Brave, elderly holdouts to an unscrupulous real estate developer find help in the tiny, lost visitors from outer space who glide through their windows and into their lives.
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Media Type: DVD
Artist: TANDY/CRONYN
Title: BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED
Street Release Date: 05/23/2006
Genre: FAMILYQuite possibly the nadir of Steven Spielberg’s career as a producer, this piece of sentimental junk from 1987 concerns five little spacecraft which arrive on Earth just in time to help out some New Yorkers getting kicked out of a tenement. The script’s goo just sticks to the viewer, and the cast looks silly by trying not to be silly. You get the feeling that Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment was pretty much throwing stuff at the wall to see what would hang there, and they came up with this ridiculous thing. –Tom Keogh
Buy “*Batteries Not Included” For Only $2.87
April 22, 2008
#1
This movie was not very good.Because it’s a stupid movie for younger kids.If any of you like this movie rent or borrow from a friend.
April 22, 2008
#2
When I saw this movie as an early teen, I didn’t understand that Executive Producer was a title usually handed out for financial backing or the like, but usually not for an active contribution to a film. The “Executive” makes it doubly so, but the name Spielberg was more than enough to get people in their seats in 1987. I was more than a little disappointed even at that age.
It’s a shame that a better script wasn’t found because it’s painful to see these actors wasted like this. Director Matthew Robbins (of such losers as Bingo and Corvette Summer) has Jessica Tandy wandering scene-to-scene trying to pull laughs from her mental illness(!) and Hume Cronyn gets a paycheck just for looking distraught for 90 minutes. Elizabeth Pena is sweet in her role as a single soon-to-be-mother, but it’s just not enough (and the “artsy” Kenny Loggins-ish neighbor who becomes her love interest is unforgivable).
I know, I know. It’s primarily a movie for kids, and most under 12 will like the cutesy aliens and the wacky help that they give the tenants of the doomed building. Just be aware that contrived sappiness like this is not necessary to make a magic movie suitable for kids…anyone who’s been a fan of Spielberg’s own kid-oriented movies (the best being ET) knows that viewers of any age don’t need to be insulted. Some of the issues raised in the movie are not only ham-handed but misdirected, not to mention the ethnic and age stereotyping.
In fact, the only good thing I can see about this film is that it was apparent that money was thrown at it (ET bucks, I’ll bet). It looks good and the effects are passable, and that’s it.
April 22, 2008
#3
Oh man I never know how to feel when I watch this.
Haven’t seen it in years, but the underlying theme out with the old, in with the new (as in the old building, the people in it, the ‘stillborn’ little spaceship, etc) mixed with the menace of gentrification (hello Harlem) is still relevant. No one wants to feel like they are worthless, and useless. Even the guy who looks like Gomez Addams that has to get all the people out by any means necessary gets the point before the flick is over.
If you are one of those crying people, have a tissue factory next to you when you watch this. Jessica Tandy shoots out the ‘I live in the past because the present is too hard for me to deal with’ vibe throughout the pic, and the old dude from Cocoon is also in the bulding, doing his best to sadden you.
I am so sad. Watch this film and weep man…Im going to call my mommy
April 22, 2008
#4
The Movie is Par Excellant.
This release is P.U. It will not load in my new DVD player.
Tried replaceing and same problem with second. Bad MFG batch.
April 22, 2008
#5
This Movie tugs at my heart cause I had just become separated from my spouse when it came out and I didn’t have enough money to pay the electricity but I had a movie voucher for the theater up the street so I was able to retreat there for a few hours of Peace on a snowy day in Memphis.
This was a fine film with the great husband wife team of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Miss Tandy plays a woman beset by alzheimers and Mr. Cronyn is her set upon husband who tries to keep them in their home of 40 years as a unscrupulous developer tries to tear the building down to build a yuppie haven.
Little living robots settle in the building and untimately help the residents push back the evil developers and save their homes.
The special effects were pretty neat and are the best part of the story. The plot after a promising beginning begins to wear thin after a while and the movie drags when the little UFO’s aren’t around.
There are a few laughs and some cute moments. Overall a nice movie to watch with the kids but there is some rough language in places.