Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site sfmag.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!mhuxm!sftig!sftri!sfmag!howard From: howard@sfmag.UUCP (H.M.Moskovitz) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Explorers - A Review (Spoiler) Message-ID: <629@sfmag.UUCP> Date: Wed, 10-Jul-85 11:08:26 EDT Article-I.D.: sfmag.629 Posted: Wed Jul 10 11:08:26 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jul-85 03:19:43 EDT Distribution: net Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Summit, NJ Lines: 41 Explorers Review by: H. Moskovitz @ AT&T Info. Systems, Summit, NJ Explorers --------- Directed by Joe Dante (of Poltergeist fame) Starring: No one I knew I was unfortunate enough to receive tickets to the NYC premier of this film (invitation only). In a word, I, and everyone else I talked to afterward, HATED this movie. The story itself is ludicrous: three Junior High School kids have dreams in which they see electronic circuits that they later build. The circuit they build is a force field (that they run using an Apple //c computer). They use this force field to build a spaceship (out of an old amusement park ride chair) and travel into space only to meet a pair of adolescent aliens! The acting is so-so and the script horrendous! DUMB things like a 14 year-old kid looking at a bunch of gibberish that flashes by his CRT in 2 seconds and deciding that this circuit (which mysteriously creates its own software despite that it's just a small collection of resistors) is asking for coordinates in 3-dimensional space relative to the computer, and 4 hours later this kid has his entire basement, objects and all, parameterized into a 3-D vector graphic contour map! In general, the plot is dull and silly, the script insulting and boring, and the entire alien encounter dumb and ridiculous. The best part of the movie was an alien hamming it on stage, lip syncing a Little Richard rocker (which, by the way, was hacked up into a music video starring Robert Palmer of Power Station fame). I will use Dennis Cunnigham's (CBS) method of rating. He recently rated a film a '2' on a 1-10 scale saying: "You may wonder about the 2. Well in the summer ALL movies auto- matically get a 1 for air conditioning!" In this case the movie gets a 0. Normally it would get a 1, but since it IS summer and the theater was stifling, it loses even that! Take your $5 and spend it on the rerun of E.T. or Gremlins. Howard Moskovitz AT&T Info. Systems attunix!howard