Nostalgia for the 8-bit video game renaissance of the 1980s is such a compelling force that, even despite astronomical improvements in computing power over the decades, the format continues to live on in popular modern games such as Minecraft or Roblox. Every once in a while, Hollywood attempts to cash in with a movie either based on a specific title or at least themed around 8-bit gaming. Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison crew hit a decent amount of success on that front with the 2015 comedy Pixels.
Having ignored it until now, I decided the time has finally come to give that a spin. I didn’t see the movie in theaters, but was given a free copy of the Blu-ray at some point. That disc then proceeded to sit on my shelf – still sealed in the original shrinkwrap, no less – for nearly a decade. Mostly, I was put in the mood to crack it open now by advertising for A Minecraft Movie (scheduled for imminent theatrical release as I write this). Honestly, I’m not sure that either picture really merits being remembered in the long term. However, this one at least gave me an excuse to get 3D working in my home theater again, so the experience wasn’t completely without merit.
| Title: | Pixels |
| Year of Release: | 2015 |
| Director: | Chris Columbus |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray 3D |
| Also Available On: | Blu-ray Netflix AMC Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Like far too many Adam Sandler comedies, Pixels was a bit of a flash-in-the-pan success. The movie did fairly well at the box office, but was excoriated by critics (perhaps too harshly so) who were exhausted with the star and eager to knock him down a peg. Word of mouth from general audiences fared a little better, but even there, the film sank down a memory hole and was quickly forgotten. It’s rarely discussed today.
That fate isn’t unexpected or necessarily undeserved, but nor is it entirely fair. On the scale of Adam Sandler comedies, Pixels may not rank among his most inspired entries (with the likes of The Wedding Singer or Fifty First Dates), but it’s not an unfunny disaster, either. The movie’s at least reasonably clever and amusing. As both producer and star, Sandler seems to have put slightly more effort into this one than usual, which includes hiring a real director with a notable track record: Chris Columbus, the man behind Home Alone and the first couple Harry Potter adaptations.
On the other hand, it can’t be denied that this is ultimately just another hang-out movie that exists mainly so that Sandler can assemble a group of his comedian buddies and celebrity pals to goof around on camera with him. For a movie whose plot puts the survival of the entire planet at stake, nobody in Pixels takes any of this nonsense too seriously.
This time out, Sandler plays a Gen-X slacker named Sam Brenner who had once, many years ago in childhood, been a video game savant noted for racking up record scores on arcade classics including Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Centipede. Unfortunately, he struggled with Donkey Kong and failed to win a high-stakes gaming championship that might have changed his life. In adulthood these days, Sam is an unambitious tech geek who makes a meager living installing TVs for a big-box electronics store and has no love life of note.
Sam’s best friend Will (Kevin James) did modestly better. He married a gorgeous wife (Jane Krakowski) and, just as improbably, somehow got elected President of the United States. Yes, in 2015, the idea that Kevin James would be cast as the President might have seemed pretty funny. How embarrassingly dysfunctional must that version of America be, right? My perspective on that has changed a decade later, where the idea of a dim-witted but otherwise affable and well-meaning doofus in the White House feels almost aspirational compared to our current dystopian reality, but that’s a conversation that doesn’t need to be had here. Pixels has no interest in politics, beyond the image of putting a schlubby dork in the Oval Office.
As for the plot, a race of energy-based aliens from far off in space intercept a recording of that long-ago game competition. They misinterpret it as a declaration of war and launch an invasion of Earth, assuming the forms of what they believe to be the planet’s most formidable weapons: 8-bit video game characters. When America’s military might proves ineffective at fending off this threat, the President calls in his friend Sam as an expert on the subject. Before long, the fate of the world rests in the sweaty hands of an IT guy whose skill at beating Frogger and Galaga may be the last hope for saving humanity.
The movie’s cast is further stacked with other famous faces slumming for paychecks. Michelle Monaghan has the thankless role of Sandler’s love interest, a brilliant DARPA scientist way out of his league on every level. Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage are fellow gaming nerds brought in to join the fight. Exerting no energy to disguise their British accents, Brian Cox and Sean Bean are supposed to be American military commanders. Dan Akyroyd also makes a cameo in the 1980s flashback scenes.
Typical of most Adam Sandler comedy vehicles, the humor is laid-back and coasts on a lot of easy jokes that give the cast room to riff off one another. However, the big action set-pieces are well-staged by director Columbus, most of the visual effects look great, and the movie’s vibe is agreeably appealing. The whole thing is then loaded with fan-service references to classic arcade games – from the most obvious (Q*bert makes an unexpected ally, and of course Donkey Kong has to be the final boss) to some more obscure (Pengo, Battlezone, Robotron) – as well as plenty of other 1980s pop culture touchstones.
I don’t know how often I’ll feel an urge to revisit Pixels, but I found it more tolerable than the majority of the Happy Madison canon. That counts for something.
The Blu-ray
Pixels came to home video in October of 2015 with editions on both regular Blu-ray and 3D. To date as of this writing (in 2025), the movie has not been upgraded to 4K. I’m not sure that it needs to be. To my mind, this film was made specifically for 3D, which remains its best premium format. That said, the very contrasty, vibrant digital photography and brightly illuminated visual effects might benefit from HDR, especially for those viewers no longer equipped for 3D. Nevertheless, the Blu-ray looks great even in Standard Dynamic Range.
It’d been nearly a year and a half since I last watched anything in 3D on my projector. Doing so requires that I run the lamp at its highest brightness setting, which puts a lot of strain on the bulb and may shorten its lifespan. I also simply burned-out on 3D quite a while ago and don’t often give the format much attention anymore. I made an exception in this case anyway, and was very pleasantly surprised at how well the effect still works in my home theater. Pixels was clearly made with a lot of thought and effort put into its stereography (more so than the plot, one might argue). The 3D in this movie manages to be aggressive without feeling too gimmicky about it. The photography creates a naturalistic three-dimensional space with plenty of depth and a decent amount of pop-out from the screen.
The Blu-ray also holds up well in other attributes beyond just the 3D. The 2.39:1 image is very sharp, with rich contrast and popping colors. Pixels was shot digitally and makes no attempt to disguise that fact. It never looks like film, but it’s quite pleasing for what it wants to be. Once I found the optimal settings on my projector, the picture didn’t feel overly dim through my active-shutter glasses, as can too often happen with 3D.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is also extremely active with tons of surround activity whooshing in every direction and plenty of rumbly bass – especially during the Pac-Man chase when the hungry yellow orb chomp-chomp-chomps toward the heroes. A few instances where 1980s celebrity faces are deep-faked on screen have really lousy lip-sync with their dialogue, but that’s a visual effect issue and shouldn’t be held against the disc.
Early copies of the 3D Blu-ray (including mine) came with a lenticular slipcover that has a pretty neat 3D effect of its own. Both the 2D and 3D discs in the case launch with several annoying (and at this point, terribly dated) trailers for unrelated Sony movies forced before the menu. The 3D disc otherwise has no extras relevant to Pixels. Those are found only on the standard 2D Blu-ray. Items include eight very short (between two- to four-minutes each) Electronic Press Kit featurettes, a truly awful music video, and a photo gallery. Sadly, none of them is worth wasting time to watch.
Related
- Michelle Monaghan
- Josh Gad
- Peter Dinklage
- Dan Aykroyd
- Sean Bean
- Video Game Movies & TV
Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from the 2D Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.
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