Pixels 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: Pixels is devoid of cynicism and it has a cheerfully cheesy vibe, and it's the kind of movie you'll forget about a week after seeing it. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: This is just a lot of chomp-chomp-chomp and point tallies wafting upward whenever something game-oriented is blown up. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: You get the feeling the boys spent the nine-figure budget on trips to Hooters. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A dimwitted '80s nostalgia trip best appreciated by those who have waited years for Adam Sandler's fine-grained intelligence and Chris Columbus' filmmaking mastery to finally converge. Read more

Jesse Hassenger, AV Club: Even on its own silly terms, Pixels is not a very good movie; it's painted up like a Ghostbusters-style fantasy-comedy but plays like so many slapdash Happy Madison productions before it. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: It manages to achieve the weird feat of feeling overlong and choppy at the same time, like someone edited the film with a pair of garden shears. Read more

Tom Russo, Boston Globe: "Pixels" may feel flatter to kids of the '80s than it does to moviegoers too young to have known Pac-Man from Ant-Man. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: This amiable Ghostbusters knockoff is unusually competent for a Sandler comedy. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Nostalgia is a wonder and a cheat. The right touchstone can make the most discerning movie-goer forgive a film as lazy as Pixels. Almost. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Welcome to the End of the World, Adam Sandler-style. Read more

Britton Peele, Dallas Morning News: The experience is an exercise in cringing at bad one-liners and stomaching dumb plot devices before saying, "Aww, look, Q-Bert!" Read more

Sandy Cohen, Associated Press: Part of the problem is that it's unclear who the filmmakers think their audience is. This is a big-budget spectacle about 1980s nostalgia aimed at kids who have no emotional connection to the decade. Pixels is also insanely sexist. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: Within the rarified realm of 1980s videogame nostalgia, Pixels is no Wreck-It-Ralph. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Some movies are so interminable that it seems they might never end, while others are assembled with such indifference that you are essentially left waiting for them to start. "Pixels" somehow manages both. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Here's a shocker: In Pixels, his latest, Adam Sandler plays a stunted man-child who turns out to be very, very special. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Often fun and fanciful, though kids may not get the endless 1980s references. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: You can see the calculations of the filmmakers - Hey, let's put in a cute kid! Let's add a funny animated sidekick! - but you can't see why they wanted to make this film in the first place. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Moronic jokes, lame action and depictions of middle-aged neuroses. In other words: a Sandler movie. Read more

Neil Genzlinger, New York Times: "Pixels" is a special-effects eyeful burdened by the fact that it is also yet another film in which Adam Sandler plays a man-child who somehow turns the head of an attractive woman. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is a film in which a viewer can be forgiven for rooting for the old video game icons to annihilate humanity. God help us if the best savior we can muster is Sandler. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: I see Pixels as a 3D metaphor for Hollywood's digital assault on our eyes and brains. Not funny. Just relentless and exhausting. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: For a movie that's supposedly about delivering weightless, uncomplicated fun, "Pixels" is an overwhelmingly sad experience. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Theoretically, this could have been a lot of fun, particular for those with fond memories of '80s video gamery. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Though "Pixels" may be hard to respect or fully endorse, it's also impossible to dislike. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Good-natured, laugh-out-loud fun. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Long before you've gotten a nickel's worth of entertainment out of this dumb, unfunny flick, you'll be wishing for the flashing sign that says "Game over." Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: Pixels is a movie without wit, without jokes, with nothing to say but plenty to regurgitate. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: While the concept is a cut above the usual Sandler swill, the comedy isn't. The script might as well have been penned by the same clueless aliens doing the invading. Read more

Inkoo Kang, TheWrap: The point of "Pixels" - other than some genuinely thrilling SFX of matter evaporating into digitized blocks of confetti - is the dumb message that guys who peaked in middle school totally deserve hot girlfriends because of their awesome gaming skills Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Pixels plays the Ghostbusters card hard, clothing its warriors in matching jumpsuits and swarming them with cheering New York crowds. But these gestures feel unearned. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: It's hard not to look at Pixels and feel like Sandler & Co. missed a huge opportunity here. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Sandler doesn't appear to be trying terribly hard, and Gad gets sucked into that humor vacuum, going after laughs with a palpable desperation and adopting Sandler's signature move of yelling for no apparent reason. Read more