Adam Sandler has almost reached the level of Eddie Murphy: a guy who once made a bunch of good movies but now mostly makes really crappy, unfunny films that appeal to a small segment of a broader audience, but no longer to those who once really enjoyed him.
“Pixels” is Sandler’s one last chance to hit up his former fans with an unapologetic child-of-the-80s fantasy where video games come to life to threaten the world.
He was at least smart enough to hire a real director this time, calling on Chris Columbus, who previously helmed both “Home Alone” and the first two installments of “Harry Potter.”
But he brings his usual friends back, including Kevin James, but adds real talent in Josh Gad (“Frozen”), Peter Dinklage and a game Michelle Monagham as the love interest. The result is a crazy Sandler flick that harkens back to his glory days, which is to say a terrible film that somehow, inexplicably, manages to entertain, this time on the back of a fun premise where alien invaders, having intercepted an American time capsule that contained the first-ever video game championships from 1982, mistake the intended olive branch as a declaration of war, and that video game characters are the vessels we battle. Adam and the boys, as the participants of those championships, must become soldiers, playing real-life Centipede and battling a giant city-gobbling Pac Man.
It’s the most fun Sandler film in years, one that people in their 30s and 40s will actually have real, fun nostalgia for. If you miss the Sandler of the “Happy Gilmore” and “Waterboy” days…well, you still don’t quite get that level of attitude, but you’ll get something you can watch and enjoy for the first time in quite awhile.
