Movies: *batteries not included

The first twenty minutes of the 1987 film "*batteries not included" are relentlessly depressing. In the movie, the residents of a run-down tenement building are being pressured to move out by a wealthy real estate developer. Frank, an elderly man, runs the diner downstairs, but business isn't good since most of the old neighborhood is gone. His wife, Faye, is suffering from mental illness and seems to be getting worse. To top it all off, the developers send in a street gang to rough up the residents and tear the place up. The situations seems hopeless...until some help arrives:



"*batteries not included" is just one of the many "friendly alien" movies that got churned out in the '80s. Like its kin ("Cocoon," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," and "E.T."), it features ordinary folks who get visited by some extraordinary beings. But even with the help of interstellar visitors, saving an old apartment building in New York isn't going to be easy...

The fingerprints of the Spielberg/Marshall/Kennedy production team are all over this one, even if it's not as skillfully plotted as some of the other movies listed above. You'll see some very good character work by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, one of Hollywood's most famous husband-and-wife acting teams. You'll see pretty convincing special effects from ILM. Most of all, though, you'll see a lighthearted optimism running through the whole thing (the villain even "wins," but not really).

Rating: 7/10