Review: Pixels (2015)

Gamer nerds, unite! Okay, that was a little lame, sorry. But seriously, I’m all in for a movie that celebrates being a gamer. It’s just taken me a while to get round to watching this one. When I first saw the trailer for Pixels, I though, this is one of those movies that’s going to be terrible, but a little bit awesome at the same time. As the terrible reviews flooded in, my enthusiasm died a little, but I still wanted to give it a chance.  I hadn't read any reviews so I had no idea what to expect....

Pixels (2015) starts off in the summer of 1982, and when a new arcade opens up in town, friends Brenner (Adam Sandler) and Cooper (Kevin James) race over to master the games. Whilst there they meet Ludlow (Josh Gad) who’s in love with Lady Lisa, the main star of the game Dojo Quest. After working his way through the ranks, Brenner goes head to head with Eddie (Peter Dinklage) in a game of Donkey Kong. The host announces that footage of the competition will be sent into space by NASA, and consequently, an alien race treats the footage as a declaration of war, and use video games to attack Earth.

It’s a pretty silly plot, there’s no moving around that one, but it’s a fun one at the very least! I would class myself as an Adam Sandler fan, but I enjoyed this a lot more than the last movies I saw of his, both Grown Ups. Admittedly, I think I’m just a few years too young to fully appreciate Pixels. I played Pacman and Donkey Kong, but remastered versions on early generation games consoles, and they were the only game characters I actually recognised. There’s definitely a lot of nostalgia here for 80’s gamers though!  I recognised more from watching Wreck it Ralph than from actual video games (I was more of a Barbie kid!!).  I will readily admit that I am a huge Adam Sandler fan and I to disagree with Allie on this one because Grown Ups (the first one) was awesome and this didn't even come into the same league (it was pretty much on par with Grown Ups 2 - Grown Ups 2 was horrendous, at least Pixels had a plot!).

The visuals were a pretty sight to see, and I reckon they would only be better on the big screen. The final Donkey Kong scene was nothing short of awesome, and even though the trailer already showed it, I loved the idea of using coloured Mini Cooper’s for Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde!  Agreed, the visuals were amazing and the Mini Coopers were great (but how did they know they were going to need them -just another of the little niggles that bothered me throughout!)

As much as I enjoyed this, it certainly wasn’t without it’s flaws. I lost interest in the plot several times, and a few of the characters got on my nerves a little. Why did Peter Dinklage have to put on a ‘douchebag’ voice throughout the entire movie? It just wasn’t necessary. Also, I realise the soundtrack was from the 80’s but the whole Centipede battle scene would have been 100x more awesome if it was backed by Knife Party’s Centipede. Look it up on YouTube, and please internet, make this happen for me. Oh, and spoiler alert, but if you’re going to cast Sean Bean in your movie, in a military role no less, kill him off! Wasted opportunity there, Sandler. YES! I know this film was completely unrealistic and unbelievable but I could not get my head around Kevin James being President, it was so irritating.

All in all, I was really disappointed, I wanted to love it but I just didn't!  It pushed the unrealistic too far and wasn't even remotely funny....at all! (that's hard for me to say about a Sandler film)

Not the best movie out there by a long shot, but give me Adam Sandler over James Franco any day! 

Disappointed in Mr Sandler...sort it out man!

Review: The Wedding Ringer (2015)

Another flight another shed load of films to review :-) This time, I was poorly so wasn't really looking anything that involved too much thinking and I had been desperate to see this since I saw the trailer.

Doug (Josh Gad) is due to marry the girl of his dreams but there is just one problem, he doesn't have any friends to be his Best Man or his Groomsmen.  However, he may have already told his Bride to be that he has, enter Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) a professional 'Best Man' for hire who brings along seven groomsmen for the never done before,  'Golden Tux' package.

The story is absolute tripe, its completely ridiculous, massively flawed and there are hundreds of plot gaps that would drive anyone mad - i.e. why doesn't anyone he knows, know his best friend or the fact that he doesn't have one?! But for all its flaws, it is incredibly entertaining, I laughed out loud numerous times and I didn't notice the time fly by.  It is predictable but even that didn't bother me too much.

It's an easy to watch, rainy day comedy that makes no sense when you really look at it. However, if that's what you're looking for then it's also a really funny comedy. There are moments I really laughed out loud, and others where I felt the need to check my phone for something to do. 

Kevin Hart who I usually find irritating was actually really funny and the dance montage (seen partially in the trailer) left me in fits laughter, my face actually hurt afterwards. I don't remember seeing the trailer but that dance montage is one of the funniest things I've ever seen! Just when you think that's it, the song changes! The rag-tag group of misfits Jimmy rounds up as Groomsmen are all completely idiotic but they still manage to make me laugh.

Josh Gad and Kevin Hart work really well together! I hope we get to see more of Josh Gad in the next few years, I think he's great, and he always manages to get a laugh out of me.

Don't pay attention to the dialogue, plot or predictability and just enjoy the laughs. I hate to admit this but for the first time I wanted a 1/2 score available (shush Allie!) because this is not as low as a 6 but not as good as a 7! argh!

Woah. Woah! Can we discuss this? Like, actually have a conversation about half scores without you telling me off? This is what I've been trying to tell you since we started this blog! Tell you what, you can give it a 6, and I'll give it a 7, and then that falls in the middle anyway.