Cocoon

Starring Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, and Jessica Tandy
Directed by Ron Howard

Sometimes the fountain of youth is only accessible by trespassing in your neighbor's swimming pool. And sometimes your neighbors aren't quite what they seem. Cocoon is a movie that explores two of humanity's science fiction obsessions while posing some tough questions about ethics and personal values.

Cocoon is a unique film. That's something that you can rarely say, but it's unequivocablly true about Cocoon. David Saperstein wrote the story. Never heard of him, but he took two fascinating concepts and built a terrific story around them, weaving them together. I'm sure the screenplay writer deserves a healthy amount of credit for the attention to character development, but it's the original idea that impresses me.

This movie was originally released in 1985, but it measures up with today's sci-fi movies. While the alien effects are definitely in the 80's style of excessive luminescence, that sort of lends to the innocence of the film.

There are a lot of people out there that need to see Cocoon. They might be children of the 80's like myself, might simply not have seen the movie since it came out, or they may be too young and have never seen the movie at all. In all of these cases, I would highly recommend this movie.

I saw this movie when I was a kid, and REALLY didn't understand any of the dirty old man humor. It was really shocking to remember it as this fantastic and family-friendly film, and have to hear about...well, that stuff.

But it was amazing all the same. Steve Guttenberg has always been an underrated actor, in my opinion, and his reactions to the events that transpire are priceless. And of course, Don Ameche and Jessica Tandy make ANY movie worth watching.

The actors that spend time in the pool have an amazing transformation. Some of them acted older than they really were in the beginning so their youth was less of a stretch, but you can tell that some of them were having to act younger.

The relationships are what made this film so worthwhile. Between spouses, neighbors, and even species, every interaction was top-notch. The special effects weren't that great, but when you consider that the movie is more than twenty years old, I think you can cut them some slack!