Pixels

I saw the trailer before Avengers Age Of Ultron . I'd read about it on Cracked - noting that it seems to be a rip-off of a Futurama episode that is a particular favorite of mine.

I looked up info here on the Tropes pages and discovered the short film. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those things where the prototype - thing it's based on is a nice piece of art but the feature length film will be a disaster...

... Two words: Adam Sandler. *Shudder.* The only film of his I've been able to sit through was Billy Madison and even that...uh... I just kind of think my beloved retro-games deserve better?

Now, if the space-probe was sent out a bit later and among the Pixels there was a giant Ganon that someone had to dress up as Link and brandish a sword to fight, the question of my spending good money to see it would be a different story. As it is... "Do I really want to sit through Adam Sandler and Kevin James for more than a sitcom-length story?"

The only Future Rama episode I saw that was even remotely like this was when Fry wished to see what life would be like if life was more like a video game. In the end, the aliens that always invade Future Rama Earth, invaded Earth and it played out like Space Invaders. Which is to say, Fry's brother always hit the last ship so he failed to stop the invasion.(Life would basically be the same)

The plot of Pixels is that humans sent a time capsule containing artifacts of their culture to aliens and when they got to "video games" they were so offended they sent the video games back to Earth as giant murder machines.

You might as well say Pixels is a ripoff of Video Man. It's the same "let's make fun of stuff from another medium of story telling" story telling plot that's existed since the Theater in Athens, assuming it wasn't around during the age of Hieroglyphics and Papyrus or indeed ''writing'' vs oral repetition.

Edit: and for the record, it looks like it will be pretty good, from the trailer

edited 3rd May '15 12:43:08 PM by IndirectActiveTransport

Saw the trailer at Age of Ultron and the premise looks promising. Normally I don't like anything by Sandler, but this seems like something Rooster Teeth would make. I hope it's not terrible.

edited 3rd May '15 2:56:28 PM by Tuckerscreator

Honestly I am exited to see the film, mostly because it is a live action movie adaption of that one Futurama short episode.

The downside to this is Adam Sandler; but hopefully the movie isn't directed or produced by him . . . he's producing the movie, isn't he?

Well at least Peter Dinklage is in the film; just like Chris Evans, he can make any potentially bad movie entertaining just by appearing.

It's more an expansion on this short.

Funnily enough, Tropes lists Pixels and RT's own Lazer Team as Dueling Movies.

edited 5th May '15 2:27:59 AM by GeekCodeRed

I dunno, it's an awesome sounding premise.

Emperor Lemon's 2nd account made fun of it in 8 seconds.

Here. I tried to post the link the right way, but I sucked at it.

edited 16th Jul '15 8:41:31 PM by machop

Wanna bet there are more laughs in the 7 minute Futurama segment than in the entire film?

Prepare for a lot of Product Placement. A lot.

Futurama Pixels trailer

I'd be up for betting against that, actually.

You're losing the bet.

http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/pixels-review/

"The comedic parts of Pixels must have been experiencing a technical glitch, because I can count the amount of times I laughed on one hand (most of which were thanks to the fake Professor Iwatani)."

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pixels/

16% for starters - that's lower than Terminator Genisys.

Ever heard of the film Pure Luck?

Roger Ebert's review.

edited 22nd Jul '15 11:31:08 AM by AnotherGuy

I'm honestly not too sure what to think on this. I love video games but this one seems to be exclusive to the era most people think of when they think of video games: 80s arcade era. At least Wreck-it-Ralph covered multiple eras of video games.

Well, according to The Verge... review.

I didn't know that this was based on a 2 1/2 minute short film. LOL

I suggest waiting for Netflix.

For fuck's sake Sandler, you had a decent premise, a decent director, Josh Gad and Peter freakin' Dinklage in a mullet and you still put out shit.

...and yet, somehow, Hotel Transylvania was decent.

You know, from all the trailers this movie actually looked to have some promise. Sandler seemed to be playing out of his usual comfort zone by doing a straight-up action movie, and a sci-fi one at that. Top Five showed Sandler is still a decent actor if you have someone on the helms who actually knows what he's doing, and having Columbus as director seemed to be a good sign on that. The whole "arcade invasion" premise seemed interesting, helped by the CGI being fantastically done. The gags were pretty spot-on, especially the Iwatani bits. And sure, the whole "Sandler's friends with the President" bit made me roll my eyes, but Gad and Dinklage are supposed to be in that circle of friends too, so I figured "Hey, maybe this won't be his usual masturbatory shit." My mom saw it and was pretty excited, but I just couldn't help but be cautious, given Sandler and HMP's history of garbage.

16% on Rotten Tomatoes.

God fucking dammit.

10% now. Maybe I'll go see Ant-Man instead.

edited 22nd Jul '15 2:58:16 PM by Spinosegnosaurus77

DESTROYED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so fucking happy.

Here I was actually expecting a pretty decent film to redbox.

I'll wait for Brad's gang to review it since they generally give a pretty in depth review of the films they watch.

edited 22nd Jul '15 5:53:47 PM by ScottPilgrim2013

According to the abbreviated Village Voice review: Tell us if you heard of this one before: a loser man-child becomes a hero through a unique talent, earns a too-hot girl, and never changes his personality.

"Here's a shocker: In Pixels, his latest, Adam Sandler plays a stunted man-child who turns out to be very, very special. That's his ecological niche: the Manic Potbellied Dream Dork, or, if you prefer, the fragile Sand-Man. Sandler films have predictable scripts: In two hours or less, he'll transform from loser to hero, often tacking on an improbable girlfriend, and often without transforming at all. (An Oscar for the first costume designer who gets him to wear a shirt that fits.) Instead, it's everyone else in the cast who must about-face and appreciate him. And if we don't admire him fast enough, he'll call us snobs."

The film also seems to suffer from too-many-cooks: you'll have a visually great scene (Columbus), before you have a Happy Madison shitty scene (Sandler).

—

Now at 9%.

—

"Pixels is a can't-lose formula. Take the basic premise from Galaxy Quest but swap out Star Trek with retro video games, throw in some nifty special effects and what could possibly go wrong? Three words: Adam F#%&ing Sandler."

http://mashable.com/2015/07/22/pixels-review-a-terrible-tone-deaf-attempt-at-ghostbusters-with-video-games/

—

Apparently, critics think there should be a fan edit - just keep the action scenes, dump Sandler like Jar Jar in the Phantom edit.

edited 22nd Jul '15 7:06:35 PM by AnotherGuy

So I take it that it's another "Adam Sandler circlejerking himself " movie?

MovieBob on Pixels.

Good lord. He's one angry, angry reviewer.

It's Moviebob. I'd be surprised if he wasn't angry.

It hasn't been destroyed unless it flops over the weekend in addition to critics hating it.

Frankly, I think people would be more surprised if critics didn't hate this movie.

I also don't think it's the kind of movie where people are going to pay much attention to critics, either. I think it's more the kind of movie where people have probably already make up their minds about whether to see it or not weeks if not months ago.

I, for one, already know this movie is going to be stupid, just based on the premise alone. I'm just hoping that I will enjoy the stupid.

Likewise. Everyone pretty well knows the movie is stupid and silly. It's a ridiculous premise. I don't think anyone has any false expectations about this being some kind of brilliant modern day masterpiece.

I'm basically planning to go see it with the same kind of expectations I have any time I go to see a Michael Bay movie. A big, dumb movie that allows me to enjoy myself for a couple hours and escape from the real world.