*batteries not included **** (1987, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Elizabeth Peña, Frank McRae) – Classic Movie Review 2002

Co-writer/director Matthew Robbins’s thoughtful, likeable and appealing, 1987 sci-fi comedy drama stars veteran married couple Hume Cronyn (aged 76) and Jessica Tandy (aged 78) as beleaguered New York City old-timers, diner owner Frank Riley and his wife Faye. The sweetly sentimental movie finds ideal star roles for them.

Hollywood’s delightful star duo give distinguished performances in a Steven Spielberg-executive produced sci-fi fantasy about tiny alien mechanical life-forms landing on Earth to help a group of poor but gutsy tenants in a New York City apartment block whose homes are being demolished, along with Riley’s diner. The tenants won’t budge, so the evil developers hire a local gang to force them out. The tenants need a miracle and one night, Faye Riley leaves the window open and in come the aliens, who retaliate  to defeat the developers by using their extra-terrestrial abilities.

Cronyn very effectively downplays the central role of the gruff but kindly owner of the small diner with few customers, while Tandy is very moving as the wife suffering the mid-stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Elizabeth Peña is striking as Marisa Esteval, a soon-to-be single mother who clings to her statue of the Virgin Mary for some hope. Dennis Boutsikaris is appealing as the cynical-seeming, big-hearted artist/painter Mason Baylor and Frank McRae plays former boxer Harry Noble, who lives in the basement of the apartment block.

This unusual movie is quietly compelling and enchanting family fare with a haunting bitter-sweet tone, an air of sadness and wisdom, as well as a hopeful, positive spirit and a touch of the cutes with the friendly aliens. It carves out its own little niche and takes its place as an out of the ordinary experience in the movie world that should appeal to the fans of Cocoon.

Director Robbins (Dragonslayer, Vijay and I) shows he could be in the top class of writer-directors. He is totally in command of his material and he fully capitalises on the set-up and his actors, whom he uses and respects perfectly. The Industrial Light & Magic trick work is impressive for its time.

Michael Carmine, James LeGros, Tom Aldredge, Jane Hoffman, John DiSanti, Wendy Schaal and John Pankow are also in the cast.

Elizabeth Peña, who also co-starred in Jacob’s Ladder and La Bamba, died of liver cirrhosis on October 14 2014, aged 55.

Jessica Tandy died on September 11 1994, aged 85. At aged 80, she was the oldest winner of a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Daisy Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy (1989).  She was also known for Cocoon (1985) and Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963). She and husband Hume Cronyn partnered on screen in 13 movies between 1944 and 1994.

Hume Cronyn died on June 15 2003, aged 91. He was also known for Cocoon (1985) and Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 2002

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