Film review: Pixels

In 1982 best friends Sam Brenner (Anthony Ippolito) and Will Cooper (Jared Riley) attend the arcade game world championships where they befriend a conspiracy theorist oddball called Ludlow Lamonsoff (Jacob Shinder).

The three boys take part in the competition and Sam wins through to the final where he faces egotistical champion Eddie Plant (Andrew Bambridge) on Donkey Kong.

Alas, Eddie distracts Sam and takes the crown. More than 30 years later, Sam (now played by Adam Sandler) installs software for a living while Will (now played by Kevin James) has become the deeply unpopular President of the United States.

Out of the blue, alien invaders attack Guam military base with energy coded to swarm like the creatures in the arcade game Galaga.

It transpires that a time capsule, sent into space by NASA after the 1982 arcade game world championships, has been intercepted by a race of extra-terrestrial beings and misinterpreted as a declaration of war.

In order to halt the alien advance, mankind must beat the aliens at life-or-death versions of classic games.

Sam and Will reunite with Ludlow (now played by Josh Gad) and Eddie (now played by Peter Dinklage) to play Centipede and Pacman in London and New York respectively.