Films: Pixels (2015)

Alias: Various, notably Centipede, Pac-Man, Q-Bert, Galaga, Frogger, Mario, Smurfs, Paperboy, Space Invaders, Joust, Donkey Kong

Type: Alien

Location: Eldritch Location/Civilized Area

Height/Weight: Ranges from that of large dogs to that of large buildings.

Affiliation: Good (Q-Bert, Lady Lisa), Evil (the rest)

Summary: If there is one director that attracts equal parts tolerance and frustration, it's Adam Sandler. For the longest time, he was perhaps one of America's most loathed yet inexplicably successful directors out there, churning out all kinds of unfunny and at times borderline offensive guff that felt less like labors of love and more excuses to get paid and hang out with friends. This film, in spite of the increased budget and scope, is no exception. In fact, one may argue that it's worse than most.

History: Somehow, an alien race has seen footage of arcade game footage, and interpreted it as a threat. In retaliation, they have recreated several different arcade icons with giant pixels (okay, voxels, but who is caring at this point), and unleashed them upon the world. The military is powerless against them...but a ragtag group of idiots and man-boys seem to have it all in the bag. Because apparently spending the majority of your life obsessing over video games will give you an edge in situations like this. We don't judge, but when one of your teammates is a perverted Josh Gad who is still obsessing over a fictional character, questioning is inevitable.

Notable Kills: When you die, you're nothing but pixels. That's a tough way to go.

Final Fate: The alien pixel beings all converge at Washington D.C., and their leader takes the form of Donkey Kong to fight off against Adam Sand-I mean, Sam. Through what can only be described as cheating, Sam destroys the pixelated ape, and the rest of the aliens self-destruct. The only ones left are the ones that sided with the humans, namely Q-Bert and Lady Lisa (who's not pixelated, but again, no one cared so why should we?). The latter dissipates like the others, but Q-Bert turns into her just so Gad can have his own deeply disturbing happy ending (seriously, even Adam and co. comment on the absurdity). Oh, and way after the whole group has been hailed as heroes, he and not-Lady Lisa have a lot of Q-Bert kids. Let that thought sink in...let it sink in real good.

Powers/Abilities: If you don't adhere to any of the aliens' designated game rules, you cannot kill them most of the time. An attack from one pixelates your body. Some can also shapeshift.

Weakness: Following the rules (for instance, shooting the Centipedes' segments before the head) will destroy the major ones, though the minor ones can be taken out via conventional means.

Scariness Factor: 3.5-For what it's worth, the invasion by these beings was by no means a soft one. People die left and right, the near-unstoppable video game characters cause all sorts of havoc, and some like the Centipede are legitimately terrifying. A pity they all got beat by Adam Sandler and his motely crew of has-beens and those who just needed a paycheck in-between better projects.

Trivia: -This film was based off a French 2010 short film. That one had a much grimmer ending, with the whole world being turned into a pixel.

-The poor box office numbers and the generally awful reception this film got (and deserved) effectively killed the relationship between Sony and Sandler's own company, Happy Madison Productions. Unfortunately, that meant he would later go on to infect Netflix with even worse swill like "The Ridiculous Six" and "The Do-Over". All of that said, "Uncut Gems" was seen as a breath of fresh air from him. "This is how I win", indeed.