'Pixels' trailer leaves a lot to be desired

Posted Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 10:51 AM Central
Last updated Wednesday, March 18, 2015 at 2:57 PM Central

by John Couture

At best, the first trailer for Pixels is underwhelming. At worst, the trailer is the smoking gun in the crusade to exile Adam Sandler from the realm of feature films forever.

The whole hook to Pixels is to prey upon the nostalgia of the 1980s that is all the rage right now. I'm not sure what (other than their longstanding first-look deal) made Sony think that Adam Sandler would be the right person to guide this ship, but this trailer only leaves us nostalgic for the time when Adam Sandler was fresh and new and funny.

Now, he just reminds us of the crusty old dude in our neighborhood who spends his days telling young neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. This is not to say that Pixels can't redeem itself and still prove to be a funny film, but after casting Adam Sandler in the lead, they've already dug themselves a pretty deep hole.

The other pink elephant in the film is Kevin James, but as he doesn't feature much in the trailer, let's pray that he's an early casualty in the alien invasion. It's not all bad though. The other two leads Josh Gad and Peter Dinklage provide plenty of comic relief in the trailer and both of their recent track records demonstrate that they are more than talented enough to make this film work.

Of course, there's no discounting taste or rather the lack there of. Regardless of the quality of the film, audiences can't get enough of Adam Sandler and Kevin James, so Pixels' financial windfall is all but guaranteed. It would just be nice to actually get a funny film for once, is that asking too much?