For weeks now I have been looking at the display board for Pixels (Rialto and Readings), which shows a giant Pacman eating New York, and thinking ''that looks fun''.
PIXELS
Director: Chris Columbus
Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad, Matt Lintz, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Jane Krakowski, Dan Aykroyd, Andrew Bambridge
Rating: (PG)
Four stars (out of five)
My rational brain tells me that it stars Adam Sandler and is directed by Chris Columbus, not the most nimble of directors, so most likely it will suck, but the child in me says ''it has a giant Pacman and Peter Dinklage; it could be awesome''.
Well, awesome is overstating it but for good, try-not-to-think-too-hard fun, Pixels is rather delightful.
Back in 1982, Brenner (Adam Sandler) discovered he was born to play arcade video games.
That was a wonderful skill to have then, but games moved on and Brenner got left behind.
However, footage of him and Eddie (Peter Dinklage) competing in a video games championship was beamed into deep space, where aliens saw it and misinterpreted it as a planet-to-planet challenge.
Thirty years on, the aliens turn up ready to play and Brenner and his old mate Cooper (Kevin James), who conveniently has become the president, are the only ones who recognise the old arcade games that are the aliens' weapon of choice.
Soon Brenner and the other men/children are delightedly playing life-size versions of the games of their youth in order to save the world.
It is all good clean daffy fun that uses its 3-D special effects to enhance the eye candy of the video re-creations but does not overdo it.
I have never known Columbus to be so brisk before but it is a welcome new skill.
Pixels amuses, dazzles and then is over before you can tire of it.
• Christine Powley
