Film Snail

Innerspace
Innerspace

6.8

Innerspace

PG·1987·120m

Summary

Test pilot Tuck Pendleton volunteers to test a special vessel for a miniaturization experiment. Accidentally injected into a neurotic hypochondriac, Jack Putter, Tuck must convince Jack to find his ex-girlfriend, Lydia Maxwell, to help him extract Tuck and his ship and re-enlarge them before his oxygen runs out.

Crew

Director

Joe Dante

Screenplay

Jeffrey Boam

Screenplay, Story

Chip Proser

Reviews

John Chard

John Chard

May 26, 2019

8

Eat Me - Drink Me

Innerspace is directed by Joe Dante and written by Jeffrey Boam and Chip Proser. It stars Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan and Kevin McCarthy. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Andrew Laszlo.

A hapless hypochondriac store clerk battles to save the life of the man who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him.

The premise is of course absurd, but everyone involved knows this and proceed to entertain with a mixture of thrills, spills and a good old fashioned good versus bad value. Narrative is based around the race against time thematic as miniaturised Tuck Pendleton (Quaid) fights from within the body of Jack Putter (Short). He has to keep Jack out the hands of crooks who are after the secrets of the miniaturisation process, whilst simultaneously being on a clock before he runs out of air - or fall prey to Jack's anti-bodies system etc.

Dante strings together some terrific set pieces, while the realisation of the inside of the human body is smartly staged. Cast are on hugely engaging form, with the central relationship between Quaid and Short a pure joy and mined for constant laugh and peril tactics. The dual aspect is niftily handled by Dante and his crew, with the battle within Jack's body running concurrently with Jack's battles out in the real world.

What wonderful sci-fi froth this is, as Dante has a blast of a time with the effects tools to hand to take the concept of Fantastic Voyage and make a top line action comedy adventure. Great soundtrack too! 8/10

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$27,000,000.00

Revenue:

$25,900,000.00

Keywords

experiment
san francisco, california
human body
shrinking
test pilot
miniature