#watched: PIXELS

"Pixels is a 2015 American science fiction comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures, 1492 Pictures and Happy Madison Productions. The film was directed by Chris Columbus. Its screenplay was written by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling, with a screen story penned by Tim Herlihy and based on French director Patrick Jean's 2010 short film of the same name.[4] The film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Monaghan, Brian Cox, Ashley Benson, and Jane Krakowski.

The film's plot has extraterrestrials misinterpreting video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, and invading Earth using technology inspired by games such as Pac-Man and Space Invaders. To counter the alien assault, the United States hire former arcade champions to lead the planet's defense."

I've been reading tons of negative press on the Adam Sandler-helmed movie PIXELS, and while I can hardly argue with folks' issues, I kinda enjoyed the movie for what it was: "a fun ride and an attempt at capturing the older gene nerd-crowd" - and that is alright by me.

Cliched storyline and cardboard characters aside, the retro vibe of the flashback scenes had me in smiles (adolescence thru the 80s, recognizing "Max Headroom" and all) and a fuzzy sense of comfort and familiarity, parleyed into Sandler as everyman "Sam Brennar" being in the wardrobe with Lieutenant Colonel Violet van Patten (played by Michelle Monaghan as ), and her sobbing on his shoulders, basically threw me off the film there and then. I could even accept Kevin James as The President of the United States, ya know? Because, well, this is a Sandler movie, so I can get with that, ya know?


And by the time the credits rolled, my thoughts were on "Lady Lisa" (played by Ashley Benson - who at this time NEEDS to have a "Dojo Quest" reboot as feature film, fhanks!), because, well, she gave justice to the red dress, innit? Everything else that happened before turned into a faded echo played from an old cassette tape, and the "next generation" of Pixelated beings an absolute "WTF?!".

But I realized I could not wholly fathom the venom and vitriol for Sandler and this movie, as I partaketh of it not in a darkened cinema, with my humble viewing experience featuring less than stellar visuals and audio, and hence no excess $$ spent and by default less higher of stakes to contend with, and therefore to complain much about. So maybe a DVD rental might do the trick instead, yeah?