Brow Beat

Adam Sandler’s 8-Bit Invasion Movie Is Here to Save (or Sabotage) Summer

Not your everyday heroes.

Photo by George Krychyk - © 2014 CTMG, Inc.

Fresh off another impressively bad movie, Adam Sandler has decided to abandon his usual one-dimensional characters and instead fight 8-bit ones. His latest film, Pixels, is a tad unusual: Directed by Chris Columbus, it tells the story of aliens who misinterpret human contact and send a bunch of video-game villains to make it game over for Earth. Seriously, that’s the plot.  

Joining Sandler are Peter Dinklage, Michelle Monaghan, and Kevin James, all of whom seem to get Italian Job–like Mini Coopers to fight the baddies. There are probably two valid reactions to this trailer: giddiness about an original, non-self-serious action movie or severe, repeated face-palming. But with lines like “Pac-Man is a bad guy?” and “It’s just a barrel, how bad could it hurt?,” Pixels is sure to be hilarious, whether intentionally or not. It hits theaters July 24.