The war is over and the nerds have won: comic-book movies dominate the multiplex, Mark Zuckerberg is a titan of industry, Steve Jobs is a visionary genius, etc. But somebody didn't get the memo, and so we get Pixels, a throwback to the days when nerds got wedgies instead of biopics. It's easy to picture the scene. "Remember when we were kids, and our parents told us that you can't make a living playing video games? What if you could? Better still, what if you could save the world by playing video games?" Toss in an hour's worth of brainstormed '80s references ("Oh, man, remember Max Headroom? And Fantasy Island?"), and you've got a real-life Space Invaders story that might have made for dumb, exciting fun if everyone involved didn't seem bored to tears, director Chris Columbus and star Adam Sandler very much included. The only possible exception is Josh Gad, who provides a jolt of (admittedly tasteless) energy when he mashes up Star Wars fanboy devotion and conspiracy-theory nutjobbery in a claim about the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination. (2015) — Matthew Lickona
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