Director Chris Columbus knew his way around both winning family favorites and blockbuster fantasy from helming Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter movies, so there was genuine optimism when he was announced to be taking charge on high concept big budget fantasy Pixels, which boasted a central conceit that was surely too good to go to waste.
Based on the short film of the same name, the premise is essentially Ghostbusters for the video game era, with a plucky band of console veterans banding together to defend our planet from extinction after intergalactic invaders intercept footage of classic arcade favorites and interpret them as a declaration of war, using familiar iconography to launch an assault on Earth.
Unfortunately, the worst thing that happened to Pixels was Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions getting on board, which ruined any potential in favor of the actor’s standard lowbrow comedic output, this time with lashings of CGI. It should have been great, but instead it was burned to the ground by critics, and snubbed by audiences.
An 18 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and Razzie nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, and Worst Screenplay tell the story, but that hasn’t done a thing to dissuade fans from revisiting Pixels on-demand, once again proving Sandler’s continued worth as an at-home draw.
Per FlixPatrol, the dismal dilution of unbridled inspiration is one of the top titles on Prime Video this week, so at least it’s refreshing to see a Sandler vehicle bring in the crowds somewhere other than Netflix for a change.