Pixels is a movie aimed squarely at my demographic; 30-somethings who grew up with Atari and Nintendo in the 1980s. Sony is betting heavily on nostalgia to make this film a box office success. So far everything I’ve seen of it has alluded to it being a comedy. After all, the films stars a who’s who of comedy;Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Ashley Benson, and Brian Cox. Not this new TV spot. Full of action, explosives, and laser gun battles with nary a one-liner in sight, this clip focuses on the Arcaders fighting off the invading alien “pixels”.
Here’s the official synopsis:
As kids in the 1980s, Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler), Will Cooper (Kevin James), Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad), and Eddie “The Fire Blaster” Plant (Peter Dinklage) saved the world thousands of times – at 25 cents a game in the video arcades. Now, they’re going to have to do it for real. In Pixels, when intergalactic aliens discover video feeds of classic arcade games and misinterpret them as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth, using the video games as the models for their assaults — and now-U.S. President Cooper must call on his old-school arcade friends to save the world from being destroyed by PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede, and Space Invaders. Joining them is Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten (Michelle Monaghan), a specialist supplying the arcaders with unique weapons to fight the aliens.
Pixels invades theaters on July 24th, 2015.
