Review of Pixels (2015) by Dan F — 17 Oct 2015

The visuals are impressive, and there are some fun action sequences and a few laughs but it's just not as good as it could have been- it suffers from jumping to conclusions and a couple of lazy, nonsensical shortcuts (cheating on a game is one thing, but real world physics?) through the story to drive the film forward faster.

I wonder if there's a better cut of this film somewhere, because Chris Columbus is a legend of high-concept comedy and this feels sub-par. Sandler is good, but it's fashionable to attack him at the moment.

I think I'd have liked a little more of the gameplay innovative approach to defeating the bad guys (the Pac-Man sequence should be a Hot Wheels set, the Centipede sequence proves fatal but nobody seems to mind, Donkey Kong looks glorious), instead of just blasting them with guns.

There are some lovely nods though, my personal favourite being the Tetris shots. Still, this was a wasted opportunity to do something unique.