Review of Innerspace (1987) by Allan C — 24 May 2015

My favorite Joe Dante film and one of my all-time favorite comedies. I know this film isn't considered an 80s classic like "Back to the Future" but for whatever reason this is a film that I've always loved.

In my video store clerk days, "Innerspace" was one of I always had on high rotation to play during my shifts. The script is by Jeffrey Boam, who had too short of a career but wrote some very good film, and Steven Spielberg produced the film, which is kind of a comic/action take on "The Fantastic Voyage.

" Dennis Quaid is shrunk down to miniature size so he can be injected into a rabbit, but when bad guys breaking the lab to steal the technology, he get's injected into a hapless Safeway clerk, Martin Short.

Quaid established contact with Short through his inner ear and the two then team up to stop by the bad buys and safely get Quaid out of Short. The film is also greatly helped by Meg Ryan, playing Quaid's girlfriend and a plucky reporter working to uncover the story of technological espionage.

The script is witty and clever, the characters are likable, the action if exciting, and the cast is especially good. I remembered most of the jokes in the film, but there were a number of them that I'd forgotten and still cracked me up; Martin Short in the doctor's office, Quaid telling Short how to fight or talk to women, Quaid psyching Short up to jump out of a moving truck or (SPOILER ALERT!) the way director Dante shoots the bad guys after they get shrunk to 50% just kills me.

Director Dante also gets a lot of credit for creating a real connection between Short and Quaid, who are never actually in the same shot together until the end of the film. And this is movie that made me start a crush on Meg Ryan.

I'd seen her in "Top Gun" and "Armed and Dangerous" and liked her there, but this was the film that really gave her the opportunity to show off her cute charm. Besides the main folks involved, you have a strong supporting cast that includes Fiona Lewis, Vernon Wells, Orson Bean, Kathleen Freeman, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Rance Howard, Chuck Jones and Dante stock company actors Robert Picardo, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, Dick Miller, Kevin McCarthy, NS William Schallert.

There's also a find score by Dante's regular composer, the great Jerry Goldsmith. And Rob Bottin provided some of the special effects. Overall, I think this is a classic film that should be better recognized.