*Batteries Not Included

Directed by Matthew Robbins, *Batteries Not Included follows the residents of a soon-to-be-demolished apartment building, including Hume Cronyn’s Frank, Jessica Tandy’s Faye, and Elizabeth Peña’s Marisa, as they’re visited (and eventually helped) by small extraterrestrial beings. Filmmaker Robbins, working from a script written with Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson, and Brad Bird, delivers an earnest and exceedingly well-acted endeavor that isn’t, for the most part, as compelling or absorbing as one might’ve hoped, as *Batteries Not Included progresses at an often excessively deliberate pace that essentially (and effectively) highlights the picture’s plethora of less-than-enthralling attributes – with, for example, the preponderance of kid-friendly elements growing less and less agreeable as time slowly unfolds. There’s little doubt, as well, that the all-too-slight bent of the movie’s narrative does little to alleviate the arms-length atmosphere, and it’s certainly not surprising to discover that the movie was originally conceived as an installment within the ’80s anthology series Amazing Stories – which, despite the best efforts of folks like Cronyn and Tandy, cements *Batteries Not Included‘s place as a sporadically watchable yet distressingly forgettable endeavor does, at least, boast some impressive special effects (and those little aliens are admittedly quite cute).

** out of ****