There was a time when every movie that Adam Sandler starred in topped the U.S. box office... in the last couple of years, her hasn't quite had the same level of success.
Pixels
Personally, I have never understood why his movies have been so popular as the vast majority of them really haven't been that great. He followed on that not so great film tradition this year when he returned with Pixels.
There're not too many great things to say about Pixels - which has clearly been made off the back of the success of Wreck-It Ralph in 2013 and is nowhere near as good. In fact, it is bloody awful and has made it in at number four on our Worst Movies of 2015 countdown.
When aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper has to call on his childhood best friend, '80s video game champion Sam Brenner, now a home theatre installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders to defeat the aliens and save the planet.
If you are looking for a movie that is a bit of a nostalgic look back of some of the games that you use to play when you were a kid then Pixels is way off the mark.
It features well-known arcade game characters but Pixels doesn't offer anything more than that. The charm that we saw in Wreck-It Ralph is none-existent here; Pixels is also short on plot and laughs.
The story is paper thin and stupid from the word go and gets steadily worse until you are left with a bunch of horrible characters that you couldn't give two hoots about. The movie runs out of storyline well before the closing credits and you are left thinking 'what was the point of that?'
The characters are so dull and one-dimensional - quite why anyone thought we would root for them in their fight against the aliens is anyone's guess. I have never been a fan of Sandler or Kevin James and they are just as awful and unfunny as usual. Michelle Monaghan and Peter Dinklage are the only ones who give anything close to a respectful performance; in fact, it is these two actors who really do keep this movie afloat.
I know I keep talking about Wreck-It Ralph, but this was a movie that was witty and charming - while there was adversity along the way - and I was expecting more of the same with Pixels. Somehow the writers and the director have created some that is void of all of these things.
It is not often that we see video games incorporated into feature films and Pixels has been done so badly that it may not be attempted again for a while. You are left with a movie about video games that will be hated by gamers.
The only redeeming feature in Pixels, is that fact that the effects are well done... there is nothing else nice to say I'm afraid and it won't have done the careers of anyone involved any good.
Pixels had a premise that really did have a lot of potential - I must admit, when I first heard about the film I was looking forward to it - it is a shame to see all that promise disappear so quickly.
If you are a gamer and was a big fan of the vintage arcade games, I suggest that you do give this movie a miss.
Take a look at our Worst Movies of 2015 countdown so far: