Pixels The Movie Review

If you grew up in the 80’s, video arcade games was our thing which is when I saw the trailer for Pixels Movie months ago, I screamed a bit. Pixels focuses on four 1980s kids’, Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), Will Cooper (Kevin James), Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad), and Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plant (Peter Dinklage) who saved the world thousands of times – at 25 cents a game in the video arcades. Now years later, they’re going to have to do it for real.

In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens discover video feeds of classic arcade games and misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth, using the video games as the models for their assaults — and now-U.S. President Cooper must call on his old-school arcade friends to save the world from being destroyed by PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede, and Space Invaders. Joining them is Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan), a specialist supplying the arcaders with unique weapons to fight the aliens.

While I saw the trailer months ago, I am always afraid when I don’t see a lot of promos for a movie before it opens. But I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. As a child of the 80’s, I am very familiar with arcade games from that era spending many hours playing PAC Man and Asteroids.

I really liked this movie offering a great 80’s soundtrack (seriously, Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick in one movie, how can you go wrong), the clothes and those fros. Yikes! Everyone is perfectly cast from Adam Sandler to Kevin James. In fact, I think both actors ratcheted down their usual over the top acting. This movie will definitely has a lot of built in nostalgia for the adults plus offers younger non 80’s generation a fun look back to games of old.

That said this movie is not without it’s flaws. Like so many action pictures, they always include that one action sequence that could have been cut. And I would have liked to have seen a bit more back story for each of the characters. Not that I want the movie to be longer but the movie starts off with the main characters in high school and then fast forwards 20 years later. And this is a spoiler alert. How does Kevin James become the President? And don’t you want to know what Sinnamon looks like?

I definitely recommend this movie as it will entertain you and make you laugh and for those who lived through the 80’s you will totally get the cultural references. Pixels is a fun action picture with heart.