"Batteries Not Included" is made in the spirit of "Cocoon," except that it just isn't anywhere near as good. Steven Spielberg is listed in the credits as Executive Producer, and this must surely rank as one of the weakest productions he has ever been involved with.
The bare bones of a plot exist. An evil developer wants to evict the last five eccentric and misfit tenants of a rundown building that stands in the way of his development plans. When all hope seems to be lost, the tenants are visited by cute, lovable living spaceships that have a knack for fixing things. Needless to say, the developer can't overcome the power of the "little guys", as Fay (Jessica Tandy, who is perhaps the only dimly bright spot in the movie) calls the aliens. There are some barely humourous moments scattered throughout, but overall this can best be described as drivel. One question intrigued me throughout, though: why would an obviously powerful and well connected developer such as this "Mr. Lacey" (played in a couple of brief appearances by Michael Greene) have to resort to hiring a gang of thugs to chase these five apparently helpless tenants out of the building? I mean, we discover early on that the police won't help them and the city won't help them. Why are the thugs necessary? (I know, it makes us really sympathetic to these people to see them so abused.)
In any event, this just is not a good movie at all. The best thing I can say about it is that it only put me to sleep once. I give it a 2/10.
The bare bones of a plot exist. An evil developer wants to evict the last five eccentric and misfit tenants of a rundown building that stands in the way of his development plans. When all hope seems to be lost, the tenants are visited by cute, lovable living spaceships that have a knack for fixing things. Needless to say, the developer can't overcome the power of the "little guys", as Fay (Jessica Tandy, who is perhaps the only dimly bright spot in the movie) calls the aliens. There are some barely humourous moments scattered throughout, but overall this can best be described as drivel. One question intrigued me throughout, though: why would an obviously powerful and well connected developer such as this "Mr. Lacey" (played in a couple of brief appearances by Michael Greene) have to resort to hiring a gang of thugs to chase these five apparently helpless tenants out of the building? I mean, we discover early on that the police won't help them and the city won't help them. Why are the thugs necessary? (I know, it makes us really sympathetic to these people to see them so abused.)
In any event, this just is not a good movie at all. The best thing I can say about it is that it only put me to sleep once. I give it a 2/10.