set by the aliens which take the form of old arcade games – and failure means the world faces total destruction.

With a combination of wise cracks, obvious plot points, and enough early eighties references to spawn a sequel as successful and as well known as PacMan 2 this has all the potential of being one of the films of this summer. Most films I would argue against seeing in 3D, but if you really want to bring out your inner geek then nothing will really bring out that more than seeing Donkey Kong in 3D with 3 people and one very cute Q*Bert (a trophy from a previous game) playing against the beast himself. It’s like Christmas, Easter and a few birthdays all rolled into one!

With Adam Sandler and Kevin James essentially playing themselves only in different scenarios – Sandler as a games arcade champion who never quite made it, and James playing possibly the most unlikely President of the United States ever seen on film – it is the comedy and novelty factor that makes this film – and one that is bound to send the dollar signs ringing in the actor’s ears when the film goes on full release in the UK on 12th August.

Nutleyone Rating: 4/5

Pixels was released in the USA on 24th July, it is currently slated for release in the UK on 12th August.