Innerspace

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Distractingly loose but clever, this 1987 comedy by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Matinee) stars Martin Short as a hypochondriac and Dennis Quaid as a miniaturized test pilot who is accidentally injected into him. Taking a page or two (or a hundred) from the classic science fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, Innerspace details the adventures of traveling through the human body's complicated systems, though in this case, it proves an unusual way for two characters to forge a bond. Dante's endless imagination goes into overdrive here, but the film is more gimmick than anything else and ultimately feels a bit hollow. Fans of Short or Quaid might like it more than most, though Dante's hardcore fans will also appreciate seeing his stock players Dick Miller and Kevin McCarthy. --Tom Keogh

Description

A devil-may-care test pilot volunteers to be shrunk and injected in to a rabbit as part of a top secret experiment. When industrial spies steal one of the two microchips needed to reverse the process, the pilot is accidentally injected into the body of a timid supermarket clerk. the two, along with the pilot's girlfriend, have 24 hours to find the stolen microchip before the pilot uses up his oxygen supply.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect!.......2007-05-12

Arrived in a reasonable amount of time and was totally undamaged, could not ask for more :)

Innerspace.......2007-04-13

A splendid exercise in humourous shrinkage, as mite-sized test-pilot Tuck Pendleton, played by Dennis Quaid, ends up puttering around inside nervous ninny Jack Putter, who is portrayed Martin Short (not seeming quite as short in this film, naturally). Sealed up and shrunk inside an experimental pod and originally destined for the innards of a rabbit, things go wrong for itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny bellowing micro-dot-sized Tucky when thieves who specialize in boosting radical new high-tech goodies burst into the experimental lab where all the shrinkage is wrapping up, and chase a lone doctor who has the syringe with Tuck tucked in his lab coat all the way to a shopping mall. And it isn't long after that when Tuck is injected through Short's shorts (assuming he's wearing any) by a panting, dying doc, right into the fat cells of a Short behind.

For me this film works because of all the weird and completely unbelievable stuff that happens that has nothing to do with the shrinkage. I mean, that is some talented pod Tuck is tucked inside, puttering around Putter! Tuck can attach remotes to Putter's eye and ear, and see through silly Putter's eye, and be heard by silly Putter's ear. He can even turn up the volume on Putter's ear enough so that he can hear some Official-types talk about how expendable Putter and Tuck are, assuming they don't get Tuck out of Putter before he runs out of oxygen. And look: the onboard computer can adjust to mouse biology (Martin Short IS playing a mouse here, right?...okay, human biology), rather than the pre-planned rabbit schematics for the pre-planned rabbit test. And best of all!: if Putter has to, let's say, take the place of a shady buyer-and-seller of stolen shrink-tech, Tuck only has to hit a few buttons--and breeze quickly through the Instruction Manual--to alter Putter's face completely...though the procedure is obviously painful, and kind of sickening to look at.

Best of all, Tuck can hitch a ride on a wet kiss between that putz Putter and Tuck's girlfriend Lydia (Meg "Legs" Ryan) and switch over to her body for a while (as long as he gets back over to Putter's body when the plot requires it).

That's just what's going on inside Jack Putter. Then there's all the action as Jack and Lydia fight to get a stolen microchip back from the evil Mr. Scrimshaw (Kevin McCarthy), his various vicious goons, and the extra-strength vicious Mr. Igoe (big scary actor who's name I don't know), who ends up "Honey I shrunk the assassin"'d and put inside Putter to eliminate tuckered out Tuck. They need that chip so they can extract and enlarge Tuck...even though Lydia does seem to be falling for Putter, as he gets braver and braver, in a Heywood Broun/Fifty-First Dragon/"thinks he's drawing on Tuck's bravery, but it's really his own hidden power" kind of way.

I love the inventiveness of this film; its daring commitment to take the plot anywhere just because they've shrunk a guy and stuck him in Martin Short. There are some great one-liners--including just a burp--super-duper especially-special FX (that's Special Effects shrunk), and no small or short roles, just small and Short actors, all at their best in this romp. If, by chance, you have not seen this film, micro-miniaturize--no wait, I mean microwave--the popcorn, and make a little headspace for Innerspace. Don't you want to see if maybe Dennis Quaid enlarges too early and splatters Martin Short all over everything? I make no promises, but if there's even the slightest chance of seeing that, don't you want to watch this movie?

Martin Short - the bomb!!.......2007-03-12

Martin Short is priceless in this movie - I enjoyed every minute.

That's some pump.......2006-12-14

I thought the actors are super in this. I said to myself I can't believe
that made this. Because it's someone stomach. Anything in possible in Hollywood.

Just isn't very good.......2006-11-20

I'm a big fan of Joe Dante and I love Martin Short, but 'Innerspace' is just too high on concept and low on just about everything else. You know the tendency for even many great comedies to somehow "require" a villian sub-plot? Well 'Innerspace' not only falls victim to that, but the "on the chase from the bad guy" scenario propels the film. I guess you could call it "adventure", but there's nothing interesting or exciting about it. Short does what he can here and there, but most of it feels like made-for-TV filler material... honestly.

I don't know... Dante is a creative genius, but this is his most lacking IMO. Sure, this is one flick that has brilliant special effects and doesn't ever overplay them, but you almost wish they'd had, because at least something interesting would be happening. 'Gremlins' and 'The 'burbs' had awesomely unique concepts but, by and large, maintained a degree of freshness around them for their running time; 'Innerspace' can't survive for any real length of time.

The concept of the film is great, no doubt, and the actual execution of the fundamental mental/physical relationship between Short and Quaid is pulled off with valor... which is strange, because it's the superficial aspects of the film that fall on their face. I guess that makes sense; Dante is an imaginative nut, and in the face of a drab script and story, he doesn't know what to do.

Average customer rating:

Perfect!
Innerspace
Martin Short - the bomb!!
That's some pump
Just isn't very good

Innerspace [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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