Watch: Your Favorite ‘80s Arcade Game Characters Try & Kill Adam Sandler & Friends In 2 New ‘Pixels’ Trailers

The premise is simple: aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a hostile act of war and so in preemptive retaliation, they send characters including Pac Man, Donkey Kong, the Space Invaders and more, from those same video games back to destroy earth. Call it a high concept comedy that taps into arcade nostalgia for the 1980s and the golden age of video games. If it sounds silly, well, it is an Adam Sandler film. Written by Tim Herlihy, a frequent collaborator of the actor, Sandler haters should know, it’s also coming from the mind of Chris Columbus, the crowd-pleasing four-quadrant director of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” (2001), “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002), “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993) and “Home Alone” (1990) to name a few.

The movie stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Monaghan, Brian Cox, Ashley Benson, and Jane Krakowski. The human element of the plot is that former 1980s video game champions are...