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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mike McCahill

Pixels review – game over for Adam Sandler (again)

Josh Gad makes a run for it in Chris Columbus's film Pixels
Josh Gad makes a run for it in Chris Columbus’s sci-fi comedy Pixels. Photograph: Columbia Pictures/Allstar

After the awful Cobbler, Adam Sandler has defaulted to give-’em-what-they-want nostalgia: arcade-game addicts roused from schlubby middle age to take on space invaders who are zapping Earth into shiny, Capcom-like blocks. The latter creates an oddly pleasing effect, but it is the only one in a film that shills pop culture references and sexual politics – from Sandler’s relentless negging of Michelle Monaghan to the state-sanctioned pimping out of Serena Williams. Any planet where president Kevin James retains greater voice than eerily mute first lady Jane Krakowski surely isn’t worth defending.

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