*batteries not included (1987) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Dan Abel ★★★★★ 12

  "This is the 80's, Mason. Nobody likes reality anymore!"

  I'm 33 years old. I grew up in a time where network TV still had movies on at night time and all day Sunday. Sundays in the fall tended to be reserved for feel-good family movies. Films like The Goonies and Homeward Bound. Classics in their own right but my nostalgic Sunday movie was always *Batteries Not Included. It had a real tie to my hometown and the problems that plagued it at the time in the late 1980's. Buildings in NYC were abandoned and the dregs of society ruled the streets. The old school New Yorker was leaving in droves but we still had the few holdouts. The few representatives…

• Review by Zombi ★★★ 4

  I really can't explain what happened in this movie. Robots fix stuff, then they f*ck, then they sh*t out robot babies....what the hell.

• Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 4

  Although he has diverged from his early work and tried something new, things that up to some extent lack much of his brand, the trademarks and tone Steven Spielberg developed throughout the 80s and in part in the 90s are so strong that they almost feel like a genre in themselves.

  In case you're wondering what I mean by the paragraph above, this underrated one-setting sci-fi movie defines what's generally known as an "Amblin" film. The performance has a certain whimsy to it, especially Jessica Tandy, whose energy is simply infectious, the complete opposite of her role as Miss Daisy. Despite belonging to a very specific archetype, everyone in the cast manages to do an incredible job in their roles.…

• Review by DNA cinephile🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★★ 6

  *batteries not included. 1987. Directed by Matthew Robbins.

  Another fine film with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn (real life married couple until their deaths). Matthew Robbins used the money of Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, and Steven Spielberg to direct a yarn written by Mick Garris, Brad Bird, et al. about the aging population and their maltreatment in the United States. The cast of *batteries not included (1987) was diverse and the story was heart warming well before the WOKE movement. The tissue of the screenplay is progressive in tone yet serious and comical making a well balanced piece of writing for the talented cast. In old age people become quite eccentric. As a result, they may be exposed to ageism…

• Review by DirkH ★★

  [Insert totally inappropriate vibrator joke here]

• Review by Poodini ★★

  “This is the 80’s Mason nobody likes reality anymore”

  This film drags on a bit too much for my liking but damn those tiny baby alien robots are worth the price of admission.

• Review by Travis Lytle ★★★★ 4

  Matthew Robbins' "*batteries not included" is a family-friendly science fiction charmer. The film, about tiny flying saucers that assist a group of New York residents in keeping their home, is nicely assembled, neatly cast, and full of well-earned emotion.

  Starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, "*batteries not included" revolves around five residents of a building that is set for demolition only to be rebuilt as high-end office property. Resisting the move and holding on the their homes for dear life, the residents form an unlikely allegiance with mechanical-based aliens. Together, the residents form an unexpected family as the helpful aliens support the efforts to protect home and hearth.

  The story supplies warmth, solid characters, and a touch of an edge.…

• Review by kemely ★★★★

  80's "family friendly" movies were WILD.

• Review by Tuna 🌹 Chips ★★★

  My actual thought when the little robot hid in the hamburger: This movie has everything.

• Review by ZaraGwen ★★★

  They should have just used some balloons to fly the building somewhere else

• Review by megan ★½

  *batteries really were not included

• Review by drmorbius79 ★★★½ 2

  "You never once asked to paint me nude!"

  Amazing Stories- The Movie. I kind of forgot that "septuagenarian sci-fi" was a thing in the 80's between this and "Cocoon." Also, this may be the only family comedy of the decade that featured robot intercourse (you think I'm kidding, right?) unless I missed something in one of the "Short Circuit" flicks.

  Starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy and really nobody else of note- the story focuses on a group of tenants being forced out of their NYC apartment building to make way for a new skyscraper.

  Along the way they acquire the help of small alien UFO's that cook hamburgers and have babies. Today we would get a prequel comic explaining…