Pixels

(Image credit: Courtesy of Sony Pictures)

Adam Sandler reboots some nostalgically familiar 1980s arcade video games, but fails to push the laughter buttons with this sci-fi action comedy

Adam Sandler reboots some nostalgically familiar 1980s arcade video games, but fails to push the laughter buttons with this sci-fi action comedy.

Sandler and a bunch of geeks – pal Josh Gad, arrogant arch-enemy Peter Dinklage and army colonel Michelle Monaghan, – have to save the world from invading aliens that have taken the form of 1980s games including Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Donkey Kong.

Inspired by Patrick Jean's ingenious 2010 short, the film is full of bright ideas – an extraterrestrial force has stumbled upon a space capsule containing footage of the vintage arcade games and mistaken them for a declaration of war.

Aided by breezy CGI effects, director Chris Columbus gives the action a fair amount of zip and Dinklage and Monaghan do well, but the comic scenes are a flop as Sandler does his overfamiliar irksome man-child act, abetted by an irritating Gad and Kevin James (as the US President).