Director Chris Columbus
Staring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan
Rated PG
Score 3.5/6

When aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth in the form of the video games.

Heading into this one I had low expectations considering the involvement of Adam Sandler, I was also trying to think up some good 4/20 jokes considering I went to a 4:20 pm screening at the friendly neighborhood cinema. This actually turned to be better than I thought it was going to be and for the record there was no need to make jokes at the movie’s expense. This partly had something to do with the fact that Sandler hand nothing to do with the writing (Sandler’s writing early in his career might of been good, it’s just some of his more recent projects that he has written have been a little hit and miss) and because Chris Columbus was in the director’s chair. It should be noted that this based on a 2010 French animated short directed by Patrick Jean (it should also be noted that Columbia Pictures Execs issued DCMA-notice against the short).
Now, yes this is a movie for kids under the age of 13 and this probably will not be considered for any major film awards, but there actually is enough to this so that any parents taking their kids will not end up wishing that junior had of chosen anything else halfway through the movie. Peter Dinklage was great in this and it was good to see that Kevin James was not playing the ‘Big-Fat-Dumb Guy’. The only other problem that I had with this one was that there a couple of moments when actors where actors were going for jokes with an intensity level of 10, when in reality they could have dialled it back a couple of notches.