Pixels(2015)

[Vexer6]

So anyone else looking forward to seeing this film? I think it looks pretty awesome, I know a lot of people love to hate on Adam Sandler, but i've enjoyed most of his films, so I think this film will turn out pretty good.

[ActRaiser]

I doubt I'll go see it in the theater but will definitely rent it at the very least.

It looks awesome!

[Rev]

If this had any other actor I would be a lot more psyched for this. I can't stand Adam Sandler... His type of humor doesn't appeal to me. I think the movie looks interesting. I hope the movie is good. If he can get out of his usual style of comedy I think the movie could be really good.

[Vexer6]

Yeah I heard about that, but people were talking negatively about him LONG before that story ever came to light. Personally I don't really care about that, i'm not going to not see this film just cause of that.

[Herschie]

This movie was dumb. Like "Howard the Duck" dumb. And yet I really enjoyed it. Maybe I shouldn't have seen the late showing, since now all the arcades are closed and I want to go to one real bad. Oh well, at least I have Donkey Kong and Pac Man on the 3DS Virtual Cosole, and the NES versions they represent are fairly close to the arcade.

[masterchief]

If this had any other actor I would be a lot more psyched for this. I can't stand Adam Sandler... His type of humor doesn't appeal to me. I think the movie looks interesting. I hope the movie is good.

Hope dashed. Currently at an 18% at Rotten Tomatos, with reviews calling it a dimwitted 80s nostalgia trip, and inspiring articles on why oh why does Sony greenlight these Sandler pictures. The answer may be, that according to Wikipedia, even being skewered by critics its earned more at the box than its budget. America, you puzzle me...cancel Firefly, but keep making Sandler pictures. Oh the humanity.

Well his movies still make money, so why wouldn't they? It makes sense.

[velcrozombie]

If this had any other actor I would be a lot more psyched for this. I can't stand Adam Sandler... His type of humor doesn't appeal to me. I think the movie looks interesting. I hope the movie is good.

Hope dashed. Currently at an 18% at Rotten Tomatos, with reviews calling it a dimwitted 80s nostalgia trip, and inspiring articles on why oh why does Sony greenlight these Sandler pictures. The answer may be, that according to Wikipedia, even being skewered by critics its earned more at the box than its budget. America, you puzzle me...cancel Firefly, but keep making Sandler pictures. Oh the humanity.

Well his movies still make money, so why wouldn't they? It makes sense.

A note about calculating a movie's budget - since marketing costs are never included in the quoted production budget, you actually have to double whatever figure is quoted in the media. The total cost of Pixels is really more like $175 million instead of $88 million, so it still has to earn almost $70 million more worldwide to break even. It will probably do that and may even make a small profit, but it's still considered disappointing since it's both an Adam Sandler movie and a big-budget, effects-driven blockbuster. It can't help to have Chris Columbus - maybe the least distinctive big-budget film director in Hollywood - at the helm.

I'm not much of an Adam Sandler fan myself - I thought he had his moments on SNL and enjoyed Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer to some degree, but I find him surprisingly grating and obnoxious for someone whose appeal supposedly comes from being a lovable loser or an everyman. His deal with Netflix might just be the perfect thing for him - he gets to appeal directly to his fans without having the same expectations that he'd have to deal with from critics or major studios.