Pixels (12A.)
Directed by Chris Columbus.
Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, Brian Cox and Peter Dinklage. 106 mins.
The world is being attacked by 80s arcade video game characters – who you gonna call? Well, Adam Sandler apparently. And the voice of the snowman in Frozen. And Tom Cruise’s wife in Mission Impossible 3. And Paul Blart: Mall Cop, who you will cast as the president of the United States. (Hell's bells, I know America is in a dark and uncertain place right now, but I didn't realise he had sunk to a level where you could make Kevin James its fictional president and not be arrested for treason and giving succour to the enemy.)
I tried to like Pixels, honest I did. For an hour before the film started Sony plied us with booze and 80's themed snacks with which I over-indulged degenerately (it was like Caligula imagined as an episode I Love The 80s, a debauched man demeaning himself for another scoop of Twiglets and a second bag of Pick'n'Mix): because if you don't show yourself to be corruptible than noone will try to corrupt you. I couldn't though find my inner Lord Sewell. Pixels has a relaxed fun, easy going vibe; it has some laughs and it isn't unpleasant company. Light hearted is fine, but Pixels is also half hearted. Too many weak jokes, which could be forgiven if more effort had been put into the visuals. There's a nice shot in New York where a Pacman is running wild a few blocks down in the background and it really shows up how little imagination and thought has been put into the staging of all the other action set pieces.
80s nostalgia worked pretty well for Sandler in The Wedding Singer and if you are passionate about that period of gaming and open minded about the star then you can have a pretty good time with Pixels. The problem is that's now a fairly diminished demographic and not one you really want to be aiming a children's film at. You imagine there must have been a point that it dawned on those involved that this was basically a Sinclair C-5 with bells on, and that no amount of the references to Hall and Oates, Fantasy Island, and the slogan for Walter Mondale's losing Presidential campaign would ever save it.
Pixels (12A.)
Directed by Chris Columbus.
Starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Josh Gad, Brian Cox and Peter Dinklage. 106 mins.
The world is being attacked by 80s arcade video game characters – who you gonna call? Well, Adam Sandler apparently. And the voice of the snowman in Frozen. And Tom Cruise’s wife in Mission Impossible 3. And Paul Blart: Mall Cop, who you will cast as the president of the United States. (Hell's bells, I know America is in a dark and uncertain place right now, but I didn't realise he had sunk to a level where you could make Kevin James its fictional president and not be arrested for treason and giving succour to the enemy.)
I tried to like Pixels, honest I did. For an hour before the film started Sony plied us with booze and 80's themed snacks with which I over-indulged degenerately (it was like Caligula imagined as an episode I Love The 80s, a debauched man demeaning himself for another scoop of Twiglets and a second bag of Pick'n'Mix): because if you don't show yourself to be corruptible than noone will try to corrupt you. I couldn't though find my inner Lord Sewell. Pixels has a relaxed fun, easy going vibe; it has some laughs and it isn't unpleasant company. Light hearted is fine, but Pixels is also half hearted. Too many weak jokes, which could be forgiven if more effort had been put into the visuals. There's a nice shot in New York where a Pacman is running wild a few blocks down in the background and it really shows up how little imagination and thought has been put into the staging of all the other action set pieces.
80s nostalgia worked pretty well for Sandler in The Wedding Singer and if you are passionate about that period of gaming and open minded about the star then you can have a pretty good time with Pixels. The problem is that's now a fairly diminished demographic and not one you really want to be aiming a children's film at. You imagine there must have been a point that it dawned on those involved that this was basically a Sinclair C-5 with bells on, and that no amount of the references to Hall and Oates, Fantasy Island, and the slogan for Walter Mondale's losing Presidential campaign would ever save it.
