Imagine ET’s genial alien ethos hooked up with the evident, if sappy, comedy of a coterie of Floridian retirees rejuvenated to youthful bluster, as directed by the audience pleasing, if sappy, tendencies of Ron Howard — who was clearly on a fairy-tale jag having only just delivered a major hit with mermaid comedy Splash. How you react to the sum total of that equation — nausea, mild discomfort or an easy smile of acceptance (some movies are just entertainment after all) — should warn you how to approach this broad, effective, but nailed on sentimental load of sprightly old tosh. That said, this is a positive review.
To start with, it’s not often a team of actors on the wrinklier side get to be the heart of a movie, and that those actors — Don Ameche the stand-out was granted an Oscar for his generous, detailed performance — manage to whittle out the knowing humour as well as the japery from the set-up. The gag, away from the film’s elaborate hokey sci-fi set-up (Atlantean aliens in the guise of Brian Denehy come back to retrieve a batch of cocoons stored for a millennia at the bottom of the ocean) is that old-folk regain youthful vigour. Cue: sporting prowess and renewed sexual appetites. It’s obvious silliness, but they give it a rarefied dignity; the entire film operating as a give-OAPs-a-chance campaign call.
Steve Guttenberg, as the friendly face of the pre-30 age bracket, helps the aged and the alien alike, and gets it on with a female ET (embodied by Tahnee Welch, Raquel’s daughter) in a major piece of tantric style shagging. And it all revs up with a race-against-time style ending, with some fancy UFO effects and the offer of eternal life albeit on a planet far weirder than Florida. Howard, as a director, is astute enough to concentrate on the sparkle of character than the nerdy fabric of alien landings, his film far more a comedy parable than a sci-fi adventure.
