Pixels

"Pixels" is pretty much aimed at the people who grew up playing video games at the arcade or pizza joints in the 1980s. Everything in this film requires the viewer to take it with a huge grain of salt, and I was okay with that. The marketing of the film is pretty solid in terms of setting viewer expectations, so you pretty much know what you'll get from it. And from that perspective, it was an interesting look back at simpler times, and it has a quiet commentary of today's video game offerings and when this form of entertainment was in its infancy back then.

So, with it being an Adam Sandler movie, expect some zingers between the cast to keep the harmonious antagonism to keep a level of relational tension. Josh Gad actually had a scene or two that had me laughing hard. Kevin James is almost too "4th wall-ish", but still had fun observations from the world about to end due to an alien invasion in the form of Earthly video game incarnations from the 1980s. Peter Dinklage chews up the scenery in most of his scenes.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+ (if you fit the target demographic and played video games as a kid in the 1980s, you'll like it a little more).