Innerspace (1987)

Thinking Small

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Innerspace on DVD

After the huge success of Gremlins, director Joe Dante couldn't get another hit if he paid for it. Innerspace (1987, Warner Home Video, $19.98) should have been a huge summer blockbuster, but if memory serves, it never even arrived at my small town multiplex until the fall, and even then only for a single midnight screening. In what Dante calls his "Martin and Lewis" film, Dennis Quaid plays a cocky San Francisco cosmonaut named Tuck Pendleton who volunteers to be shrunk down to the size of a molecule and injected into the body of a rabbit for study. Instead -- thanks to bad guys who want to get their hands on the formula -- he finds himself injected into a hypochondriac Safeway bagger named Jack Putter (Martin Short). Meg Ryan co-stars as Quaid's girlfriend, who lends a hand. Though the film plays like a mix of exhilarating adventure and smart comedy, it's deepened by the notion that little Quaid is floating around inside Short's body sinking hooks into things, ripping open veins, triggering stomach acid, and the like. At one point, Short requests that Quaid cause him "no pain" during their journey, but I'd hate to see the damage done to his insides after the film's end. Steven Spielberg executive produced.

DVD Details: The new DVD is bargain priced, and contains a Dante commentary track, plus multiple extras, including deleted scenes.

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Fiona Lewis, Vernon Wells, Robert Picardo, Wendy Schaal, Harold Sylvester, William Schallert, Henry Gibson, John Hora, Mark L. Taylor, Orson Bean, Kevin Hooks, Kathleen Freeman, Archie Hahn, Dick Miller
Written by: Chip Proser, Jeffrey Boam, based on a story by Chip Proser
Directed by: Joe Dante
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 120 minutes
Date: August 15, 2002