INNERSPACE (1987)

INNERSPACE (1987)

Tagline:  Within 24 hours he will experience an amazing adventure...and become twice the man.

(Action, Adventure, Comedy) [PG]

You've got a great future in front of you in Retail Food marketing, and I just hate to see you throw it all away by going psycho on us.

Oddly one of the things this movie is known for is featuring the first “selfie” in movie history. Some people mistakenly credit this moment to THELMA & LOUISE which came out 4 years later. The movie itself was inspired by 1966’s FANTASTIC VOYAGE. 

In this one basically, a huge jerk named Tuck Pendleton (played by Dennis Quaid who I have mentioned before I “really” like as an actor) is a pilot who is jealous of his other colleagues who are getting to fly really rad jets and things like that. However, Tuck himself is getting to be involved in a miniaturization project where he’s going to get injected into a rabbit and pilot a vehicle inside the rabbit. So, that was also pretty cool, but he seemed to not think so. A group of crazed entrepreneurs steal a device that would have allowed him to get back to normal size after the experiment is completed and as a last resort one of the scientists involved injects him into an unsuspecting Jack Putter (who is played by Martin Short most famous for THREE AMIGOS!) after escaping from the lab. Tuck must now figure out how to give Jack the courage to overcome various obstacles to obtain the device (or chip) needed to restore Tuck to normal size. On top of all this Tuck is running out of air and having to figure out how to get his on again off again girlfriend Lydia Maxwell (played by Meg Ryan most famous for WHEN HARRY MET SALLY) to help Jack. 

Okay, this movie was just loaded with potential, but some very strange script choices make most of these characters unlikable. I can personally identify with what Lydia was feeling because Tuck was a full-blown jerk, but I can’t really empathize with Tuck or Jack. There is something that happens to Lydia that softens Tuck’s heart, so we do get some character development there, but it doesn’t fix Tuck’s personality. Then we have Jack who opted to makes some decisions regarding Lydia that make him seem extremely shallow and borderline creepy. I will say that we do get some character development with Jack as well, which is nice, but I didn’t find myself liking him much. 

This movie also struggles in making decisions on what it wants to be. It’s not a serious film, but it takes itself seriously at times while trying to inject humor into the movie that doesn’t really come across well. I did like the performances, and the cast is well selected, but the situational elements in this movie feel overly corny even for a comedy. In this movie, we have a case where the idea is far better than the execution and everything just feels off. 

What I really did like about the movie was the effects. There are some pretty fun moments inside Jack's body and outside of it. This thing came out in the late ’80s and what they did to capture what the inside of the human body might look like on a micro-level is pretty outstanding. I almost wish this had been a completely serious movie with the vast majority of it being from inside Jack’s body rather than action going on that had nothing to do with Tuck or miniaturization. 

This movie is intriguing and worth at least 1 watch, but I don’t feel the need to buy it or watch it again anytime soon. For those reasons, I have to give this thing a 3 out of 7. It could have been more than it was, but what we got is fun at times, but overall, just okay.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WARNER BROS. AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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