Are me and Sal the only ones who loved this movie? I thought it was great and one of the very best 80's movies. Plus it was Ethan Hawke's first movie and I'm a big fan of him. River Phoenix was perfect too as the best friend. I first saw the movie when I was very young and it's always kind of been a childhood favorite of mine. It's sort of a classic now.
i think its good till they get to the spaceship, then it gets bad.
It's not bad but I'll take The Goonies over it every time, mainly because, as mod pointed out, it kind of sucks once they get to the ship. If they had been able to afford Robin Williams to do the voice of the alien, that might have saved it.
The ship's surreality is precisely why this movie rose above great to fucking awesome.
And the letdown the kids all share about their "friends" from space is another reason it works.
I understand Dante was forced to heavily cut the movie to his dissatisfaction, forcing to end it to meet a release deadline. But I think some of the best work comes under pressure, too, as it did in this case. I think dissapointment is a big part of growing up. Since this was a "coming of age" story, the boys understood the real world could not be displaced by their adventure into outer space. Sooner or later, they would have had to come back. I think the story did a fantastic job of reconciling that. This movie works 100%.
Agreed, beautifully done all the way around. I also loved Jerry Goldsmith's score, may he RIP.
That score is so good it hurts.
I did some remembering of old tv shows/movies I watched as a kid this past week. The Explorers was one show I believe I caught on cable once or twice over the years. I'm not sure I remembered all of it, but I definitely remembered the alien part.
I think it is a great film and it really makes me want to make a film like this. The 80's had several films like this, but I'm not sure anything like this is made in the present time. I guess today's comparison is a film like Spy Kids? I haven't seen it, but I doubt it raises any questions or provokes any kind of thought for the children who watch it.
shit i haven't seen this in years, i'm going out and renting it.
-sl-
i bought it.
i imagine it will be hard to rent since it was only released on DVD last year, and probably not bought by most video stores for renting purposes.
besides that, the only chance you would be able to rent it is if you have a local video store that still has the original vhs rent copy from the mid-80's.
thanks to chains like Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, etc that is probably next to impossible.
Quote from: bigideasbesides that, the only chance you would be able to rent it is if you have a local video store that still has the original vhs rent copy from the mid-80's.
or (http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70011066&trkid=181026)
I had been looking for this movie for years, I bought it at a video store selling off the VHS for $1.99. One of the happiest days I can remember (Explorers being one of my favourite childhood films.) Only a few days later I see an article on the release of Explorers on DVD for the first time, go figure. Of course the DVD was purchased the day it came out. It was seriously missing a commentary from Joe Dante.