Explorers (1985)

Great Film overall

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Well. This is the first movie review that I am not reviewing the movie so much as I am reviewing the movie reviewers. Or more or less reviewing people. I am reading several movie reviews of this movie Explorers and astounded. Very crappy and basically stupid people. Unlike the movie reviewer who says, "I like this better than E.T." Unlike the movie reviewer who says that this was good about halfway through. I am going to say that this movie was created as a test to see how stupid people are. Basically this movie to me proves why people are morons. Seriously.This movie is not comparable to E.T. So I say shut up to that person. This movie really started to get good about five sixths of the way into it. And then before you know it the movie is over. Actually near the end it started to remind me of HitchHiker's guide to the Galaxy. Or George Noory who has constantly said on his show coast to coast that he wonders if there aren't a lot of malevolent aliens out there. And if the Universe is just one big eating contest. Of a big bad fish getting eaten by a bigger badder fish, and a bigger badder fish and so on. So the person who said this movie was good about the first half and then turned into crap. That person is a moron. People are morons. The movie exposes that.The cool puppeteering is like four sixths to five sixths into the movie. And then there are some comical singing of aliens and mesmerized looks of the child actors, notably Ethan Hawke, has the face that I have now as an adult when watching this. Like, What the heck is going on? All of this is in the second half of the movie. However maybe the moron reviewer meant that this movie fails to make an appropriate or congealing connection between the first half of the movie and the second half of the movie. That is so. There is a poorly executed connection between the boys making the spaceship at the beginning to them actually going into outer space near the end. I find this kind of a flaw in a lot of Joe Dante Movies. His movies tend to look way different in the end than in the beginning. Almost like in every Joe Dante movie, including gremlins you are watching two different movies and a poorly executed mechanism of connecting the two. I just usually assume whenever I see Mr. Fudderman (Dick Miller, in all) that he is the indicator that the movie is about to change into something else. Usually something very bizarre and macabre.Well don't go by the morons movie reviews. Spielberg is no way mentioned or involved with this project, so don't even mention him. Just watch the movie. And know that there is a good 100 percent chance that you are more intelligence than 99.9 percent of all of the movie reviewers who have seen this. Oh yeah, this movie could have been way better, in my opinion if they stuck with the creepy alien route and added more song and dance numbers. And basically STARTED at the five sixths of the way into it. Michael Reed you are dumb as a stoned panda or jerboa. Anyway I am glad that the movie didn't start when it actually started to get good and go on the same narrative because it could have been a hundred times scarier than the Howling. Really show Joe Dante's Dark ethos.Atreyu (unimaginative screen name) the aliens don't ruin this. The aliens are where the movie could have been good. Crawl under a rock and ask the pill bugs to feed you more poor words. You favorite word is the word right? Eh cough Nancy Pelosi. You didn't see that the aliens were a parody on Nancy Pelosi and the do nothings in congress. Joe Dante has wit you people don't.

ExplorersSending children into outer space is a great idea because it gets them off of Earth.However, if the kids are as intelligent as the ones in this sci-fi movie then they can stay.Inspired by a dream he had of a computer circuit that would enable space flight, Ben (Ethan Hawke) approaches his whiz kid pal Wolfgang (River Phoenix) to help build a replica.Eventually, the pair creates an airtight force field capable of flight and protecting them from the harsh elements of space.Employing another friend (Jason Presson) to construct a spacecraft, the trio treks into the unknown universe, discovering some harsh truths along the way.An obvious product of its 1985 environment, this lesser known teenager space adventure has enough pseudo science, subversive sexuality and absurdity to deserve cult status.What's more, since there is no night or day in space, child labour laws do not apply.Yellow Light vidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Explorers is directed by Joe Dante and written by Eric Luke. It stars Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson and Amanda Peterson. Music is by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by John Hora.It's the family friendly sci-fi that Joe Dante did after he made Gremlins, and it's a film of much fun and childish splendour that is only done down by getting away from itself in the last quarter.Plot basically sees three young lads (Hawke, Phoenix and Presson) with different talents and ideals who come together to fashion a spacecraft as they deal with the perils of school (bullies, puppy love, scholastic pressure). Taking off, the boys eventually go into space and encounter an alien race who have an interesting view on the human race...Dante had studio interference to contend with and he eventually re-edited the film for home format release. The film does feel compromised and rushed towards the end, but the story holds up real well and the young actors (Dante's excellent direction of youngsters is often forgotten) engage and entertain for all the right reasons. It's a bit derivative and it does at times feel like Dante is just making a movie so he can bathe in homage nostalgia, but there is intelligence in the sci-fi factors before it gets confused as to its messages and the aliens we finally meet annoy and disappoint.Weird and wondrous, fun and fragile, Explorers is a mixed bag for sure. 7/10

When I was a kid, Explorers was one of my favorite movies. Ever since I can remember I've had a fascination with outer space and all the possibilities that are out there. That being said, Explorers was the perfect movie to me when I was a kid, but watching it again for the first time in fifteen years, things have changed. The story follows three young boys who start having weird dreams. They decide to build what they see in their dreams and to their surprise they build a spaceship. The boys are pulled into outer space, where they meet a group of aliens who are obsessed with our TV broadcasts and use different characters and scenes in order to communicate. As a kid, the story was magical, but as an adult, it was very lame. The hysterical aliens were unbelievably annoying and all the 'cool, futuristic' stuff is now simple classic eighties cheese. As for the cast, they are terrific, obviously, that's why two of the three boys grew up to be stars. Explorers was a favorite of mine as a kid, but that's really who it's aimed at. I watched it again because it's streaming and I loved it then, but watching it now kind of ruined it for me. This isn't like the Goonies, which is good any time at any age. Explorers is a kids movie that doesn't grow up as you do.