Sure, we get that “Pixels” is largely about nostalgia. There’s nothing coy about the movie’s marketing, from posters of a monolithic Pac-Man gobbling up the Golden Gate to trailers with Adam Sandler taking on an arcade’s worth of vintage video games come to life. But this one doesn’t just require the audience to have an appetite for throwbacks to really appreciate the show. You’ve got to be downright ravenous. Aside from bursts of 8-bit quaintness rendered in cutting-edge 3-D, there’s little else here that’s clever or lively enough to hold your attention. In fact, “Pixels” may feel flatter to kids of the ’80s than it does to moviegoers too young to have known Pac-Man from Ant-Man.
In a surprisingly late first foray into high-concept action-comedy, Sandler plays Sam Brenner, whose gift for gaming as a teen somehow never translated into big things. But as easygoing Sam works the home installation beat for a Geek Squad outfit, we soon learn a couple of unlikely things about him. Will (Kevin James), his best pal since the arcade days, has done slightly better for himself, going on to become – spoiler alert – the president. Yet Sam remains the commander-in-chief’s big confidant, whether it’s to vent about work or to make sense of a sudden alien attack. Turns out these space invaders watched a videotape of Sam and other championship gamers that was included in a NASA probe’s cultural sampler and mistook it for a challenge.
Advertisement
As the situation escalates, Sam becomes leader of a blaster-packing, real-deal geek squad that also includes his conspiracy-nut buddy, Ludlow (Josh Gad), and old nemesis Eddie (Peter Dinklage), a Donkey Kong legend in his own mind. The “Ghostbusters” aspirations aren’t hard to spot. We see it in everything from Pac-Man’s sunnily wicked rampage through Manhattan (not San Francisco) to the team’s “Arcaders” jumpsuits. Director Chris Columbus (“Home Alone,” “Harry Potter”) also delivers colorfully energetic work with a Centipede assault on London.
Ultimately, these underscripted characters are no Ghostbusters, particularly as Columbus chucks the balance between visual oooh and visual overkill in the late going. Sandler operates in familiar bemused-schlub mode, but he might have played it broader, more man-childish. Low-key works well enough for some early rom-com bristliness with Violet (Michelle Monaghan), an installation customer who just so happens to be a Defense Department heavyweight; but past that, it makes him appear slightly uninvested. An anemic theme about Sam’s lack of confidence doesn’t help, and neither does another, wistfully lamenting how the brainteasing patterns and skill-honing of classic games have given way to the mindless violence and too-easy reset buttons of today.
Advertisement
Of all the cast, Gad (“Frozen,” “The Wedding Ringer”) is the one who comes closest to saving the day more than just narratively. He shrieks, he rants, he invokes “Weird Science” hormonal ogling, and he doles out good-job butt slaps to Navy SEALs he’s coaching. It’s riffing that makes us feel like we’re having some real fun between effects shots, and getting something more than “Wreck-It Ralph” novelty without the character development.
• New Bond trailer released, and it’s epic
• Ian McKellen talks about playing Sherlock Holmes
• Amy Schumer shines as writer-star of ‘Trainwreck’
Tom Russo can be reached at trusso2222@gmail.com.
Advertisement