Pixels

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:54 pm

Adam Sandler and a bunch of arcade games. What's not to like, am I right?

Well, Once I totally suspended my disbelief it wasn't horrible. Going in I knew that there were going to be large, large plot holes. But the good news is that it just didn't matter.

It didn't matter that the Game of Thrones midget was using cheat codes on Pac Man and Donkey Kong. Or that the 1982 world arcade championship playoffs had a Paperboy cabinet lurking. Or that the videotape of said championship was sent into space and intercepted by aliens (thirty years isn't enough time to even leave the the solar system)
And I'm not even mentioning the Kevin James as president thing. God, no.

None of it matters. Some parts were funny, the rest was schlock.

The repartee between Sandler and the...lady was pretty good. Well, not as lame as everything else, anyway.

THE
THREE OUT OF FIVE
AARDVARKS

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:58 pm

I must also point out two more things. Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycles and Cheap Trick.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Dec 25, 2015 9:46 pm

I saw this tonight and will write my opinion on it in the morning.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:00 am

My take:

Melissa's nephew spends the night maybe once a month. He is a great kid and likes video games as much as I did at his age. Luckily, he has many other positive role models that get him outside. He likes to play the arcade games downstairs and has opinions on them, likes and dislikes, that sort of thing. He gets very excited to play "Elevator Boy," his term for Elevator Action.

He wanted the three of us to see Wreck-It Ralph. I thought that Wreck-It Ralph was pandering and thought this would be the one movie with old arcade characters and we'd never get another. Pixels, starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James, proved that this is not the case.

I laughed throughout Pixels, but also I couldn't help feeling that it was gunning for a certain age of guys and said, "Fuck it" to anyone else. It is one of the silliest movies I've ever seen and probably requires more suspension of disbelief than any other movie, but at the same time I'm amazed at some of the little details they got right.

It's one thing when Galaga shows up. It's another when Arkanoid shows up (though I get the sense that originally, the Arkanoid level was supposed to destroy the Great Wall of China, only to show the movie in China, they had to change that.) I had an Arkanoid. I assembled an Arkanoid in my garage one summer out of spare parts.

But then Hall & Oates shows up. They are my favorite band.

But then Max Headroom (!!!) shows up. I ... I mean, I own a Max Headroom mask. It's the next room over. How could I not be charmed?

Adam Sandler used to make goofy movies that were rewatchable. At some point he got the reputation as the driving force behind the world's worst films. He probably deserved that, but Pixels is just a notch below Happy Gilmore and the Waterboy, if you're organizing a list of his movies for some reason. Women are pretty much literally trophies in Pixels at different points, which I am sure allows a great deal of people who have safely categorized an Adam Sandler movie as trash (and do not possess the mental agility to change their opinion). It is a very easy movie to get on your high horse about.

It probably isn't going to change anyone's mind, but I was entertained.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:38 am

I did like the bit where Sandler says the Galaga code the aliens are using is from the original arcade and not a later version. It offsets the cheat codes in the glasses plot device.

THE
FAIR AND SQUARE
AARDVARK

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:45 am

Ha, so when the cheat code bit came up, Melissa says, "Is that true? Are there cheat codes for Pac-Man?" I said there were speed-up chips (mine has the option of fast or slow Pac-Man) but you couldn't just walk to a machine and input something and go faster.

(It's also kind of a plot hole that a cheat code would make the ghosts -- whom Dinklage was playing -- faster, and I won't get into how one inputs a cheat code in a car that is supposed to be a ghost. None of that matters, it's like how Bruce Willis yelled at us in Looper and said not to think about it.)

I also want to stress that it is a minor, minor, minor complaint and just a detail that people, um, like us would notice. But that is okay! This is a thread for things that people like us would notice!

loafergirl · Post by **loafergirl** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:29 pm

I find myself wanting to click a "like" button.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:46 pm

Didja watch Pixels with the kids? Are they into any of that 80s stuff at all?

Lg unable to log in · Post by **Lg unable to log in** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:20 am

Yuppers, Drive in double feature with Hotel Transylvania 2!