Before I begin with the review of this film, I wanted to give a shout-out to the short film that inspired it. >link<
It’s a pretty short affair a little over two minutes. No plot or characters, a concept video of sorts directed by Patrick Jean
And now, enter Happy Madison...
So, how bad is this movie?!
It’s pretty damn bad.
I would never pay money to see this film again. And I doubt I'd watch it even if it was free..
So, first thing first the writing is horrible. It’s not funny, ever. I honestly didn't laugh a single time nor did the audience I was with.
Adam Sandler and company keep digging themselves into this hole of unfunny and it gets deeper and deeper with every film they make. It’s like an incurable disease that is just spreading throughout their filmography.
The jokes are typical Happy Madison affair. Sexist / stupid / loud / annoying / sexual / fart-toilet humor and more.
One character who's name I can’t even remember played by Josh Gad. Literally resolves to screaming every joke he can.
Paul Blart, I mean... Kevin James. Is the president of the United States...? I don't need to say anything else.
And Adam Sandler is somehow still his best friend and gamer? Not a gamer?! Definitely not a gamer. Is annoying and pathetic. And of course, like every film in the Happy Madison filmography he gets a beautiful young lady as a love interest.
And Peter Dinklage gives the worst performance I've seen this year, maybe my life. It’s definitely in the top five It’s that bad. He's annoying and his attitude seems fake and forced. So, writing and acting sucked.
What about the director?!
Well, he didn't commit any obvious atrocities with the actual filming of the movie. It’s just... Bland and typical Wanna be Michael Bay spectacle. But it never really has a scene of spectacle.
So, everything sucks. Point blank. But... I actually enjoyed one thing from this film.
The CGI by : Digital Domain
The digital voxel/pixels attacking the world were nice to look at. Literally the only reason I sat through the entirety of the movie. It was unique. The pixels destroying everything into pixels was awesome. My favorite scene being the centipede fight where one leaks into the city and runs rampant. But of course, its short lived. There are not enough movies using CGI as an artistic style instead of a replacement for something real. Imagine more films with CGI with an obvious art style instead of just photorealism. It would be nice. And oddly, I feel like this film has that. So props to Digital Domains for doing amazing work.
The only other thing I’d like to mention is I really liked the idea of the kids playing at an arcade and having a tournament in the start of the film. It had a nice retro feel. And I could imagine a nice film about an arcade tournament. But like everything else in the film it was washed out and stupidly made.
3/10- Terrible
Pixels is a new low for the Happy Madison collection of recent crap. Stupidly acted. Stupidly written. Boringly directed. Overall a waste of time. But... The voxel/pixel CGI was great to look at and well done. A shame that a turd was the core of it all. I'm hoping that one day Sandler will give us one final good laugh...