Agreed. I wouldn't trade having grown up in the 70's and 80's for the world...and I genuinely feel bad for anyone stating that 'the 90's was a great period to grow up in', as I see that era as simply being warmed over 80's with too much cynicism and undeserved angst thrown in for poor measure, LOL...;)
When I was a kid in the 80's I ran across this movie on the movie network. I really enjoyed it and would watch it whenever it came up. The sense of mystery and wonder that it inspired in me was fantastic. In the wake of Stranger Things, I think an Explorers TV series would be great. Hopefully Netflix or another streaming service has the same idea.
The ending was begging for a series, But at the time I guess it just wasn't that popular a movie, I believe I saw it on the wonderful world of Disney back before they had their own channel
Explorers ...the Goonies ...Cocoon ...D.A.R.Y.L. ...my science Project ...Enemy Mine...saw them all at release. i was 11 years old in '85, and my favorite cinema-experience was Commando! ^.^ ..."leave anything for us?!" "just bodies."
I remember my dad taking me to see this in the theater, while the aliens were kind of funny looking they did add some humor and I fondly recall this movie being magical. I would daydream about making a space ship and flying to the stars for quite sometime after that.
It’s tragic that the people who made this masterpiece from my childhood feel the way they do about it. Even with its faults, this movie is so awesome. I still watch this movie and in a few more years I’ll be able to share it with my son. Thanks for making this video. :)
I rewatched it not long ago. It's one of those movies I'd file under 'not as good as I remember it'... but it is still good. Like 'The Goonies' or 'ET', it basically takes that childhood sense of adventure and just adds a far-fetched, science fiction/fantasy element to the mix.
I somehow had an uncut version of this on VHS when I was a kid in the late 90's early 00's, I loved the hell out of this movie then but had mostly forgotten about after a few years. It was thrust out of my memories in 2017 when I seen the "USS Nimitz UFO incident" FLIR camera footage the Pentagon released to the public and heard the eyewitness testimony of the UFO. The apparent capabilities and (theoretical) psychics behind the Nimitz UFO and the Thunder Road were so close I suddenly remembered something I hadn't seen or thought of in 20 years.
Exploers has always been one of my favorite movies as well despite it's choppyness. The novelisation has some of the missing plot points in it. The dvd release in Oz was also stuffed with missing scene which were in the cinema release but only included as deleted scenes on the dvd. Would love to see a blu-ray release with all the missing plot points as deleted scenes.
In the summer of 86 this movie was on cable every day. All my friends would stop everything and huddle around the tube to watch it. Whatever its flaws were, we loved it. Hell Im 47 and I watched it 2 weeks ago! lol
Thank god! i finally found this movie I am 29 of age and I watch this movie about two times form when I was just 6 i think and I remember these boys build a spaceship and went to space form that two times I watch the movie till now I always wanted to see the movie again but I never know the name of the movie till now thank you Jonny Baak
Explorers was the first dvd I ever rented from our video shop back in the day. Of coarse I was at the age before I knew what a good or bad movie was. That’s sadly changed since then. Despite the fact Explorers didn’t do that well, I remember really enjoying it & I managed to follow all three boy’s careers over time.
We had this on tape for years, recorded off of the telly and was amongst me and my brother's favourite films. I honestly never minded the aliens, but then, I was very young.
Fully agree with everything you said about this movie, still one of my favourites. I identified more with Wolfgang since I was a total tech nerd at the time. Surprising really how enjoyable Explorers is given the degree to which it's said to be unfinished, and yes it would be great to see a finished version. The goofyness of the aliens didn't bother me that much though, perhaps because I really liked the basic joke that they were also kids who'd nicked their father's car (so to speak). I thought it was an interesting idea at the time, to consider that if there were aliens out there, then there must be alien "teenagers" too, so what would they be like, did they find their parents annoying aswell? etc. To me the movie posed questions that no other movie had even bothered to ask. It was fun, but it also made me think about it. Strangely, I did not like The Neverending Story at all, for some reason I thought the giant puppet creatures looked stupid, somehow I simply couldn't take them seriously, they were just too obviously not real. Perhaps they reminded me too much of shows like Sesame Street (which I loathed). Spot on about that trailer, ye gods it's awful! How bizarre the studio would make such a hash of the later stages of production. I was intrigued about what you showed of the scenes added to the OZ VHS release; the UK VHS version has all of them except the bit with the ThunderRoad in the classroom - I wonder why they left that out? I laughed when you said two of the cast had a crush on Peterson. :D Hope they didn't argue about it. And yes it is a pity Presson's portrayal of Darren didn't receive greater praise; the way he becomes friends with Wolfgang and Ben reminds me of people I knew at school who were not obsessed with tech like I was but were still cool to hang out with. I liked writing computer games, but they liked playing the results. Films like Explorers, at that time, had the ability to chime with an audience, especially the demographic shown in the story, in a way which I don't think modern movies are able to do at all. These days productions are too full of politics for this kind of film to even be made (TLJ and Captain Marvell being two of the more recent awful examples). No studio today would make a movie like ET, and Explorers would doubtless be criticised for not having girls as the main characters or something. Funny though how they ignore movies like The Goonies which had a very broad cast, easily one of the best from that era. I've talked to neighbours who say their children often enjoy 1980s movies of this kind far more than modern productions, assuming they're able to get them to try watching them at all (because they're "old"). I would include in this the original Ghostbusters and many others. Interesting though how one does not often hear similar things said of movies from the 1990s, there's something about the 80s which meant optimistic movies like Explorers were possible (which is odd given how much the cold war was constantly in the headlines, parents freaking out about the media-hyped nuclear peril). I can enjoy movies like Megamind, How To Train Your Dragon and Over The Edge, but they're fun for entirely different reasons. If there's an exception it's probably Toy Story, that had an appeal which reached a very broad age spectrum. Ditto Jurassic Park, the only movie I've been to where several dozen children left their seats and moved down the steps so they could sit closer to the screen. :D (I noticed one child literally keeping his eyelids open with his fingers so he wouldn't miss anything) As is so often the case though, whatever was captured so well by an original like JP is utterly lost in the sequels. I hope they don't try to remake Explorers, it would probably be horrible.
I'm late to the party, but you and I are both Explorers! I saw it in the theater! I love it! I built their space ship out of a cardboard popcorn bowl, and put my GI Joe's in it!
"Ethan Hawke flies the bubble up to a window to peep on the girl from Can’t Buy Me Love while she eats Boston Cream pie and listens to the Thompson Twins (Records on her bed) ... " Please mention The Thompson Twins reference in the music credit section, if you ever do an edit, for us New-wavers... Thank you for doing this video; the early 80's was a magic time to grow up in.
if the aliens didn't look so silly, it doesn't match the rest of the mysterious and ominous tone of the rest of the film. Imaging that, seeing a design in your dream that actually works... amazing and inspiring but scary too!!
One of my all time favorite movies when I was a kid. It had those fun elements that kids in my neighborhood liked to do like build things in the backyard. Of course something like the spaceship in the movie was well beyond our building skills. We just used wood and made our dads mad by cutting up all of their lumber and using all of their nails and screws to build it. I would love to see the full Dante cut of the movie!
This is a good retrospective however I couldn’t disagree with you more about the reveal of the aliens, the fact that you’re expecting some incredible epic alien reveal only to have goofy awkward alien teenagers influenced by 50s pop culture broadcasts is perfect for the tone of the film in my opinion. I remember laughing my head off when they revealed this and I still think it’s a great extreme left turn that fits the films out of left-field mind set.
I’ve always been interested in ufo’s and anything alien related. Loved this movie as a kid and still do. Just as good as Goonies imo. Great video btw, well done sir!
Not only Live Aid, but they were also up against "Back to the Future" which came out the previous week and pretty much dominated the rest of 85. As Vivian says in 'Pretty Woman', "Big Mistake. Huge!"
I am 18 years older than my youngest brother and I took him to see this movie. It is a fond memory since I went out my own when he was just 1. It was fun.
I was a carnival worker when this movie came out and I was intrigued when they use the Tilt-A-Whirl tub although I never saw it in the I would often see it late night on television...
Absolutely agree.. compared to BTTF the whole thing is garbage. But there score was excellent and moments of inspiration when they building the space pod!
*With the reported technical capabilities of the recent UAP/UFOs in sightings by the U.S. Military..., such as incredible acceleration/deceleration, direction/vector change, and massive G Force tolerance, with no apparent flight surfaces or means of propulsion, and subsea/atmospheric/space travel capabilities..., it very much strongly reminded me of this very movie...*
I cant say how many times I watched this movie. I used to rent it every weekend as a kid when the fam went to the video store to rent movies (If that does not age me, I dont know what will). Rolls-Can-hardly.... still rattles around in my head!
I absolutely loved and still LOVE this movie! My grandfather built me a red spaceship in their backyard for me after the movie and I played in it for hours!
I still recall the feeling of discovery and magic in the first two acts as the kids figure out how to make and use their spacecraft. I honestly blocked out the ending because when I saw it again, about 10 years ago, for the first time since the original release, I was so shocked and dissappointed.
If we’re going to talk about River Phoenix’s tragically short life we should also talk about the tragic life of Amanda Peterson, she quit acting in the mid 90s and suffered from drug addiction through two marriages and two children ultimately dying of a “accidental drug overdose” in 2015.
Interesting that the ending was essentially 'tacked on', as a kid I LOVED it...and it still, altho populated by 'cartoonish' aliens', packed an emotional wallop for me ("WE can't go to Earth...we KNOW what they do to creatures like US!" as scenes from 'alien attack' films was played) nestled within the comedic moments, which were quite funny, especially Robert doing all of his entertaining impressions of pop culture icons... I too find this film to be a nostalgia gateway, and I agree that the score by Goldsmith is outstanding and inspiring, so energetic and powerful, along with the 'very eighties' pop tunes... I loved this flick when I saw it in theaters upon it's release and I still love it to this day.
if they didn't fuck'd up the ending, this movie would be more famous than the goonies. one of the few film i'd love to see remade or even better, a director's cut
I've never seen this movie, but I learned about it. Way before I was born in 1992. I always like classic science fiction films and it is a bit similar to E.T. that I grew up watching. I will find this movie on Blu Ray. I had no idea Ethan Hawke was so young and his 1st film, River Phoenix too before I watched him in Stand by Me. Jerry Goldsmith was one of my favorite film conductors too for Rambo and Star Trek the Next Generation. Industrial Light and Magic I know is established by George Lucas in 1975.
I saw this on rental video as a kid in the UK (having waited in vain many months earlier for it to arrive at one of my two local 2-or-3-screen cinemas). I loved the concept, loved the first two acts, then watched bewildered as it fell apart in the final twenty minutes. I'd really like to see a proper director's cut of it, but I think the main problem would still be there, namely the jarring change of gear from Spielbergian suburban sci-fi to cartoonish surrealism.
Many of the scenes they cut were great (in terms of content), but I agree, even a Director's cut couldn't save the basic problems with the ending of this movie.
When Stranger Things first came out, I'd just finished watching American Horror Story and I was really hoping they'd turn Stranger Things into an Anthology show in the same vein. A cover of this film would have been perfect for that kind of thing. Alas, it was not to be.
Well, I could say a LOT about the early stages of this film. The writer, Eric Luke, worked with us in efx, and let me read the script before it was sold. The 3rd act certainly wasn't all about playing baseball on another planet. It had a very strong 3rd act that took place on Mars. Yes it needed some tweaking, but along came Spielberg who's suggestions were all wrong, as far as a lot of us thought. But Eric felt this was a great opportunity, so he felt he should listen to the very popular and influential director. Mistake, but I' may've done the same thing under the same circumstances. Eric's original instincts were correct and his original script was superior, even given that it needed some work. Only SOME work. (We were tasked with making the bad effects for the drive-in sequence, based on footage from Toho's BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE. We used copper ashtrays for the flying saucers. The small ships were designed to look like light meters, and the big ship was a spoof of ILM's vistavision camera, which apparently caused some ongoing problems that caused delays for Joe and frustrated the production company ---this is what I was told/i don't have direct knowledge of what happened on the set----but we were told to make that one ship a goofy version of that vistavision camera.. All those horrible efx still were tricky to create since, due to the tiny tiny budget, had to be done entirely in-camera, including all of the "laser-beams": Opticals weren't affordable. That series of silly shots had to be done this way since buying the stock shots from Toho's film was too expensive!! That's how cheap that sequence was!). A shame the film had all of these problems. The original script had huge potential, and , after reading it, i wasn't at all surprised when it got purchased---which I recall happened pretty quickly.) Ok, enough blah blah.
I actually disagree that the initial promotion of the film was bad. I actually quite like the ambiguous nature of it, especially given how trailers spoil entire films these days. The problem was that it wasn't followed up on properly, which is more due to the studio's rush to get it out. If they released that teaser for a Netflix series, especially in the wake of Stranger Things, people would love it.
they must not have advertised it very well, first i heard of it was seeing it at video rental stores. I thought it was a great movie and remains one of my favorites.
Also 12 in 1985 but missed it in the UK. It did not stay long at the theatre, like Breakfast Club, it bombed in the UK. My parents took me to see Police Academy 2 instead that July which was a hit! I did not even know Ethan or River starred in the movie. Beverly Hills Cop, Witness, Pale Rider, The Goonies, Back to the Future, Rocky IV were 1985 flicks which I was fortunate enough to see with my parents...
I remember all of this. Never heard of this movie until it was on laserdisc at the local movie rental shop. Just loved it. I knew the aliens were fake looking but I didn't care.
I'll never understand, and even today, when people rush a product out the door. From movies, video games, music and so much more I still will never understand the mentality of not letting a good idea become finished before its actually put out there. Makes me laugh cause nobody likes eating a half cooked meal, that's for sure. ^o^
Loved the film nut the ending was a departure from what the beginning seemed to promise. The pop-cultural film irony wasn't the reference kids wanted. Hey, its funny because he traveled all this way to have a seat on the aliens couch and watch American television. To add, the aliens, think American television is real and take horror films that involve humans fighting aliens to be serious as a threat and are therefore afraid to visit Earth. Again, this film within the film irony is amusing if you're a cinephile, but if you're a kid, you just want some more cool emotional stuff with a more meaningful message. you're not watching this because you want to see a old movies, you are watching it because it's something new and different. At least that is what the film seemed to promise, but then it went all 1950's TV land. The parents thing was funny though. Good CGI, loved the fact that they were all in the same dream together, that was a part of this film that really was moving to me at the time, them waking up and drawing the picture while they call each other on the phone, great concept. Wiring up the chip to the computer that he saw in the dream, a lot of the driving references and yards revenge being played in the background are great, there really is a lot of fun science fiction references in this film, but only parents would catch on to some of them. Them and I don't think parents were really looking to teach their kids about old 50s movies during the '80s. The ending look like it left room for a mini-series to follow or something. Ethan Hawke lived in my town and went to my high school, although he was probably 5 years ahead of me, so this whole thing is pretty cool and part of my childhood. But in retrospect I would like to see the film done with a slightly more fulfilling ending
My dad introduced me to this film, and I loved it growing up! I actually remember buying the promotional magazine for the movie, but lost it years ago. The only issue I have with the film is the goofy aliens. I know they explain it away as the aliens learned about our culture through television, but it didn't fit well with the serious tone of the rest of the movie. Still, it grew on me over the years.
Thunder road was mentioned in Grees during the race between Johnny and bluto ,,,,,, the phrase that was mentioned was it takes more than a coat of paint to make it on thunder road ,,,,,, just saying ,,,,,
I saw this movie as a double feature alongside The Goonies. Being born in 73, the 80s really were an incredible time to be a kid.
My dad was born in 73 and I would have loved to have been able to grow up when he did. The 80s had all the best movies!
Agreed.
I wouldn't trade having grown up in the 70's and 80's for the world...and I genuinely feel bad for anyone stating that 'the 90's was a great period to grow up in', as I see that era as simply being warmed over 80's with too much cynicism and undeserved angst thrown in for poor measure, LOL...;)
@@KarstensCreationsKC cool
@@lindsey4382 my parents wre born in 1974 both each
They really should release the 3 hour plus version of this film.
Wouldn't that be great? We can only dream
Yes absolutely! Great video as always, looking forward to your next feature.
I remember this movie. I saw it 5 years later on TV but this was a great movie.
I was so confused on the ending what happened???
pro tip : watch series on flixzone. I've been using them for watching all kinds of movies during the lockdown.
Incredible score from Jerry Goldsmith also. A forgotten gem with musical cues that capture the coming of age and wonder of adventure.
you can really tell, when a movie is made with spirit.
When I was a kid in the 80's I ran across this movie on the movie network. I really enjoyed it and would watch it whenever it came up. The sense of mystery and wonder that it inspired in me was fantastic. In the wake of Stranger Things, I think an Explorers TV series would be great. Hopefully Netflix or another streaming service has the same idea.
The ending was begging for a series, But at the time I guess it just wasn't that popular a movie, I believe I saw it on the wonderful world of Disney back before they had their own channel
I had the same experience with seeing Explorers at the movies in 85. Best time to be a kid. Great video and I look forward to your next one.
Thanks :-) Glad you enjoyed it
Explorers ...the Goonies ...Cocoon ...D.A.R.Y.L. ...my science Project ...Enemy Mine...saw them all at release.
i was 11 years old in '85, and my favorite cinema-experience was Commando! ^.^ ..."leave anything for us?!" "just bodies."
I remember my dad taking me to see this in the theater, while the aliens were kind of funny looking they did add some humor and I fondly recall this movie being magical. I would daydream about making a space ship and flying to the stars for quite sometime after that.
I've already built a space ship but can't get the force field to work......yet!
Yup same I'd draw illustrations of what it would look like if I made it but need that forcefield
It’s tragic that the people who made this masterpiece from my childhood feel the way they do about it. Even with its faults, this movie is so awesome. I still watch this movie and in a few more years I’ll be able to share it with my son. Thanks for making this video. :)
I rewatched it not long ago.
It's one of those movies I'd file under 'not as good as I remember it'... but it is still good.
Like 'The Goonies' or 'ET', it basically takes that childhood sense of adventure and just adds a far-fetched, science fiction/fantasy element to the mix.
I somehow had an uncut version of this on VHS when I was a kid in the late 90's early 00's, I loved the hell out of this movie then but had mostly forgotten about after a few years.
It was thrust out of my memories in 2017 when I seen the "USS Nimitz UFO incident" FLIR camera footage the Pentagon released to the public and heard the eyewitness testimony of the UFO.
The apparent capabilities and (theoretical) psychics behind the Nimitz UFO and the Thunder Road were so close I suddenly remembered something I hadn't seen or thought of in 20 years.
Exploers has always been one of my favorite movies as well despite it's choppyness. The novelisation has some of the missing plot points in it. The dvd release in Oz was also stuffed with missing scene which were in the cinema release but only included as deleted scenes on the dvd. Would love to see a blu-ray release with all the missing plot points as deleted scenes.
One of my favorite movies as well. I saw it for the first time on vhs in the mid eighties when I was 40 years old. I loved it then and I love it now.
Hands down my favorite movie that year. And this movie will have a place in my heart cause it appeals to the dreamers in all of us.
In the summer of 86 this movie was on cable every day. All my friends would stop everything and huddle around the tube to watch it. Whatever its flaws were, we loved it. Hell Im 47 and I watched it 2 weeks ago! lol
Thank god! i finally found this movie I am 29 of age and I watch this movie about two times form when I was just 6 i think and I remember these boys build a spaceship and went to space form that two times I watch the movie till now I always wanted to see the movie again but I never know the name of the movie till now thank you Jonny Baak
Explorers was the first dvd I ever rented from our video shop back in the day. Of coarse I was at the age before I knew what a good or bad movie was. That’s sadly changed since then. Despite the fact Explorers didn’t do that well, I remember really enjoying it & I managed to follow all three boy’s careers over time.
Film of my childhood, I was 17 then, loved it.
Thanks Jonny. This is one of my favourites. I had a huge crush on Amanda Peterson & was heartbroken to find she died a few years ago.
She most likely was molested as a child actress.
Yea it's terrible but many child actors and actresses are treated so terribly
I dream the dream of you and Minty teaming up.
It’s coincidental they’re both Aussies, too.
Great little film with a cosy, warm place in my memories and heart.
We had this on tape for years, recorded off of the telly and was amongst me and my brother's favourite films. I honestly never minded the aliens, but then, I was very young.
🎶All around the world ...🤗... Rock-and-Roll is here to stay🎶
Hey! Adelaide kid here too! Thanks for this, I love this movie, warts and all.
My inner geek longs to see a recut with all that dropped footage...
Good to know there is someone in Adelaide just like me :-)
Fully agree with everything you said about this movie, still one of my favourites. I identified more with Wolfgang since I was a total tech nerd at the time. Surprising really how enjoyable Explorers is given the degree to which it's said to be unfinished, and yes it would be great to see a finished version.
The goofyness of the aliens didn't bother me that much though, perhaps because I really liked the basic joke that they were also kids who'd nicked their father's car (so to speak). I thought it was an interesting idea at the time, to consider that if there were aliens out there, then there must be alien "teenagers" too, so what would they be like, did they find their parents annoying aswell? etc. To me the movie posed questions that no other movie had even bothered to ask. It was fun, but it also made me think about it.
Strangely, I did not like The Neverending Story at all, for some reason I thought the giant puppet creatures looked stupid, somehow I simply couldn't take them seriously, they were just too obviously not real. Perhaps they reminded me too much of shows like Sesame Street (which I loathed).
Spot on about that trailer, ye gods it's awful! How bizarre the studio would make such a hash of the later stages of production.
I was intrigued about what you showed of the scenes added to the OZ VHS release; the UK VHS version has all of them except the bit with the ThunderRoad in the classroom - I wonder why they left that out?
I laughed when you said two of the cast had a crush on Peterson. :D Hope they didn't argue about it.
And yes it is a pity Presson's portrayal of Darren didn't receive greater praise; the way he becomes friends with Wolfgang and Ben reminds me of people I knew at school who were not obsessed with tech like I was but were still cool to hang out with. I liked writing computer games, but they liked playing the results.
Films like Explorers, at that time, had the ability to chime with an audience, especially the demographic shown in the story, in a way which I don't think modern movies are able to do at all. These days productions are too full of politics for this kind of film to even be made (TLJ and Captain Marvell being two of the more recent awful examples). No studio today would make a movie like ET, and Explorers would doubtless be criticised for not having girls as the main characters or something. Funny though how they ignore movies like The Goonies which had a very broad cast, easily one of the best from that era.
I've talked to neighbours who say their children often enjoy 1980s movies of this kind far more than modern productions, assuming they're able to get them to try watching them at all (because they're "old"). I would include in this the original Ghostbusters and many others. Interesting though how one does not often hear similar things said of movies from the 1990s, there's something about the 80s which meant optimistic movies like Explorers were possible (which is odd given how much the cold war was constantly in the headlines, parents freaking out about the media-hyped nuclear peril). I can enjoy movies like Megamind, How To Train Your Dragon and Over The Edge, but they're fun for entirely different reasons.
If there's an exception it's probably Toy Story, that had an appeal which reached a very broad age spectrum. Ditto Jurassic Park, the only movie I've been to where several dozen children left their seats and moved down the steps so they could sit closer to the screen. :D (I noticed one child literally keeping his eyelids open with his fingers so he wouldn't miss anything) As is so often the case though, whatever was captured so well by an original like JP is utterly lost in the sequels.
I hope they don't try to remake Explorers, it would probably be horrible.
I'm late to the party, but you and I are both Explorers!
I saw it in the theater! I love it! I built their space ship out of a cardboard popcorn bowl, and put my GI Joe's in it!
As I remember they said this movie up for a sequel.If they need one today it would have to be about their children
"Ethan Hawke flies the bubble up to a window to peep on the girl from Can’t Buy Me Love while she eats Boston Cream pie and listens to the Thompson Twins (Records on her bed) ... " Please mention The Thompson Twins reference in the music credit section, if you ever do an edit, for us New-wavers... Thank you for doing this video; the early 80's was a magic time to grow up in.
if the aliens didn't look so silly, it doesn't match the rest of the mysterious and ominous tone of the rest of the film. Imaging that, seeing a design in your dream that actually works... amazing and inspiring but scary too!!
One of my all time favorite movies when I was a kid. It had those fun elements that kids in my neighborhood liked to do like build things in the backyard. Of course something like the spaceship in the movie was well beyond our building skills. We just used wood and made our dads mad by cutting up all of their lumber and using all of their nails and screws to build it. I would love to see the full Dante cut of the movie!
This is a good retrospective however I couldn’t disagree with you more about the reveal of the aliens, the fact that you’re expecting some incredible epic alien reveal only to have goofy awkward alien teenagers influenced by 50s pop culture broadcasts is perfect for the tone of the film in my opinion. I remember laughing my head off when they revealed this and I still think it’s a great extreme left turn that fits the films out of left-field mind set.
Agree, loved that movie.
I’m ready for the Dante cut.
always thought there was some thing more about the cop, like he had the same thing happen to him when he was younger
Agreed. It did seem like there was something there. Like he had the dream but never followed it... something he regrets now in his older age
I remember watching this as a kid, and it's one of those films that has stuck with me too. Hardly anybody seems to remember it. ☹️
I’ve always been interested in ufo’s and anything alien related. Loved this movie as a kid and still do. Just as good as Goonies imo. Great video btw, well done sir!
I saw this Movie on HBO one night back in the early 90's and thought it was neat. Believe it or not a lot of people never heard of this movie.
I love this movie. I saw it a thousand times as a kid. I can't wait to see it again with my kids.
What a film this is I still go on CZcams and look back on memories some one take me back
Not only Live Aid, but they were also up against "Back to the Future" which came out the previous week and pretty much dominated the rest of 85.
As Vivian says in 'Pretty Woman', "Big Mistake. Huge!"
I am 18 years older than my youngest brother and I took him to see this movie. It is a fond memory since I went out my own when he was just 1. It was fun.
One of my favorite movies growing up.
I was a carnival worker when this movie came out and I was intrigued when they use the Tilt-A-Whirl tub although I never saw it in the I would often see it late night on television...
If there is a movie that deserves a reboot it's this movie.
A country boy... now I'm 52. I was 14 in most of 1985. Greatest times to be alive. Born in 69.. I've seen 70s 80s 90s. Etc.
The first half of the movie was great. When they got to the planet, it went straight into the crapper. Studio executives ruin everything.
They didn't get to a planet, it was a spaceship.
Absolutely agree.. compared to BTTF the whole thing is garbage. But there score was excellent and moments of inspiration when they building the space pod!
Movies had magic back then. Something that was lost through the 90s.
excellent review, always thought there was some thing left out of the script
I saw it in the cinema too , loved the first two thirds of it
*With the reported technical capabilities of the recent UAP/UFOs in sightings by the U.S. Military..., such as incredible acceleration/deceleration, direction/vector change, and massive G Force tolerance, with no apparent flight surfaces or means of propulsion, and subsea/atmospheric/space travel capabilities..., it very much strongly reminded me of this very movie...*
A great movie. Btw. Red 7 are well know to fans of Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER. They appear on that infamous soundtrack.
I cant say how many times I watched this movie. I used to rent it every weekend as a kid when the fam went to the video store to rent movies (If that does not age me, I dont know what will). Rolls-Can-hardly.... still rattles around in my head!
I absolutely loved and still LOVE this movie! My grandfather built me a red spaceship in their backyard for me after the movie and I played in it for hours!
Love this movie. Watched many times. Is from my 80's years...
I still recall the feeling of discovery and magic in the first two acts as the kids figure out how to make and use their spacecraft. I honestly blocked out the ending because when I saw it again, about 10 years ago, for the first time since the original release, I was so shocked and dissappointed.
Most movie fans have that one(or 2) movies they always meant to see but somehow alluded them all their lives..This is mine..
If we’re going to talk about River Phoenix’s tragically short life we should also talk about the tragic life of Amanda Peterson, she quit acting in the mid 90s and suffered from drug addiction through two marriages and two children ultimately dying of a “accidental drug overdose” in 2015.
Interesting that the ending was essentially 'tacked on', as a kid I LOVED it...and it still, altho populated by 'cartoonish' aliens', packed an emotional wallop for me ("WE can't go to Earth...we KNOW what they do to creatures like US!" as scenes from 'alien attack' films was played) nestled within the comedic moments, which were quite funny, especially Robert doing all of his entertaining impressions of pop culture icons...
I too find this film to be a nostalgia gateway, and I agree that the score by Goldsmith is outstanding and inspiring, so energetic and powerful, along with the 'very eighties' pop tunes...
I loved this flick when I saw it in theaters upon it's release and I still love it to this day.
One of my favorite movies of all time.
Their here.Who can forget that line.
LOL, it WAS a line originally spoken in POLTERGEIST...you knew that tho, right?...;)
Right on with the opening sentiments of this piece.
if they didn't fuck'd up the ending, this movie would be more famous than the goonies. one of the few film i'd love to see remade or even better, a director's cut
This movie is why I first thought the Kree map in S.H.I.E.L.D. was a circuit board. I was sure it was circuitry until the plot said otherwise.
I've never seen this movie, but I learned about it. Way before I was born in 1992. I always like classic science fiction films and it is a bit similar to E.T. that I grew up watching. I will find this movie on Blu Ray. I had no idea Ethan Hawke was so young and his 1st film, River Phoenix too before I watched him in Stand by Me. Jerry Goldsmith was one of my favorite film conductors too for Rambo and Star Trek the Next Generation. Industrial Light and Magic I know is established by George Lucas in 1975.
That Star Trek episode is called "The Nth Degree" (pronounced enth not 9th). It means the utmost, extreme, or as much as possible.
Thank you JonnyBaak for your videos, they're very entertaining and informative.
I love this movie and one of my favorite soundtracks.
My favorite movie as a kid I still watch it classic
Thank you for this awesome video..love Jerry Goldsmiths scores.
I live in Adelaide as well and live right around the corner from THE CHELSEA. Awesome memories
Still one of my favorite feel good movies.
Fucking loved that movie as a kid. 👍
I really liked this film as a kid and instill do. I do hope that he releases his cut of the film. I really liked the score too.
So that's where they got the trash ship for Rick and Morty.
Absolutely love never ending story
I saw this on rental video as a kid in the UK (having waited in vain many months earlier for it to arrive at one of my two local 2-or-3-screen cinemas). I loved the concept, loved the first two acts, then watched bewildered as it fell apart in the final twenty minutes. I'd really like to see a proper director's cut of it, but I think the main problem would still be there, namely the jarring change of gear from Spielbergian suburban sci-fi to cartoonish surrealism.
Many of the scenes they cut were great (in terms of content), but I agree, even a Director's cut couldn't save the basic problems with the ending of this movie.
The 35th Anniversary came and went. Let's make a 40th Anniversary Special Edition a THING!!
loved it fantastic piece of work a great adventure movie when I was a kid
When Stranger Things first came out, I'd just finished watching American Horror Story and I was really hoping they'd turn Stranger Things into an Anthology show in the same vein. A cover of this film would have been perfect for that kind of thing. Alas, it was not to be.
I was thinking Stranger Things was going to be like Eeria Indiana reminds me more of Super 8
Well, I could say a LOT about the early stages of this film. The writer, Eric Luke, worked with us in efx, and let me read the script before it was sold. The 3rd act certainly wasn't all about playing baseball on another planet. It had a very strong 3rd act that took place on Mars. Yes it needed some tweaking, but along came Spielberg who's suggestions were all wrong, as far as a lot of us thought. But Eric felt this was a great opportunity, so he felt he should listen to the very popular and influential director. Mistake, but I' may've done the same thing under the same circumstances. Eric's original instincts were correct and his original script was superior, even given that it needed some work. Only SOME work. (We were tasked with making the bad effects for the drive-in sequence, based on footage from Toho's BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE. We used copper ashtrays for the flying saucers. The small ships were designed to look like light meters, and the big ship was a spoof of ILM's vistavision camera, which apparently caused some ongoing problems that caused delays for Joe and frustrated the production company ---this is what I was told/i don't have direct knowledge of what happened on the set----but we were told to make that one ship a goofy version of that vistavision camera.. All those horrible efx still were tricky to create since, due to the tiny tiny budget, had to be done entirely in-camera, including all of the "laser-beams": Opticals weren't affordable. That series of silly shots had to be done this way since buying the stock shots from Toho's film was too expensive!! That's how cheap that sequence was!). A shame the film had all of these problems. The original script had huge potential, and , after reading it, i wasn't at all surprised when it got purchased---which I recall happened pretty quickly.) Ok, enough blah blah.
Very interesting. Never heard a lot of this.
This should have been one of Tom Paris's holodeck "novels" ... featuring the Doctor!
I love your movies 🍿
Neapolitan Dynomaite never had this crappy excuse.
Lesson learned.
Also, we could continue into a new and better feature.
I actually disagree that the initial promotion of the film was bad. I actually quite like the ambiguous nature of it, especially given how trailers spoil entire films these days. The problem was that it wasn't followed up on properly, which is more due to the studio's rush to get it out. If they released that teaser for a Netflix series, especially in the wake of Stranger Things, people would love it.
they must not have advertised it very well, first i heard of it was seeing it at video rental stores. I thought it was a great movie and remains one of my favorites.
Also 12 in 1985 but missed it in the UK. It did not stay long at the theatre, like Breakfast Club, it bombed in the UK. My parents took me to see Police Academy 2 instead that July which was a hit! I did not even know Ethan or River starred in the movie. Beverly Hills Cop, Witness, Pale Rider, The Goonies, Back to the Future, Rocky IV were 1985 flicks which I was fortunate enough to see with my parents...
That was a bad ass teaser trailer and poster. Admittedly, it only works really well if you already know the movie lol
Yeah I was 13 then, that movie was always in the back of my mind
Saw it on cable a few times and loved everything but the really weird puppet aliens. The ship bubble was freaking awesome!
I remember all of this. Never heard of this movie until it was on laserdisc at the local movie rental shop. Just loved it. I knew the aliens were fake looking but I didn't care.
Same my friend, 43 here it was big
This is a good vid, you should have more subs.
Loved this film at the time.
‘That’s what they call a travelling matt’
I love this movie! I grew up with it!
Maybe where you grew up in 85, kids were optimistic as you say, but we sure as hell weren't optimistic in NJ.
I'll never understand, and even today, when people rush a product out the door. From movies, video games, music and so much more I still will never understand the mentality of not letting a good idea become finished before its actually put out there. Makes me laugh cause nobody likes eating a half cooked meal, that's for sure. ^o^
Loved the film nut the ending was a departure from what the beginning seemed to promise. The pop-cultural film irony wasn't the reference kids wanted. Hey, its funny because he traveled all this way to have a seat on the aliens couch and watch American television. To add, the aliens, think American television is real and take horror films that involve humans fighting aliens to be serious as a threat and are therefore afraid to visit Earth. Again, this film within the film irony is amusing if you're a cinephile, but if you're a kid, you just want some more cool emotional stuff with a more meaningful message. you're not watching this because you want to see a old movies, you are watching it because it's something new and different. At least that is what the film seemed to promise, but then it went all 1950's TV land. The parents thing was funny though. Good CGI, loved the fact that they were all in the same dream together, that was a part of this film that really was moving to me at the time, them waking up and drawing the picture while they call each other on the phone, great concept. Wiring up the chip to the computer that he saw in the dream, a lot of the driving references and yards revenge being played in the background are great, there really is a lot of fun science fiction references in this film, but only parents would catch on to some of them. Them and I don't think parents were really looking to teach their kids about old 50s movies during the '80s.
The ending look like it left room for a mini-series to follow or something.
Ethan Hawke lived in my town and went to my high school, although he was probably 5 years ahead of me, so this whole thing is pretty cool and part of my childhood. But in retrospect I would like to see the film done with a slightly more fulfilling ending
River made a great nerd though. I couldn't picture Jason as the nerd lol.
My dad introduced me to this film, and I loved it growing up! I actually remember buying the promotional magazine for the movie, but lost it years ago. The only issue I have with the film is the goofy aliens. I know they explain it away as the aliens learned about our culture through television, but it didn't fit well with the serious tone of the rest of the movie. Still, it grew on me over the years.
Thunder road was mentioned in Grees during the race between Johnny and bluto ,,,,,, the phrase that was mentioned was it takes more than a coat of paint to make it on thunder road ,,,,,, just saying ,,,,,
Amanda Petersen is dead as well. Just FYI.
Why not NOW?! I'd love to see the other version!!!