Episode 116: *batteries not included (1987)

Film chosen by Patrick

Oh it’s them. The little guys. My little munchkins! We’re strolling back to the Amblin Entertainment heyday with Matthew Robbins’ cute, nostalgic, intergalactic robot heartwarmer *batteries not included.

Elderly corner café owner Frank Riley (frequent Hitchcock collaborator Hume Cronyn) and his flighty, seemingly bewildered wife Faye (Cronyn’s real-life partner Jessica Tandy) struggle on as two of the last remaining tenants in a condemned East Village New York townhouse, rejecting the aggressive tactics of local thug Carlos (Michael Carmine) who is in the pay of the developer who seeks to level this last crumbling vestige of the old neighbourhood in order to build monumental glass skyscrapers. Joined only by a pregnant young woman (Elizabeth Peña), a disheartened artist (Dennis Boutsikaris), and a near-mute former boxing champion-turned-handyman (Frank McRae) they face certain eviction until, suddenly, the damage the building suffered when Carlos and his gang attacked it miraculously seems to fix itself. Faye discovers a pair of mysterious, mischievous ‘miracles’ – improvised flying saucers made of household objects – that may offer a ray of hope for this unlikely cooperative.

Originally a pitch by future Master of Horror creator Mick Garris for Steven Spielberg’s big budget anthology series Amazing Stories, the producer instead developed the project for the theatrical release, enlisting the thematically appropriate Short Circuit creators Brent Maddock and S.S. Wilson along with future Simpsons writer/Pixar legend Brad Bird to pen the script. Patrick takes Gali, Devlin and Matt on a comforting trip back to an era of emotionally resonant, feel-good family sci-fi comedy dramas, as the gang talks cute robots, alien fixations, Boomer nostalgia, and the nascent power of the Grey Pound during the post-Cocoon era of the Reagan Eighties.

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