This is topic Pixels in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=002139
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-02-2015, 03:35 PM:
 
I don't know why this movie is getting a bad critical rap.

I happen to be a fan of classic arcade games and have been known to make the odd contribution to mame before xmame was abandoned and folded into sdlmame. Therefore, I might not be the most objective reviewer of a movie that revolves around classic arcade games.

Having said that, Pixels is great! Every night that I've played it so far, I go into my auditorium to watch the Centipede scene again, which really rocks in more ways that one.

I thought I might be the only one that thinks so, but I've had several people come out after the show saying how wonderful the movie is, so folks around here really like it. It's getting a good reception from everyone, and there are a lot more little kids coming to see it than I had expected. One little girl was telling her mother that "I know what I want for my birthday! A big stuffed Qbert!"

If you like arcade games and 80's rock'n'roll, you want to see Pixels.
 
Posted by Buck Wilson (Member # 5885) on 08-02-2015, 08:23 PM:
 
I also liked it. I saw it in laser/atmos so the colors were very vivid, and the sound PUNCHED.

It was a good time.
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-02-2015, 09:45 PM:
 
I do have two (minor) nit-picks.

First, the movie is incorrectly titled; the proper terminology should be Voxels. Of course, nobody would know what that meant, so I guess Pixels is the better choice from that point of view.

Second, there are no cheat codes in Pac Man. There is an integer overflow error on level 256 which exceeds the maximum value of the 8-bit variable that contains the current level number. This corrupts the screen and prevents the player from continuing past that level since you need to eat 244 dots to complete a level and only 131 dots appear on the screen.

That's not a cheat code, that's a bug and it doesn't help you win the game; it terminates the game.

Un-related to the Pixels movie, Donkey Kong exhibits a similar integer overflow problem on level 22. The time plus bonus adds up to 260, which gets reset to 4 and that's simply not enough time to complete the level. Even though they play Donkey Kong in the Pixels movie, there's no reference to or any need to refer to that bug, though.
 
Posted by Christopher Lani (Member # 7952) on 08-05-2015, 02:19 AM:
 
Is Pixels Flat or Scope?
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 08-05-2015, 11:44 AM:
 
Scope.
 
Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 08-05-2015, 09:44 PM:
 
if this movie were recast and didn't have Sandler, James, and Gad - this could have been a lot better.

on the technical side the 3D and the Atmos mix seriously kicked it [thumbsup]
 
Posted by Matt Russell (Member # 8989) on 08-05-2015, 09:48 PM:
 
I thought Gad and Dinklage were alright, it was just really Sandler and James who brought the movie down. Whoever thought the idea of Kevin James playing the President would be "funny" was clearly not thinking right.
 
Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 08-21-2015, 08:21 PM:
 
Well being mostly a non-fan of Adam Sandler, I was fully prepared to hate this movie but thought the animated game parts would be fun to watch.

Boy was I wrong. It was a hoot from start to finish, the visuals were awesome and Sandler was actually an appealing character. Plus the movie starts out with a full volume playback of Cheap Trick's "Surrender," one of the best rock songs of the '80s, so the proceedings get off on the right foot.

The story is kind of sci-fi ridiculous of course, but I thought it was a way better story than any of the recent indecipherable Marvel movies. (I haven't seen "Ant-Man.") There were a few Adam Sandler trademark moments, like
Spoiler Alert - Click to Toggle
and a few basic errors in the game renditions -- like Donkey Kong doesn't fall down at the "Game Over" spot in that game. But overall, I thought it was great. I like that they left a few games totally out of the narrative just in case there's a sequel. (They could have a lot of fun with Defender or Asteroids.)

I also think the credits sequence deserves a special mention. It was fun to watch and very inventive, both ends of the movie.

We didn't watch it in 3-D but I would like to -- there are lots of things that seem like they'd be great in 3-D. Also the sound mix was tremendous, I thought.

Even though I fully realize that this was really just a dumb popcorn movie and not any kind of great art (and I had a real hard time accepting Kevin "Paul Blart" James as the U. S. president, although I guess he's no goofier than many presidents we've had), I still had a great time watching it and wouldn't hesitate to watch again, so it deserves 4 stars out of 5 from me.
 
Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 09-20-2015, 05:39 AM:
 
Frank, you're a nerd. Love your work, man. [Wink]

Check your serious movie chops at the door, there'll be no need for those here! Pixels follows on from the likes of Wreck It Ralph and TRON, mashing up the real world with that of the video game. This time around it turns out that a video tape of classic arcade games was sent into space in the early eighties and discovered by aliens who used it's contents to model weapons with which to attack us. It all makes perfect sense really. Naturally the best hope for Earth's defence are former classic gamer champions who suitably proceed to kick all kinds of pixelated ass. Yes, it's silly. Yes, it's fun.

There's enough pop culture references from the eighties to the tweenies to poke fun at both gens X and Y whilst remaining supremely entertaining for gen Z. There's plenty of visual gags, generation specific quips and some outstanding CGI to tie it all together and only the hardest of sardonic hearts could fail to be entertained, even if it were only the slightest bit.

Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad are joined by some remarkable star power which includes Brian Cox, Sean Bean and Dan Aykroyd among a slew of other cameos wanting to get their face into a big budget movie. Most of the performers deliver their expected shtick and in a movie of this nature, there's nothing wrong with that.

The film's climax is a fantastic exercise in classic game character spotting, incumbent with the obligatory in-game sound signatures which accompany each of them.

Pixels is a mindless, fun blockbuster. Will history hold it in the same esteem as TRON or Wreck It Ralph? No, it's much more disposable than that. But it delivers more than you'd expect from a film which is clearly derived from a popular trend set by better predecessors.

7.5 out of 10
 




Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.3.1.2