Saturday 15 August 2015

"Pixels" (Guardian 14/08/15)


Pixels **

Dir: Chris Columbus. With: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage. 106 mins. Cert: 12A

After The Cobbler’s vague stretch, this is Adam Sandler defaulting to give-‘em-what-they-want nostalgia: a digitally polished Chris Columbus production that sees erstwhile arcade-game addicts roused from schlubby middle-age to counter space invaders zapping the Earth into shiny, Capcom-like blocks. The latter’s an oddly pleasing effect, but it’s the only one in a film otherwise schilling patchy pop-culture references and sexual politics – from Sandler’s relentless negging of Michelle Monaghan to the state-sanctioned pimping-out of Serena Williams – which qualify as next-level awful. The stakes remain at best medium-low: any planet where President Kevin James retains greater voice than eerily mute First Lady Jane Krakowski surely isn’t worth defending. 

Pixels is now playing in cinemas nationwide.

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