EXPLORERSÂ (U)
D:Â Joe Dante
Paramount (Edward S. Feldman & David
Bombyk)
USA 🇺🇸 1985
109 mins
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Science Fiction
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W: Eric Luke
DP: John Hora
Ed: Tina Hirsch
Mus: Jerry Goldsmith
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Ethan Hawke (Ben Crandall), River Phoenix
(Wolfgang Müller), Jason Presson (Darren Woods), Amanda Peterson (Lori Swenson), Dick Miller (Charlie Drake)
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Three schoolkids, inspired by strange dreams,
build a spacecraft out of scrap they find at a junkyard and travel into outer space where they encounter a strange alien species whose knowledge developed by intercepting American TV
shows.
As a children's movie, this isn't too bad and has
it's heart in the right place, but it works best when the action is grounded. The best scenes are those of the boys raiding the junkyard for materials they can use and developing the
scientific know-how to achieve flight. Once they journey into space, it becomes ridiculous (unless you're 10 years old or younger) and the aliens are incredibly annoying (unless
you're a fan of Pee-Wee Herman). It hasn't really dated very well in fairness and will be appreciated most by those who watched it during the 1980's.
6/10
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