Movie review | Don’t hold Adam Sandler against ‘Pixels’

Pixels ***

Though almost five weeks into its release, I thought Adam Sandler’s newest action comedy, “Pixels,” deserved some attention, especially in light of the critical lambasting the movie received simply for being an Adam Sandler movie.

How quickly we forget that Sandler, besides making money on nearly every movies his Happy Madison production company releases, is a really funny guy.

In “Pixels,” Sandler plays a grown former child champion gamer, who lost the crucial world Donkey Kong championship in 1982 to little person, played by “Game of Thrones” and “Elf” co-star Peter Dinklage.

As a grown man, Sandler is enlisted by former childhood friend and current president of the U.S., Kevin James, to fight hostile aliens who’ve weaponized Nintendo games. The entities have brought these characters to life, to bear down on Earth in an attempt at world domination; “Ghost Busters” meets “Tron.”

James, the perfect foil for himself, offers lines such as “I’m on a strict protein diet, but I’m doing carbs, too.” If you don’t find that funny, then you may not find Sandler’s one-liners funny, either.

You either like him or you don’t. Personally, I even like bad Adam Sandler (and Kevin James) movies because they often pass my “buck-a-thing” rule; that is, I’m willing to pay $1 each for every cool animation, every good joke, every novel directorial consideration, etc. Even the worst movie might be worth $8 if you engage the “buck-a-thing” rule.

Further, “Pixels” is an homage to Nintendo with almost every classic game referenced. Whether you grew up with Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Frogger and Donkey Kong or discovered them later in life, all serious old-school gamers will enjoy this family-friendly, and pretty clever, if not perfect, partially pixilated action comedy.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Movie review | Don’t hold Adam Sandler against ‘Pixels’."