Pixels
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: July 24, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
12
Negative:
23
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanJul 23, 2015
The script by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling gets relaxed, throwaway laughs, even if it doesn’t always hold together. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJul 23, 2015
Pixels is a blast of energetic fun. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 22, 2015
Pixels is a slice of pure, frivolous entertainment that doesn't try to overreach. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerJul 23, 2015
it’s not as original as it wants to be, despite having the able Chris Columbus in the director’s chair. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaJul 23, 2015
The visual effects are impressive, and there is a certain kick to seeing the human characters dodging barrels in a life-size Donkey Kong. But we don’t really care about the humans; here, at least, Q*bert is more endearing than Adam Sandler. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 23, 2015
With a novel idea at its center and some good jokes scattered throughout, Pixels is a relief from the self-serious action films that invade movie theaters at this time of year. For most of the way, it’s good enough to enjoy, and for the rest of the way, it’s good enough to root for. But ultimately, it’s not quite good enough ... to be good enough. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 22, 2015
Pixels has a few inspired action sequences and a handful of laugh-out-loud moments, but overall the special effects are surprisingly average — and the lazy acting by Adam Sandler, the shameless mugging by Kevin James and the hammy performance by Brian Cox don’t help. Not even Peter Dinklage in a mullet can save the day. Read full review
50
Screen DailyJohn HazeltonJul 22, 2015
Sporting a flowing mullet and aviator shades, Dinklage perks things up considerably as the story’s comically arrogant bad-boy-turned-good-guy. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 22, 2015
Even on its own silly terms, Pixels is not a very good movie; it’s painted up like a Ghostbusters-style fantasy-comedy but plays like so many slapdash Happy Madison productions before it. Read full review
40
The GuardianNigel M SmithSep 11, 2015
Pixels is a casually sexist, awkwardly structured, bro-centric comedy, starring some of Sandler’s buddies. The only difference this time is that state-of-the-art CGI has been added to the mix. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 13, 2015
If Sandler can’t find it in himself to be verbally or physically entertaining on set, you start to wonder why he’s there in the first place, although his hollow stare in a number of scenes suggests he may be pondering the same thing. Read full review
40
CineVueChristine JunAug 13, 2015
On this evidence, maybe the eighties weren't so great after all. Read full review
40
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJul 22, 2015
The truly mystifying thing about the movie is how desperately it caters to Gen-X junk nostalgia without bothering to think that maybe those Reagan-era kids have grown up a bit. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJul 22, 2015
At isolated moments a tolerably amusing send-up of alien invasion disaster movies in which the attackers are video arcade-era renegades arrived to gobble up as many famous landmarks as possible, this one-note comedy runs out of gas within an hour (it is based on a short film) and should have been trimmed to a neat 90 minutes. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiJul 24, 2015
When one considers how good this material might have been if placed in the right hands, to see it squandered this way makes it almost more painful to view than the typical Sandler stinker. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTom RussoJul 23, 2015
Pixels may feel flatter to kids of the ’80s than it does to moviegoers too young to have known Pac-Man from Ant-Man. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 23, 2015
Long before you’ve gotten a nickel’s worth of entertainment out of this dumb, unfunny flick, you’ll be wishing for the flashing sign that says “Game over.” Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 22, 2015
The 3D adds little, and the hallmarks of the Chris Columbus directing style are unevenness and luck. With a little of the latter, this could be a huge hit. But with a better star, sharper script and more Dinklage, it could have been a champ. Read full review
37
Washington PostStephanie MerryJul 23, 2015
Lazy humor and familiar plotting aside, Pixels at least gets a little mileage out of its affection for the 1980s. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 23, 2015
Neither Sandler nor his listless writers (too many punchlines just sit there and collect flies) seem invested. Whether he’s saving the planet or putting the moves on Michelle Monaghan, Sandler can’t be bothered to raise his pulse above comatose. If he doesn’t care, why should anyone else? Read full review
33
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 23, 2015
Basically it's Ghostbusters meets Wreck-It Ralph, without the sustained charm or wit of either. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenJul 23, 2015
Some movies are so interminable that it seems they might never end, while others are assembled with such indifference that you are essentially left waiting for them to start. Pixels somehow manages both. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 23, 2015
For a movie that’s supposedly about delivering weightless, uncomplicated fun, Pixels is an overwhelmingly sad experience. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 22, 2015
Even though it’s fair to say that Pixels is on steadier ground than most of Sandler’s recent comedies, the film is nevertheless flat-footed and grows tedious after the first hour. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 24, 2015
The "characters" vary from slightly annoying to unbearable - this is a film in which a viewer can be forgiven for rooting for the old video game icons to annihilate humanity. God help us if the best savior we can muster is Sandler. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 23, 2015
Yikes! I saw Pixels as a 3D metaphor for Hollywood's digital assault on our eyes and brains. Not funny. Just relentless and exhausting. Read full review
25
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 23, 2015
I think Sandler's miscasting leads to a real deficit of energy at the center of the film, and then the conceptual misfire is so dire that I just don't know what to say beyond that. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJul 22, 2015
This is a Happy Madison production, and as such it's exhaustively lazy, outside of its righteous dedication to the valorization of the man-child. Read full review
20
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJul 23, 2015
A movie like Pixels should be stupid and energetic, not stupid and lifeless. Read full review
20
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonJul 22, 2015
Here's a shocker: In Pixels, his latest, Adam Sandler plays a stunted man-child who turns out to be very, very special. Read full review
20
TheWrapInkoo KangJul 22, 2015
Pixels is ultimately a thoroughly numbing experience, not least because all the characters are doomed by a psychological flatness more two-dimensional than any arcade-game screen. Read full review
20
VarietyJustin ChangJul 22, 2015
Where Sandler once exulted in our outrage (and frequently, our laughter), he now seems barely capable of mustering enough effort to carry a scene, let alone advance to level 255 of “Galaga.” There’s no joy left in his shtick. Read full review
12
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyJul 23, 2015
Pixels is a movie without wit, without jokes, with nothing to say but plenty to regurgitate. Read full review
12
New York PostKyle SmithJul 23, 2015
It stumbled onto an accomplishment truly awe-inspiring: It makes “Battleship” and “The Watch” look good. Read full review
8
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 22, 2015
There are legitimate excuses for going to see Pixels. Losing a bet, perhaps. Having a loved one held for ransom. Maybe a serious blow to the head. But none of those (except maybe the last) would allow you watch and actually enjoy the latest cinematic leavings of Adam Sandler. Read full review
0
IndieWireRoy GrahamJul 23, 2015
As a bad movie, Pixels is extremely dismissible. The ways in which it is bad are hardly fun to pick apart, a la "The Room;" instead, they're just banal — the deeply predictable plot, the unfunny jokes, the constant low-level sexism and occasional spikes of racism that permeate the story. Read full review
0
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 23, 2015
Every joke is lame, every special effect unspecial. Read full review
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