Most people would agree that, for the last few years, Adam Sandler's career has been on a bit of a downward slope. A string of unsuccessful comedies and failed sequels has turned the one-time comedy king into an infamous B-list celebrity.
Fans can still look back on movies like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore fondly, but Sandler's latest movies are usually considered tragedies.
So...can adding video games into the mix help fix Sander's career? Pixels, a feature film based on a viral video, looks to answer that question.
First things first: the visuals look fantastic, even in this early state. With big-budget movies, the CG typically isn't done in time for the trailer's release - however, in the Pixels trailer, it looks like a finished product. Both Donkey Kong and Pac-Man look amazing, and it's a good representation of what these now-ancient characters would look like in 3D.
Otherwise...it looks like any of Adam Sandler's other recent projects. There are a few halfway-decent jokes in the trailer, but the rest of the video looks more like a long list of gaming references than an actual movie. Of course, there's no way to tell if the whole movie is like that, but given the nature of Sandler's more recent films, there's a good chance of that happening. The cameo from Pac-Man creator Tōru Iwatani is a nice touch, though.
And, if you're wondering what that weird flash at the 1:39 mark is, it's an ad for a free-to-play mobile game tie-in:
It's probably a bad sign when the most interesting part of the trailer is trying to find a borderline-subliminal ad halfway through...
Pixels will debut in theaters on July 24.
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