Sam Brenner, Will Cooper, Ludlow Lamonsoff, and Eddie "The Fire Blaster" Plant all played classic arcade video games as teenagers. But now they have to use their skills to try to save the world from aliens. The aliens watched video feeds that they thought was a declaration of war. So they send down the classic arcade games to destroy earth. They also get help from a military specialist. They have three lives and if all three get used then earth will be destroyed, and every time they lose a live the aliens take someone's life. Who will win, us or the aliens? It's an all-out battle to save our planet and everyone on it. Written by

Plot Synopsis:
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In the summer of 1982, a young Sam Brenner rides his bicycle to the home of his best friend Will Cooper to tell him the new arcade in town is open. They spend the whole day there, with Brenner dominating almost every game while Cooper excels at the crane machine and wins a Chewbacca mask. Seeing how awesome Brenner is at games, Cooper grabs a flyer for the arcade game world championships and says Brenner should bring his skills here.

At the event, the MC (Dan Aykroyd) tells everyone that a time capsule will be launched into space containing elements of the present culture. Brenner and Cooper meet Ludlow Lamonsoff, a weird but brilliant kid who's in love with Lady Lisa, the main character of the game Dojo Quest. After Brenner gets through every game, he faces hotshot gamer Eddie Plant in Donkey Kong. Eddie mentions the pattern to the game, causing Brenner to lose focus and come in second place.

In the present day, the adult Brenner (Adam Sandler) works for a company that installs software. Cooper (Kevin James) is the President of the United States, and he is frequently mocked in the media, most recently for failing to read properly during a kindergarten class and yelling at a little girl.

In Guam, a military base picks up a threatening signal. Alien life forms based off the designs of Galaga attack. The soldiers try to fight back but are easily taken out. One soldier (Affion Crockett) gets taken by the aliens.

Brenner goes to a home to do his job. He meets a lady named Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan) and her son Matty (Matt Lintz), who tells Brenner that his mom is going through a divorce. While Brenner goes to work, he hears Violet crying in the closet. He comforts her by listening to her situation, and they share wine. He thinks they're having a moment, and he goes in for a kiss but gets shut down. He then gets a call from Cooper telling him to be at the White House soon.

Brenner heads to the White House with Violet close by. To his surprise, he finds out she is a Lieutenant Colonel. Cooper brings Brenner into the Oval Office to show him the Galaga aliens attacking.

Later, Brenner drives his van home to find Ludlow (Josh Gad) in there. Ludlow brings Brenner back to his home where he says that the aliens are sending creatures with classic video game designs to attack. Ludlow received a message using manipulated footage of 1980's icons like Ronald Reagan and Madonna to explain their plans: since they perceived the items in the time capsule as a declaration of war, they are using the video games as a challenge, giving the people of Earth three rounds to fight back or it's game over for everyone. They also show that the soldier they took was a "trophy". They show the video to Cooper and determine that the next attack will happen in India. Sure enough, the aliens attack the Taj Mahal, and they take an Indian man as a trophy as well.

Brenner and Ludlow are brought in to "train" soldiers to fight back by showing them how to play these games, to which Admiral Porter (Brian Cox) objects. Violet shows Brenner and Ludlow that the pixels are taken down by strong light beams. Cooper is with his wife Jane (Jane Krakowski) at a bakery when his assistant comes in to tell him that the next attack will happen in London.

Everyone heads to London to meet with Corporal Hill (Sean Bean). The soldiers brace for attack as the creatures from Centipede attack. Brenner tells the men to shoot for the head and anticipate the pattern, but they have no luck. Brenner and Ludlow take over with permission from Cooper, and they blast away at the Centipede. The final boss makes its way into town and nearly devours a boy until Brenner blasts it away for good.

The aliens send a message using the Fantasy Island guys to congratulate Earth on their victory, and they give them the Duck Hunt dog as a trophy, but remind them that they (aliens) are leading 2-1. It is learned that the next attack will happen in New York City. Needing more help, Ludlow and Cooper agree that they need someone else to help them.

Brenner, Cooper, and Violet go to a prison to find Eddie (Peter Dinklage), a bitter and hardened criminal who got busted for adding charges to phone bills. He still taunts Brenner and makes self-serving demands in exchange for his help, among them a private island for himself, never paying taxes again, and a meeting with Serena Williams and Martha Stewart. Cooper agrees to let him out of prison... but only with the 'no taxes' agreement.

The team goes to New York to discover that the next boss is Pac-Man. Violet presents the guys with four cars based off the ghosts in Pac-Man, with the fourth car driven by the game's creator Toru Iwatani (Denis Akiyama). When the team gets downtown Manhattan where Pac-Man is chomping through everything, Iwatani tries to appeal to Pac-Man's good side by talking to him like a father. Unfortunately, this gets his hand chomped and pixelated. The remaining three chase after Pac-Man. He eats a power pellet, giving him ten seconds to be able to eat the ghosts, and he eats Ludlow's car as he jumps out.. Eddie hits the first Pac-Man after catching up to him quickly. The second one also gets taken out by Eddie. The third causes him to drive into the water. Brenner chases him near a parking garage where Pac-Man finds another power pellet. Brenner counts down and drives backward through a parking garage. At the last second, the power pellet wears off and gives Brenner a chance to defeat Pac-Man, and they're given Q*Bert as a trophy.

The team has a ball held for them as thanks for their heroics. Brenner asks Violet to be his date, and she stuns him when she arrives in a green dress. Eddie brings Serena Williams (who only showed up because she was promised an island). After Brenner spends time with Violet, the aliens send another message saying the rules have been violated, and they will launch a full-scale attack momentarily. Marty finds Eddie and sees that his shades that were fished out of the water contain cheat codes, which allowed him to beat Pac-Man and also explains how he beat Brenner in Donkey Kong. Eddie flees, and Matty is taken by the aliens as Violet watches.

Q*Bert tells the heroes that the aliens were peaceful until they felt threatened by the time capsule. They realize they have to go to the ship and stop the aliens.

The aliens bring down more video games upon Washington DC, including Frogger and Defendor. Brenner, Violet, and Q*Bert gear up and are joined by Cooper while Ludlow stays behind to fight. One of the aliens takes the form of Lady Lisa (Ashley Benson), to Ludlow's joy. However, she still fights him until he says he only wants to love her. She drops her swords, and they kiss. Eddie comes to fight and apologizes for ditching the team.

Brenner, Violet, Cooper and Q*Bert get brought up to the ship where Brenner faces his biggest challenge... Donkey Kong. The ape rolls barrels down as the heroes try to reach Matty and the other two captives. Matty tells Brenner that Eddie cheated all those years ago, making him realize he is the true DK champ. Brenner takes the hammer and smashes the barrels before hurling it at Donkey Kong, destroying him. This causes the rest of the video games to freeze and be brought back up to the ship. Unfortunately for Ludlow, that includes Lady Lisa.

The team is recognized as heroes before the White House. Cooper announces he's made a peace treaty with the aliens. Eddie apologizes to Brenner for cheating and admits he's the best in the world. Ludlow misses Lisa until Q*Bert randomly morphs into her. Brenner and Violet become a couple. Eddie then gets a text from Serena to meet him in the bedroom, along with Martha Stewart, who made sandwiches. Eddie sneaks off with excitement. The aliens leave Earth, and Iwatani's hand is restored.

One year later, Ludlow has married Lisa, and they're the proud parents of five Q*Berts.

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IsaacfromUSA from United States
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In 1982 in the hopes of establishing peaceful communication with extraterrestrial life, NASA launches a time capsule into outer space containing images and footage of Earth life and culture. However, the aliens misinterpret enclosed video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war. They attack the Earth using the games as models for their various assaults including Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Space Invaders, Arkanoid and Tetris. Their technology creates voxels that change form and are capable of turning any form of matter into more of itself. President Will Cooper (Kevin James) calls upon his best friend since childhood, former video game professional Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), who is now a home theater installer and had a previous relationship with Cooper's wife (Jane Krakowski). To combat the video game characters, Brenner decides to lead a team of retrogamers Eddie Plant (Peter Dinklage) and Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad) to defeat the aliens with technology similar to those used in games.

Pixels is a great 2015 American science fiction comedy film all people must see. Ignore the brainwashed haters who are reviewing this movie without even seeing it. See it on my own responsibility,satisfaction guaranteed.

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mcgregorrowland from United States
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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.

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Timothy Lau from Australia
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Against the advice and pleadings of my friends, I decided to give this movie a watch. After all, this recipe of movies solely about video games is seldom used, and if executed properly, can be a major success, relating to video gamers from the 80s onwards. However, despite the excellent CGI, which integrated 8 bit video game characters into real life, and the amusing jokes that were subtly placed throughout the film, the plot was sorely missing, character development was little to none, and the sound mixing was horrid. While I may accept this movie as a children's film and they would not worry about the plot holes in the movie, the movie is shown to at least consider an older, more mature audience who would watch this film as it may feature the video games that they grew up playing, and if they hadn't switched their brain off during the viewing of this movie, they would at least notice the ridiculousness of the plot, which even surpasses the absurdity of the possibility of an alien race attacking Earth with 80s video game characters. Made of light particles (?).

The movie begins in 1982, and following a not-so-subtle transition, the viewers are suddenly thrown into a world over 30 years into the future, where, without any prior explanation other than a will to achieve great things, Kevin James becomes the President of the United States, and Adam Sandler is given free will to explore the White House, and can attend meetings concerning national security (while uninvited) where he is allowed to insult the heads of the nation and get away without any repercussion... because of his charming personality.

Everybody seems okay with the fact that 8 bit video game characters are attacking Earth, killing (pixelating?) presumably thousands of people, if not more, per attack. And that fact does not incite mass panics or riots in major cities around the world.

There isn't any indication of time throughout the movie, apart from the 30-year jump. How much time passed between the battles and the next declaration? Days? Weeks? Months? There was sure enough time to organise a ball in the midst of intergalactic war, and for Peter Dinklage to invite Serena Williams.

Many things are simply... forgotten throughout the film. The trophy following the battle of London. The character development of many characters. How much do you know about the Wonderkid, despite him playing a major role in the movie?

The sound mixing is done terribly. During the final battle against Donkey Kong, We Will Rock You by Queen is dubbed over the dramatic battle music already in place. The same happens throughout the whole film, with Working For The Weekend by Loverboy seemingly placed on top of another battle with no reason I can make out other than the fact that they are the iconic sounds of 80s. The soundtrack comes as an afterthought, with NO correlation or tie-ins with the movie.

Minor plot holes I wanted to address here, consolidated to one paragraph: Donkey Kong cannot be defeated in one level, if the aliens are so anal about sticking to the spirit of the game. Wonderkid and Peter Dinklage wouldn't be alive today. Wonderkid's love interest is the only pixelated video game character of all to become... non-pixelated. And love transcends all dimensions once more, because she accepts Wonderkid's love confession and does not lop his head off straightaway.

Overall, this movie was amusing in some parts, and thumbs up to the visual department for the excellent CGI work, but I could not overlook the terrible plot and the nil-effort that some of the departments of the filmmakers seems to have put in. 3/10.

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E. Catalan (ecatalan98@gmail.com) from Mexico
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Naysayer's beware: If you don't like Adam Sandler and/or 80's cultural references, you are NOT going to like PIXELS. Is this movie masterpiece theater? Far from it? Will it win best picture at the Academy Awards? Highly unlikely. Will if enthrall 40 year olds who grew up with arcade games? Chances are, most will. I just stepped out of the theater and I must confess I enjoy PIXELS very, very much, despite reading the god awful reviews by "film critics" as well as pimp faced IMDb readers. I agree that Adam Sandler's fortunes at the box office have been on a down slide for some years now but then again, he was never that "big" of a draw, like say, Eddie Murphy in his prime. I guess if you try to over analyze any of Sandler's films you're going to wind up seriously depressed. PIXELS is big, dumb fun, full of 80's references (the arcade games, the music, hell, even MTV!).

I won't describe the movie because other users have done eloquently so. I'll just stick with my very positive praises for this movie. My daughters, who have nothing to do with 80's culture, both enjoyed the movie a whole lot. True, my kids know most of the games that appear in the movie and see them come to life and interact with real characters was a roller-coaster ride. There's Pacman, Defender, Frogger, Q- Bert, Galaga, Asteroids, Space Invaders and of course, Donkey Kong. Certainly the over 40 crowd out there will enjoy it, but young kids will too.

Plus, as a GAME OF THRONES fan, it was a rush seeing Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage in here, and having CHEAP TRICK kicking off the movie is always good in my book!

I'm buying this on bluray as soon as it comes out!

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tquitt-81652
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Feeling the need to beef up the score on this movie. I enjoyed it! Yes, it was ridiculous and stupid but I enjoyed it. Paul Blart, The Mall Cop is President of the United States, and Happy Gilmore, the voice of Olaf the Snowman and the children's author that Will Ferrell calls "Elf" are going to attempt to save the world from alien invaders using 1980's video games. I was surprised that my ten and seven year old girls liked it too. However, they had many questions about the references to the '80's pop stars and icons and many of the arcade games meant nothing to them. If you spent any time in the arcades in the early eighties then I am pretty sure you will appreciate this movie!

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david-sarkies from Australia
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Okay, a movie paying tribute to 80s video games was always going to attract my attention, but to be honest with you I never expected the film to be anywhere near as good, or even as silly, as this one. Actually, when it comes to silliness I probably shouldn't have been at all surprised, especially since we have a movie where the characters from these old video games attack Earth, and any movie in which the major characters are chasing Pacman around New York City in coloured mini coopers is definitely not going to be on the serious list.

However, when it comes to silly movies there are those that are just plain silly and you spend the entire movie shaking your head wandering what possessed even the conservative powers that be in Hollywood to come up with such a concept, and then you get classic Adam Sandler. In fact, ever since The Waterboy I simply no longer expected Sandler to come anywhere near the level of the films that launched him to stardom � yet here we have Pixels and here we have Sandler back to his hilarious best.

Yep, that's right � not only is the film about how characters from 1980s video games invade the Earth, but it is actually really, really funny as well. Okay, at the beginning where we are introduced to a young Sam Brenner who knows how to beat video games by reading the patterns but losing to a dwarf at the world championships and thus being only the second-best video gamer in the world, it seems that it is simply going to be your standard silly movie. However jump to the present where it turns out that Sam Brenner's best friend has become the President of the United States, and they still catch up for a regular chat, you suddenly realise that it is going to be one of those movies and you know that you aren't supposed to take it seriously.

This film brought back an awful lot of memories, but then again I suspect that this was the film's main purpose: to remind us children of the 80s of all the fun that we used to have down at the video arcades playing classic games such as Space Invaders, Frogger, and Centipede. Sure, you can still play those games over the internet, but as Sam suggested, games these days simply aren't the same. They don't run on patterns but rather on the principle of trying to stay alive as long as possible (and if that doesn't work then pressing the reset key). In fact they brought back lots of the characters that we remember from the golden days of computer gaming, including Donkey Kong (which was one of the original platform games).

I guess I can also relate to Sam somewhat, being a kid who spent as much time as possible trying to beat computer games and then landing up in an ordinary job simply because computer game skills are simply not transferable. Sure, Sam is a computer geek, but his best friend became the President of the United States while he is installing hardware in people's houses. He even displays the geeky tendencies of simply not being able to relate to women in the way that most people are able to relate to them (though a part of that has to do with the silliness of the entire film). Of course, it does run along the standard Hollywood storyline where the protagonist, whom society has passed by, becomes the saviour of the world (and gets the girl in the end).

While I don't want to spoil the film, I have to say that I loved the end credits. Once again it brings back memories of the days when computer graphics were incredibly basic � not the almost life like incarnations of games that you get these days. While it is promoted as a kids movie (particularly with the trailers for the films at the beginning), in many ways this is a film for those of us who spent way to much time pumping quarters into games at the local video arcade, or stuck in front of our Commodore 64s relentlessly trying to get that frog across the road.

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KSwear from United States
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I will admit that I was not sold by the trailer for this movie. It came off as one of those movies that was a crap shoot if it was going to be a good watch or a stinker.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised when I found out how good it was. The story line was amusing and funny. The performances of the cast were spot on. The humor was tastefully done so that the parents will get some good laughs while the kids are laughing more at what is going on then what was being said.

This is one movie that I would not mind going to see again while it is in the theaters should the chance come up. And I will certainly be adding it to my DVD library soon as it is released.

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Rageypoo from United States
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After watching the movie, I can understand why people have mixed feelings about it. You can certainly feel the Sandler moments, they were evident from the very beginning and all through the movie, some of them were great, some were kinda "meh" so I get why some people are blaming him. I will say however that I can't see this particular movie working the way it did without anyone other than him, for one very obvious reason; the writing.

The movie tries hard to tell a story from a VERY lighthearted perspective and basically far out "would probably never happen" world, that being 2 kids who played video games at a young age, turned out to be the president of the united states, and a TV install guy. The flow of the movie seemed to take the situation of alien invaders VERY lightly, at one point they all went out to drink beers. If this movie was indeed written around the actors, then the whole scenario makes sense, since this is very Sander heavy, but I think considering the scope of the movie and what it could have brought to the table, it leaves audiences feeling a bit unsatisfied. Perhaps extending the movie a bit, and throwing in a few more realistic character developments would have greatly helped draw audiences into the story.

I found myself not caring about many of the aspects of the movie, because of the cheesy writing, but I will applaud the CGI that went into this movie, it's absolutely amazing what we are able to do, and they certainly went the extra mile to bring pixels to life. The way of defeating them was certainly unbelievable, and the fact that they were able to figure it out so fast was unbelievable. I think since the aliens were presenting them with the game, they would have also presented them with a tool to defeat them, so the light gun should have came from them, not the military. I also think the girl should have been taken for donkey kong, as it makes more sense. I dunno, there just seems to be odd writing choices through, but much of it I did enjoy regardless, I mean it's still an Adam Sander movie and for some reason we just can't get enough.

at LEAST a 7, certainly not a 5.3 the current ratings are giving. This movie is certainly a throwback to kids from that time, so anyone between the ages of 25-35 should appreciate it.

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cwforever7
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It's rare for me to go see a movie; many of my options are limited because I just don't like dark, gritty movies. I miss the movies where you can sit down; laugh, have fun and not have to deal with violence, nudity and swearing.

Safe to say; Pixels delivered just that. Adam Sandler plays an awkward, but likable nerd named Sam Brenner; who gets his shot at becoming a Hero by doing what he does best; playing arcade games. It's fun watching his clever know-how, outwit the alien invaders; as he uses all the old gaming techniques to take down their finest warriors. Making it this film jam-packed with; action, humour and most off all, sheer joy.

The story is solid; it doesn't veer off, slow down or get clunky; it sticks to the objective till the end. it set's itself off right as being a silly movie by having Mr. President being played by comedic Kevin James, a wise move considering this movie is supposed to be a comedy; with that said, the movie's genre is well balanced to handle a subject such as pixels.

Most likely, those who would enjoy this film would be one who are familiar with these games, back in 80's. So if you want to take your son or daughter to enjoy it with you, be warned; Peter Dinklage plays a foul-mouthed gamer, he says things like "I made your game my B****" or "S***Balls" and other rude phrases, so be warned.

All in all; it's the perfect summer film to enjoy this week and one I think, I'll see again.

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ursasolus from United States
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Is PIXELS going to be nominated for any awards? NO. But this fun Summer Flick will keep you and your kids entertained, and give you a good return for your $$ spent at the box office.

Here's the deal. If you were a teen or pre-teen in the 1980's, and have teens or pre-teens of your own now, this movie will leave you with that feel good Summer Fun feeling that campy movies of your youth gave you back in the day. It's packed with action, witty humor, and plenty of nostalgia to share with your kids.

If you are a 20's/30's something that can't remember anything father back that when Super NES was replaced with a PlayStation, then you're too old, and too young, to truly understand this movie for the gem it truly is.

The movie hits its target audience spot on. IGNORE the critics, who obviously have some beef with Adam Sandler, and definitely go see this one, before it comes out on DVD to become one of the the next cult classic movies.

Although Denis Akiyama plays a fictionalized version of Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani, the real Iwatani also appears in the film as an arcade repairman. Iwatani did not portray himself because he doesn't speak English.
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The movie's video game high scores are based on real scores. Sam Brenner's Pac-Man high score of 3,333,360 is the highest attainable Pac-Man score, first achieved by Billy Mitchell (a higher score is possible on the Namco Pac-Man Anniversary edition machines). Ludlow Lamonsoff's Centipede score of 16,389,548 is one point higher than the real-life marathon world record set by Jim Schneider. Eddie Plant's Donkey Kong score of 1,068,100 is 100 points higher than Hank Chien's former world record.
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According to Chris Columbus, Eddie Plant is based on a number of 1980s video gamers, including: Richie Knuckelz (tattoos), Patrick Scott Patterson (sunglasses & pose), Ken House (aversion to sleeves), and Billy Mitchell (haircut).
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Dan Aykroyd co-founded and co-owns Crystal Head Vodka, which the two main characters drink in the pub after the Centipede battle in England.
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Lamonsoff is a recurring surname in Adam Sandler's films under the Happy Madison label. It's a tribute Sandler's college roommate, Eric Lamonsoff, who has made cameo appearances in Sandler films.
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Chris Columbus said that Kevin James as President was modeled after New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
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This is the ninth film or television series in which Kevin James and Adam Sandler have appeared together.
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Adam Sandler's wife and daughter both make cameo appearances in this film
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Matt Frewer portrays an alien version of Max Headroom, a role he made famous in the 1980s TV movie and series of the same name. It's the first appearance of Max since 2007 when he appeared in Channel 4 commercials promoting their switch to digital broadcasts. Max was always presented as a computer generated character, but was always portrayed by Frewer in makeup. Pixels marks the first time Max Headroom was an actual computer generated character.
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Jennifer Aniston turned down the female lead role.
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The female lead is named Violet Van Patten. This is a trademark of Adam Sandler where the first and last name of his character's girlfriend starts with "V." Happy Gilmore: Virginia Venit, Billy Madison: Veronica Vaughn, The Waterboy: Vicki Vallencourt, Little Nicky: Valerie Veran, and Big Daddy: Vanessa.
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The Biddy Bandits (the little purple ninjas attacking the bus) and Lady Lisa are all from the new, retro-style video game Dojo Quest, created as a tie-in for the movie.
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Composer Henry Jackman's second video-game related movie. The first was Wreck-It Ralph (2012).
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This film is based on a 2010 short film by French director Patrick Jean and distributed by One More Productions.
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Shares its plot with a segment from Futurama: Anthology of Interest II (2002) titled "Raiders of the Lost Arcade."
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Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean previously starred in Game of Thrones (2011) together.
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Adam Sandler uses the same voice from Happy Gilmore (1996) to say "Somebody's more important" in the tone of "Somebody's closer".
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The movie poster shows Pac-Man attacking the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. In the movie, the city where Pac-Man wrecks havoc is New York, San Francisco is not mentioned at all. All location filming was done in Toronto.
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Fiona Shaw appears in this film, along with the characters Max Headroom (Matt Frewer) and Mario (albeit mostly in the background). She also appeared with Mario in Super Mario Bros. (1993), which was directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. Both of whom were also the co-creators and directors of Max Headroom (1985).
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In The Wedding Ringer (2015) Josh Gad says Pac-Man was his favorite superhero. In this film, he has to fight Pac-Man.
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The "Violent Video-Game" that Matty and Brenner are playing is "The Last of Us" by Naughty Dog. It is one of the most critically acclaimed games with various reviewers giving it a perfect score.
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Peter Dinklage and Brian Cox both played villains in X-Men franchise. Dinklage as Dr. Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Cox as William Stryker in X2, and appearing in archived footage in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
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Chris Columbus' first collaboration with Adam Sandler.
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Fiona Shaw plays the British Prime Minister. This is the second time she has appeared in a video game related movie. She also played Lena in Super Mario Bros. (1993).
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Peter Dinklage and Jane Krakowski previously worked together on one episode of 30 Rock (2006).
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Andrew Bambridge, who plays a young Eddie Plant, is the pianist and accompanying singer of The Accomplices, an amateur band that has won Battle of the Bands twice.
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Adam Sandler appeared in The Wedding Singer (1998) while co-star Josh Gad appeared in The Wedding Ringer (2015).
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Also shown in IMAX 3D.
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Contrary to many of his other films, Sean Bean survives the entire movie.
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In earlier trailers, Kevin James, on the mothership, says "Don't tell anybody I killed a Smurf." In later versions of the trailer, the line is changed from "killed" to "pixelated". In the actual movie, the original line remains, but it is said by Michelle Monaghan on the streets of Washington DC.
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In the trailer, during the Donkey Kong game, Kevin James says,"It's just a barrel, how bad can it hurt?" and a barrel is thrown down at him. This line does not appear in the movie.
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Lady Lisa never speaks.
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The song played on the Indian man's cell phone at his proposal is the Indian version of Adam Sandler's film "50 First Dates" (2004)'s end title "True". The song is written by Gary Kemp and originally performed by Spandau Ballet.
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After Pac-Man eats his dad and the cars drive away, when the camera switch positions, the fourth car has disappeared.
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In the opening scenes, set in 1982, characters discuss their favorite celebrities. Madonna and Samantha Fox are among those mentioned. Both women had started their careers in 1982, but neither was a celebrity.
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The aliens base their appearance and attacks after arcade game footage from the year 1982. However, several of the game figures that the aliens use for their patterns are from games released after that year, such as Tetris (1984), Arkanoid (1986), and Paperboy (1985). One game referenced, Duck Hunt, was not only released after 1982, but was initially a home-console only game.
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In 1982, a video game contestant wears a Karate Kid-style headband and uses the crane kick stance. The Karate Kid was released in 1984.
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In the final act, the main character from Paperboy emerges from the ship. Paperboy came out in 1985, 3 years after the probe was sent into space.
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An alien appears as the character Max Headroom to communicate with the humans during the final battle. But Max Headroom didn't debut until 1985's Max Headroom, 3 years after the probe was sent into space.
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The alien footage of Daryl Hall and John Oates was taken from the time when they were guest VJs on MTV. This took place in 1986, which was 4 years after the time capsule was shot into space.
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The start of this film is set in July of 1982. However in the arcade, a Donkey Kong Junior machine can be seen in the background. But this video game wasn't released until August of 1982.
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Arcade games in 1982 used CRT screens, while the ones shown in the beginning have LCD screens (no curvature, no scan lines, no phosphor persistence).
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When Ludlow is talking to the President he says "latitude and longtitude".There is no such word as longtitude, he should have said longitude.
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The sword on Ludlow's neck changes position in two shots.
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When the Indian Teenage Boy uses his mobile phone to film the destruction of the Taj Mahal, the device switches from his left to his right hand and back again between shots.
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When Brenner defeats Pac Man by driving his car off the parking garage, he lands on top of an adjacent parking garage. Moments later when he is greeted by the people on the ground, he is seen walking up a ramp from what appears to be an underground level of a parking garage, rather than walking down from the roof level.
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Although the movie is titled "Pixels", the attacking aliens are actually composed of voxels. Pixels are 2D and Voxels are 3D.
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Corporal Hill wears a uniform that is out of date. Modern British Army uniforms have their rank tabs on the front of their jackets not on the shoulders. The credits claim that the character is "SAS" (Special Air Service, a British Special Forces Unit) - the beret badge is incorrect for SAS and the beret is green, SAS berets are a 'sand' colour.
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TD Bank logos appear several times in the New York chase scenes. TD Bank is headquartered in Toronto, but it has many U.S. branches, including several in New York.
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In all of the video game battles, the alien attackers play the in-game opponents, while the gamers play the "player" role that they would have in the actual arcade game, exception for Pac-Man. For Pac-Man, the gamers play the ghosts, which never happened in the arcade game. Furthermore, despite having no advance warning, the gamers are not only specifically prepared to play Pac-Man, they have four customized Mini Coopers ready to go, complete with "cheat codes" for the ghosts.
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The aliens seem to want to play fair and are unhappy when the humans cheat by using cheat codes. However, they do not give the humans any method of participating in the game to defeat them. Without the government's advanced light gun technology, the humans would have had no chance to win the games which is completely unfair on the part of the aliens.
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If the Alien Pac-Man scenario was based solely on what was shown on the taped footage then they would never have known about the cheats to begin with because Eddie got away with it meaning the camera obviously never caught him using them.
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When young Sam loses the Donkey Kong finale, the screen shows a 'game over' message. However, Sam's Mario character just mastered the second level of Donkey Kong, pulling all the pegs out of a metal frame and causing Donkey Kong to fall on his head. Sam actually won the second level.
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There were no cheat codes on the original Pac-Man and Donkey Kong arcade games, only a few glitches which most likely would not have helped the character Eddie win at the beginning of the film and definitely not as a ghost against Pac-Man.
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alien|arcade game|critically bashed|box office flop|fire|attack|military|battle|showdown|exploding body|crane|kiss|danger|evacuation|revelation|pervert|dancing|man with glasses|escape|jumping from a car|thrown from a car|driving in reverse|parking garage|disobeying orders|deception|ambush|survival|regeneration|car stunt|helicopter accident|ex convict|midget|handcuffs|time capsule|transformation|pub|chase|centipede|marriage proposal|jumping from height|farce|prime minister|apartment|rampage|american abroad|text messaging|slow motion scene|close up of eyes|flashback|hit with a hammer|firefighter|fire truck|ambulance|police officer|police|nypd|hiding in a closet|single parent|single mother|mother son relationship|stalking|chloroform|camera phone|cell phone|happy madison|target practice|pistol|hostage|kidnapping|rescue|child in peril|robot|android|laboratory|babe scientist|scientist|female soldier|press conference|media coverage|news report|satellite|tv installer|bravery|courage|loser|subliminal message|cube|destruction|chaos|london england|india|party|chrysler building manhattan new york city|new york city skyline|ballroom|nerd|geek|satire|parody|training|mission|good versus evil|humanity in peril|apocalypse|end of the world|race against time|release from prison|prison guard|prisoner|prison|reluctant hero|dual wield|sword|drunkenness|air force base|special forces|soldier|british army|navy sea air and land force|u.s. navy|u.s. air force|u.s. army|admiral|general|military base|lieutenant colonel|colonel|videotape|sunglasses|beer|computer cracker|computer hacker|inanimate object comes to life|protest|disaster in new york|washington monument|spaceship|spacecraft|first lady|ufo|bar|husband wife relationship|friendship|montage|flash forward|redemption|contest|product placement|part computer animation|surrealism|cameo|japanese|inventor|alien contact|unlikely hero|reflection in eye|small town|fighter jet|car|car accident|car crash|school bus|motorcycle|helicopter|bicycle|misunderstanding|2010s|alien race|young version of character|prologue|scene during opening credits|fictional war|title at the end|combat|battlefield|disintegration|exploding helicopter|exploding car|explosion|ray gun|earth in peril|alien attack|alien abduction|alien invasion|q*bert|cheater|female army officer|challenged to a fight|dwarf|dwarfism|short man|conspiracy theorist|hyde park london|washington d.c.|white house|taj mahal|president ronald reagan|u.s. president|donkey kong|nasa|chewbacca mask|pac man|video arcade|tetris|video game culture|playing a video game|video gamer|new york city|one word title|title spoken by character|surprise ending|celebrity cameo|reference to madonna|reference to jfk assassination|divorced woman|reference to star wars|year 1982|1980s|based on short film|

AKAs Titles:
Argentina - Pixeles
Bulgaria (Bulgarian title) - �Ÿик�ели
Brazil - Pixels
Chile - Pixeles
Spain - Pixels
Greece - Pixels
Hungary - Pixel
Israel (Hebrew title) - Pixelim
Lithuania - Pikseliai
Latvia - Pikseli
Mexico - Pixeles
Peru - Pixeles
Poland - Piksele
Serbia - Pikseli
Russia - �Ÿик�ели
Slovenia - Piksli
Uruguay (3-D version) - P�xeles
Vietnam - Dai Chien Pixels

Release Dates:


Certifications:
Argentina:ATP / Austria:6 / Canada:PG (British Columbia) / Chile:TE / Finland:K-7/4 (original theatrical rating) / Finland:K-12/9 (theatrical re-rating) / France:U / Germany:6 / Ireland:12A / Italy:T / Japan:G / Malaysia:P13 / Netherlands:9 / Philippines:PG-13 / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:PG / South Korea:12 / Sweden:11 / Switzerland:10 / UK:12A / USA:PG-13 (certificate #49633)