A new live-action
PAC-MAN movie is in the works, but this isn’t the first time for
PAC-MAN to cross over into the real world – that honor goes to Adam Sandler’s
Pixels. Curiously, while 2015’s
Pixels grossed $244 million in the worldwide box office at a budget of around $100 million – technically making it a success –
Pixels was also heavily panned by critics for being yet another Sandler cookie cutter comedy. Indeed,
Pixels doesn’t really deviate from the silly, rom-com formula that drove most of Adam Sandler’s cult ’90s comedy movies. That said,
Pixels actually has a strong sci-fi premise that makes it worthy of being the first live-action film featuring PAC-MAN.,In
Pixels, an advanced alien civilization misinterprets a NASA time capsule containing footage of classic arcade games as a declaration of war. This results in the aliens attacking Earth using ’80s video games-inspired tech, featuring assets from games like
Galaga, Space Invaders, Centipede, Arkanoid, PAC-MAN, and
Donkey Kong. In response, the government assembles an elite team of former arcade champions called the Arcaders, which comprise the main cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, and Josh Gad. Moreover, not only does
Pixels get Denis Akiyama to portray PAC-MAN franchise creator Toru Iwatani, the real Iwatani also has a cameo as an arcade repairman. Despite all this,
Pixels might be the most hated Adam Sandler film.,Related: How Subtle Genre Hopping Built Adam Sandler’s Career,Pixels’ Rotten Tomatoes score of 18% is even lower than that of some of Adam Sandler’s worst movies. However, this doesn’t mean
Pixels is bad. Sandler has always played to his creative strengths by constantly targeting younger demographics and letting the critics do the work of promoting his antics. What’s truly frustrating about this is that Adam Sandler’s dramatic roles have proven time and again that he’s a very good actor – though when it comes to playing the same character he has basically played since
Happy Gilmore, Sandler may be past his prime. The jokes still landed and the plot of
Pixels was even satisfying – but after decades of doing the same thing over and over again, Sandler himself seemed unmotivated by his own template for success. Essentially, this was the main factor that prevented
Pixels from being a classic Adam Sandler comedy. All things considered,
Pixels is still a great live-action tribute to PAC-MAN and ’80s arcade culture. The film’s box office success also means that a sequel to Adam Sandler’s
Pixels isn’t entirely out of the question. Taking a cue from his own critics, Sandler could turn
Pixels 2 into a legitimate blockbuster – or
PAC-MAN could instead take this role.,Adam Sandler’s
Pixels, despite its faults, sets a fairly challenging bar for the planned live-action
PAC-MAN movie. However, the movie seems set to establish a distinct video game adaptation of its own. Notably, Bandai Namco Entertainment, which created PAC-MAN, is behind the film – alongside Wayfarer Studios which also produced
Clouds,
The Senior, and the dramedy
Empire Waist.,This already bodes well in terms of the live-action
PAC-MAN movie’s tone, as it implies a very different interpretation of the video game character compared to
Pixels, which is currently the most well-known live-action version of
PAC-MAN. This isn’t to say that the
PAC-MAN movie shouldn’t be funny – only that it should take the dramatic aspect more seriously. If there’s anything that critically and commercially successful ’80s-nostalgia driven movies and series have in common with video game adaptations, it is that they always find the balance between drama and humor – which can’t be said of
Pixels.