Pixels (5 Stars)

Kevin James as President? Don't laugh. Why not? America has had much worse presidents in recent years. I shan't name any examples, because I don't want to be accused of political bias. The majority of my blog's readers are from America, and I don't want to alienate them, or even 50% of them. Think of your own examples. At least Kevin James has the dignity and posture of a President.

A few words to explain my current situation. As my regular readers must know by now, I live in the same house as two of my grandchildren. I live in an apartment on the third floor, and my daughter lives with her two children on the second floor. Now that I've retired I have a job as an unpaid babysitter. I'm not complaining. I love my grandchildren. Every day I bring my granddaughter Evelyn (21 months old) to kindergarten at 8 am and bring her home at 2:30 pm. With my grandson Oliver (seven years old) there's no fixed schedule. I see him every day, but the times vary.

At the moment Oliver is on holiday for two weeks, so I'm seeing him more than usual. He's at home alone while his mother is at work, so when he wakes up he comes upstairs to see me. He also goes to bed later than usual, since there's no school in the morning. He's made the request to have a film evening every day. Wow! That's a request that I'm glad to fulfil. I want his love for films to develop in young years. Yesterday his two weeks of films began with "Night at the Museum 3". He'd already watched the first two films with me five weeks ago.

Oliver told me he wanted to watch the fourth film, "Kahmunrah Rises Again". I tried to talk him out of it, but he was determined to see it. He's the boss. This evening I turned on Disney Plus and started the film. After less than two minutes he asked, "Why do the people look like that?" What he meant was, why is it an animated film? It's not that he doesn't like animated films. He watches a lot of animated films in the cinema. What bothered him was that he didn't want to see an animated version of "Night at the Museum" after the first three were live action films. It was a let down for him. I breathed a sigh of relief, and grabbed my "Pixels" Blu-ray.

A year ago he wouldn't have been able to watch "Pixels". He was too impatient when there were talking parts. He wanted action all the way through. Now he has the patience and the intelligence to appreciate characters talking to one another before the big fight scenes start.

Oliver loved it. He laughed out loud at the scenes with Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. They're two games that he'd already discovered while clicking around on his mobile phone. He didn't know Galaga or Centipede.

I loved playing Pac-Man when I was younger, but I gave it up because I wasn't very good at it. I was wasting too much money. Later in the 1980's I discovered Q-Bert, which I liked even more, and I was a good player. In retrospect I'd call myself a champion player. Nobody else was as good as me, and I filled all the slots in the top scores.

Dojo Quest is a fictional game that's shown in the film.

This is what Dojo Quest's hero, Lady Lisa, looks like with less pixels. Games never looked this good in the eighties.

It's well known that gaming nerds fall in love with game characters rather than real women. Ludlow is no exception. He lives in his grandmother's cellar playing games, following conspiracy theories and watching porn. That's a sad life. But miracles can happen. Lady Lisa falls in love with Ludlow.

They get married – see the photo on the wall – and have baby Q-Berts.

This is a hilarious film, suitable for adults and children alike. Oliver was disappointed when I told him there isn't a sequel. Personally, I'm glad. Sequels shouldn't be made for the sake of it, only if it makes sense. So I'll have to pick another film for him tomorrow. I already have some ideas.

Success Rate:  + 0.8

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