Cocoon

Ron Howard (1985)

112min

PG Certificate

Review

Our Score

by John Ferguson

Director Ron Howard hit the big time with this blockbuster about pensioners finding a new lease of life after stumbling across aliens on a rescue mission from another planet. What saves it from a complete wallow in sentimentality is the sharp and sassy playing of a distinguished cast of Hollywood legends - Oscar-winning Don Ameche, real-life husband and wife Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Wilford Brimley - all of whom easily steal the show from the bland but youthful Steve Guttenberg and Tahnee Welch. Howard handles the human drama and sci-fi with equal aplomb and the feel-good sentiments certainly struck a chord - a sequel followed three years later. However, a dash of Victor Meldrew's One Foot in the Grave-style cynicism would not have gone amiss.

Summary

The elderly residents of a retirement home treat themselves to an occasional dip in the pool at an abandoned house. It turns out that friendly aliens in human form are using the place to restore dormant members of their species - and energy from their cocoons is giving the old-timers a new lease of life. Ron Howard's sci-fi drama, with Wilford Brimley, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Don Ameche and Steve Guttenberg.