Innerspace DVD with Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan (PG) +Movie Reviews

A fun "Fantastic Voyage" update!

M J Heilbron Jr. | Long Beach, CA United States | 02/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm a big fan of this film. BIG fan. It struck a chord with me back in 1987, and I love it to this day.

It's a Joe Dante film, with early performances by Dennis Quaid, Martin Short and Meg Ryan.

It's goofier than all get out; here's the synopsis.

Dennis Quaid is a loose cannon test pilot with a bit of an alcohol problem, who gets "demoted" to a secret military program involving miniaturization. He is to be shrunk down, along with a mini-submarine, and injected into a lab rabbit, to test things like the ability to hook up to a host's optic or auditory nerve.
Meg Ryan plays a reporter, romantically involved with Quaid, but for the moment, estranged.
Martin Short plays a hypochondriac supermarket assistant manager.

So, Quaid gets shrunk right before "the bad guys" (led by an over-the-top Kevin McCarthy) invade the laboratory, and in his last act as a living person, the escaping lead investigator injects the microscopic Quaid into Short's left buttock.

Hilarity ensues.

I didn't really care much for the whole "stealing technology" plot thread (there's a very early role by Robert Picardo), but it's there as a scaffold, just to watch Quaid and Short deal with each other. And that's really a joy to watch.

The one scene in the doctor's office, with Quaid finally patched into Short's inner ear, is hysterical. Short gets to mug opposite old friends (and SCTV alums) Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin...I've seen it a hundred times yet I still laugh every time.

Yes, there are a lot of clunky lines and bits of extreme over-acting. If you have a problem with either Dennis Quaid or Martin Short, it'll be tough for you to like this movie. Overthink this movie, and you're doing yourself a disservice.

On the other hand, if you like either of those two guys, and are in the mood for a fun romp, this is well worth a viewing. You'll love seeing about a dozen character actors, sprinkled in small roles like Short's doctor, the supermarket manager, Ryan's co-workers...you've seen them in a million movies, and they're perfectly cast here. The 80's fashions and music are an unintentional riot in and of themselves.

They DO up the class level when they selected Sam Cooke songs as the key tunes to the film though.

The DVD looks great...the red Mustang just pops right off the screen. Some of the effects reveal their age (in particular the non-inside-the-body ones), but the scenes inside Martin Short STILL look terrific!
Nice sonics with crisp details.

Depending on your child's exposure to the four-letter word describing excrement (it's used about half a dozen times or so...), this movie is appropriate for a large age range. It's really just a simple lark of a film.

And I still find it to be most enjoyable..."

A Great Sci-Fi/Comedy From The Creators of Gremlins!

David B. Jones | Arlington, Texas United States | 07/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hey, movie viewers! If you liked Gremlins, you MUST see this great 1987 film! It is about a ex-Lieutenant of the U.S. Marines, Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid, Any Given Sunday), who is the subject of a minaturization experiment, which requires 2 microchips. He gets inside a submersible pod, is minaturized down to a microscopic size, placed in a syringe, and is supposed to be injected into a bunny named BUGS!! However, a bunch of criminals, disguised as phone repairmen, break into the laboratory and steal one of the chips. But, a good friend of Tuck's who works at the lab, Ozzie, takes the syringe, runs off, is chased to a mall, and shot. Fortunately, he lives long enough to run into a nerdy hypochondriac named Jack (Martin Short, Primetime Glick), and injects Tuck into him. Later on, Tuck finds out he is in a man, then establishes contact with Jack by placing an amplifier in his ear, and attaches a camera to his eye to see what Jack sees, and tells him what is going on and that he only has 'til 9:00 a.m. tomorrow to get out of him before his air supply runs out. Tuck tells him to go find his girlfriend (Meg Ryan, Hanging Up), and get help from her to recover the chip and save Tuck. This film is a GREAT sci-fi/comedy, and is from the creators of Gremlins (producer Steven Spielberg and director Joe Dante). It is also based on the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage. Like Gremlins, it is also a VERY good family classic. So, if you liked Gremlins, then you HAVE to see this movie! It's REAL KOOL!"

That Little Voice Inside of You

Linda McDonnell | Brooklyn, U.S.A | 08/07/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I thought this was a harmless little comedy version of "Fantastic Voyage", quite cute. Pilot Dennis Quaid gets shrunk down to be injected into a rabbit, but goofy Martin Short gets in the way of the hypo. So Quaid has to navigate his way around Short and make up with his girlfriend Meg Ryan at the same time, through Short. But there are nasty evildoers trying to stand in the way of all this getting accomplished, most notably Kevin McCarthy of "Body Snatchers" fame from the 1950s. He and his female accomplice also get squirted with some of the miniaturizing stuff, but merely become little midgets battling it out in a car. That was a great silly moment. Listen to that little voice, and laugh a lot at "Innerspace"."

Number one on my top ten movies list!

Elliot Mountjoy | burke, va United States | 03/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the best movies I have every seen! Dennis
Quaid plays Tuck Pendelton, a shrunken test pilot who
was suppose to be injected into a rabbit,but after an
attack by a group of people who are trying to reach the
same achievement of shrinking is instead injected into Jack Putter (Martin Short) a meek, hypochondriac who works at
safeway. Now Tuck and Jack along with Tuck's old girlfriend
Lidia (Meg Ryan) must fight to get Tuck back to normal. There's
a big surprise too.
This movie contains awesome visual effcts (which it
won an academy award for), terffic action, and witty
comical jokes and phases. This movie's a real winner."

Spielberg's Fantastic Voyage

Just Anonymous | Georgia, USA | 06/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was released in 1987...and many movies from the 80s show their 20+ year age but this movie does not show its age. As a true testament to Spielberg and the great actors, this movie has aged very little. If it weren't for the very young Meg Ryan, Dennis Quaid, Martin Short and Robert Picardo, you could say that this movie is a fairly recent release.

The premise is simple. Dennis Quaid is a test pilot who has been passed up for the space program and instead is picked up by an obscure government program to pilot a submarine that is going to be miniaturized and injected into a rabbit. He has some personal problems with Meg Ryan and she dumps him. He gets miniaturized but before he can be injected into the rabbit the bad guys break into the lab to steal the technology that miniaturizes people. A lab assistant escapes with a minaturized Quaid in his pod in a syringe. Before he is killed, the assistant injects Quaid into an unsuspecting hypocondriac, Martin Short. Quaid's pod has the capability to interface with the optic nerve and the eardrum of the person he's injected in so he can "talk" to his host and "see" what he sees. And so, begins this wonderful adventure to get Quaid back to normal size by getting the stolen technology back, get Quaid back together with Meg Ryan, to get the bad guys, and to prove that Martin Short is not crazy hearing Quaid in his head. I won't spoil the movie from there on -- its a great ride. Oh, I will add that somewhere along the way we bump into Robert Picardo who plays "The Cowboy," a wonderfully memorable performance by Robert Picardo as some kind of technology mercenary -- Picardo commands the silver screen whenever he's on camera --definitely worth watching for just that.

This movie was great back in the 80s and still is a great movie. Spielberg did a great job making it timeless. The special effects are still good today and Quaid, Short, Meg Ryan, Robert Picardo are great in this movie.

The movie felt very much like a modernized Fantastic Voyage -- being about the inner space (the human body) only with a romantic comedy + action adventure movie mixed in.

This is definitely worth watching -- its an "A" Movie from an "A" Director with "A" Actors. I will also say that this is a more innocent movie from a more innocent time in moviemaking which is a welcome break from the overly "cool" and overly "sheik" personas in today's movies. It is a Fantastic Voyage. If you grew up in the 80s, you'll love this.

If you're wondering what the feel of this movie is -- its very similar to Back to the Future in terms of flavor with about the same amount of adventure, a dash less comedy and a pinch more romantic comedy. This movie inspired rides at the major theme parks so it was a major production. If you have Back to the Future, you need to have Inner Space.

"

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