pretty good movie to watch with kids

fuzzhead72

score 10/10

I've been hooked on video games, especially the classic ones, since I played Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Wizard of Wor, Frogger, Donkey Kong (etc., etc., etc.) at the arcades from the late 70's through mid 80's, and of course on home systems afterwards. My kids have played many of these classic arcade games on MAME and on compilation disks on the Gamecube. We absolutely loved Wreck It Ralph, so when I heard that there was another video game themed movie coming out, I was looking forward to watching it.

I wasn't able to get to the theater for the first month, but then it was showing at a local drive-in as the second feature. I went to watch it with my oldest son, who is not quite a teen yet. We were pretty bored by the first feature, which was a failed attempt to reboot yet another 60's TV show. However, Pixels really captured our attention, and we both loved the humor and the video game action.

I could have done without the reference to Martha Stewart that they put in there, and I would have liked to see maybe 4 or 5 more classic video games featured. I also would have liked for there to be some form of personal appearance by the alien A.I. in charge. Overall, however, I think it was the most fun my son and I had watching a movie this summer, and we've watched more than a dozen. After we watched it, he came home and played a bunch of the old video games for a few hours. I finally bought Pac Man Championship Edition DX .

It certainly isn't a blockbuster, but with the international box office, it will finish at about 2.5 times its budget, so it will ultimately be another profitable movie. Is it the greatest movie of the year? No, but it would be a good choice for anybody who has played classic arcade games through the mid 80's.

fuzzhead72 4 September 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3310595/