Starring Adam Sandler and Michelle Monaghan. Rated PG. Now playing

No matter how much you’ve grown to dislike Adam Sandler, here’s betting you Donkey Kong to donuts that won’t keep you from geeking out to Pixels’ old-school arcade nostalgia.

Yes, the man who became an instant movie star as Happy Gilmore is as slugglishly low-key as ever here, and the plot is far-fetched and unfocused. But director Christopher Columbus knows how to play to your ’80s-loving sentimental side, from flashbacks of banana-seat bikes and quarter arcades to a soundtrack full of Cheap Trick, Loverboy, and Tears for Fears. There are even brief appearances by Max Headroom, Tammy Faye Bakker, and Fantasy Island.

The premise is that alien invaders, misinterpreting transmissions of ’80s-era video games, have unleashed a Galaga-style battle against Earth. Who you gonna call? An Intellivision version of Ghostbusters: Sandler’s Brenner and his brigade of nerds, all former arcade champs who have amounted to nothing, recruited by the U.S. government to lead the war.

The premise allows Columbus to let loose his trademark FX, with Centipede spiralling through London streets and Pac-Man chowing down on New York. The trick is that 40-something dads aren’t the only ones who will get the references—so will their retro-game-loving spawn.

It’s actually the movie’s nominal star, Sandler, who drags things down here, caught up in another plot that requires a smart, hot woman (Michelle Monaghan) to fall in love with his grizzled man-child. Thank God for Josh Gad, who’d look great in a Revenge of the Nerds reboot, slapping Marine bums as he coaches them in arcade games, or for Peter Dinklage chewing scenery as both a mullet-topped Donkey Kong king and also, as usual, moviedom’s angriest little person.

They provide a steady supply of big laughs, and in all, it’s just mindless fun, if just a little flat feeling. A bit like taking the joystick for Asteroids without your Dr. Pepper.