Pixels (2015)

When aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth in the form of the video games.

Director:

Chris Columbus

Writers:

Tim Herlihy (screenplay), Timothy Dowling (screenplay)

Stars:

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan

5 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adam Sandler	...	Brenner
Kevin James	...	President Will Cooper
Michelle Monaghan	...	Violet
Peter Dinklage	...	Eddie
Josh Gad	...	Ludlow Lamonsoff
Matt Lintz	...	Matty Van Patten
Brian Cox	...	Admiral Porter
Sean Bean	...	Corporal Hill (SAS Officer)
Jane Krakowski	...	First Lady Jane Cooper
Dan Aykroyd	...	1982 Championship MC
Affion Crockett	...	Sergeant Dylan Cohan
Lainie Kazan	...	Mickey Lamonsoff
Ashley Benson	...	Lady Lisa
Denis Akiyama	...	Professor Iwatani
Tom McCarthy	...	Michael the Robot

Storyline

Sam has been one of the best arcade gamers of his time. Once in an international tournament NASA sent the video recording of all the games to space for intelligent beings to find and know more about humans. However the aliens interpreted the games as a challenge and began attacking Earth using the video game data. It's now up to Sam and other old time arcade game champions to save the Earth from the video game alien invasion.

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Plot Keywords:

arcade game | alien | product placement | donkey kong | pac man | 

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Taglines:

Play for the Planet

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

RatPG-13 for some language and suggestive comments

Did You Know?

Trivia

Early test footage of Pac-Man's computer-generated animation made him look much sleeker, with a much smoother design. It was decided later in production that to honor the original low-resolution character, he should appear much rougher and with visible voxels (3D-pixels).

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Goofs

At the beginning where Will is cutting the grass, you can see he is totally faking it- he doesn't have to scream as he talks while the mower is supposed to be running, and you can see he is not cutting any grass.

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Quotes

[Donkey Kong appears on top of the platform]
Sam Brenner: Donkey Kong.
[Donkey Kong rolls a barrel down]
President Will Cooper: It's just a barrel. How bad can it hurt?
[Donkey Kong throws down a blue barrel to the oil drum that explodes]

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Crazy Credits

The opening credits are done in the 8-bit game pixelated font and appear in various colors and on video games being played during the opening scenes.

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Connections

References The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

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Soundtracks

You Make Me Feel So Young
Written by Josef Myrow (as Josef Joe Myrow) and Mack Gordon
Produced by Kevin Grady

User Reviews

I really don't understand the ratings on this one

A 5.5 on IMDb. Really? This movie was not bad! It was funny, action packed, and just all out fun.

The idea and the storyline of this movie was very good. It was very creative and it brought back memories of older games such as PAC-MAN, Galaga, and Donkey Kong. The CGI for all the animated game characters was awesome. The cartoony animation was absolutely great and made the characters fit in well with the real world.

The comedy was hilarious! I found myself laughing very hard at times and it was just great, classic Happy Madison humor. Part of this was because of the acting which was great by the way. Everyone keeps saying that Adam Sandler is not funny anymore but I disagree. He still was funny at times to me and I thought he did good acting. Kevin James as the president was hysterical. Michelle Monaghan did great. But the two who were just hilarious and almost made you cry because they were so funny was Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad. They were so funny and the stuff they said and did was totally laugh out loud funny.

Surprisingly, the action in this movie was really good. The PAC-MAN car chase, the Donkey Kong battle, and the video games attacking the city was great action and there were some cool new stunts I have never seen before and that was nice to see in a comedy film.

If you love the old time video games, Happy Madison, good, laugh out loud comedy, and some cool and comical action then you will love this movie. Sit back, don't take it too seriously, and enjoy this fun film.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA China Canada

Language:

English Hindi Japanese

Release Date:

24 July 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pixels

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$88,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$24,011,616, 26 July 2015

Gross USA:

$78,747,585

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$244,874,809

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, China Film Group Corporation (CFGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Datasat Dolby Digital Auro 11.1 Dolby Atmos Dolby Surround 7.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1