Innerspace Reviews
- ️@metacritic
Summary A hapless store clerk must foil criminals to save the life of the man who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him.
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Summary A hapless store clerk must foil criminals to save the life of the man who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him.
Not available in your country?
Using a twist on the ingenious premise of "Fantastic Voyage" -- miniaturized travel within a human body -- and a pair of very different but equally irresistible leading men, Innerspace is densely inventive and consistently hilarious. [1 July 1987, p.C1]
The plot is standard fantasy-adventure pulp, though director Joe Dante (Gremlins, Explorers) has so many screwball things going on in it that the comedy all but overwhelms the formulaic line of action.
There is more than enough energy here to sustain the film over its two-hour course. [3 July 1987, p.AC]
The film is never inspired; it's not imaginative enough to be any more than an entertainingly good time. But it's an enormously unassuming, likable comedy, and surprisingly uninsistent for a big summer entertainment.
Mostly it gets by on being good-natured enough for you to accept its being clumsy and padded and only borderline entertaining.
It takes great confidence to think of a second film before the first is even finished; either that, or it takes great nerve. In any case, Innerspace, which opens today at the Criterion and other theaters, has all the brashness of a hit, if not all the luster.
Formulaic fun, helped by two winning leads.
A silly bit of '80s science fiction, in which a disgraced fighter pilot (Dennis Quaid) is shrunken to microscopic size (by way of... spinning really fast?) and then accidentally injected into Martin Short's ass. Whilst dodging fat cells and fighting the tides of a blood stream, Quaid dutifully explores the inner recesses of Short's body and, eventually, establishes contact with his unwitting host to guide his craft towards salvation. Toss in a flaky supporting appearance by Meg Ryan, which almost instantly spawns a love triangle, and you've got the jist. It's even dumber than it sounds. Many of Innerspace's best moments are when it embraces that truth and leans into the idiocy - the story's mustache-twirling villains are all playfully over-the-top - but it's wishy-washy about that and doesn't always seem like it's completely in on its own jokes. The plot is super redundant, too, with its full-sized heroes escaping capture no less than five different times and way too many evil masterminds / sinister henchmen crammed into the scenery. It does boast some decent special effects, and Short's energetic brand of physical humor is good for a few simplistic laughs, but otherwise it's just your basic cable-friendly time filler.
Production Company Warner Bros., The Guber-Peters Company, Amblin Entertainment
Release Date Jul 1, 1987
Duration 2 h
Rating PG
Tagline This summer take a trip you'll never forget.
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
Guinness World Record Award
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination