Customer Reviews

Cocoon [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

When I first saw this film on video, I decided to rent a video player and visit my elderly parents...and they never had such a good time.My folks are gone now, and my stubborn dad, who hated practically everything, laughed is butt off. He hated movies, in general, but his reaction to "Cocoon" was gratifyting to me. I could analyze many aspects of the film, but there's little to say, other than the fact that the actors were in touch with their material and ran with it. Ron Howard made a more important film than he may know. To me, anyway... Every old folk should see this film.

A group of aliens arrives in a Florida retirement community to rescue their colleagues who have been cocooned and settled beneath the sea. The aliens unzip and zip on their human costumes - the initial unveiling, witnessed by the boat captain, is beautiful and worthy of an award - and stash their rescued buddies in the compound's swimming pool. The retirees, after swimming in the pool, experience personal rejuvenation: they make love like teenage boys, eat like athletes, and Don Ameche's Olympian diving performance is memorable in itself. And then the retirees, now in on the secret, are asked to choose between attaining immortality by leaving with the aliens - or living our their lifespan on earth with their surviving loved ones.
Wonderful, heartening and heartbreaking, inspiring film, directed by Ron Howard, and soooo beautifully cast.

This is one of the few movies I've seen that has really made me cry. Director Ron Howard scores it big with this wonderful movie, and the plot is verrrrry original; three old men who live at a retirement center sneak over to a close-by deserted house every day to take a swim in the swimming pool. But a group of aliens disguised as humans come down to earth to save some of their comrades that they left there thousands of years ago, who are now sealed in large rock-like cocoons beneath the ocean, and take them home. And when they put the cocoons in the swimming pool to keep them alive and the old men go for a swim, they come out feeling like a million bucks! This would be a perfect family film if it wasn't so sexual and vulgar at times (hence the PG-13 rating). But for nine years and up, this is a sure treat. Don Ameche does a wonderful job as one of the old men, and Steve Guttenberg is downright funny as the guy who owns the boat the aliens use, and has a love affair with one of the aliens, as well. It has good lessons on friendship and love, and is a tear-jerker at times. A VERY GOOD movie!

This is one of my favorite films from Director Ron Howard. It's a highly original sci-fi story that is more character and story driven that is not heavily reliant on CGI, unlike a lot of what passes today for summer entermainment. The story involves a group of benevolent aliens who return to Earth near the Florida coast to retrieve some comrades that were left behind on a prior mission from the bottom of the ocean. They store their lifepods in a swimming pool that some local retirees use and to the surprise of the seniors the pool contains a rejuvenating lifeforce. The cast, particularly the older actors, are uniformly excellent. One minor qualm is the finale of the film is somewhat derivative of Spielberg; the aliens mothership even looks like the one in "Close Encounters". I had not seen this film since it's initial release and it holds up remarkably well.

If you have read Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, please get to this film. A positive vision of Extraterrestrials. They are a world where people do not age, where there is no war, where is no disease, where there is no hatred. We can of course think there are no feelings either. Yet, there are and when they are confronted to the human world they discover feelings in no time, and those are not human at all, they are universal : the sadness of death, the sadness of leaving friends, and a few others, even love. Old people dream of living forever, even if it means being productive forever. There is nothing worse for pensioners than to be pensioners, that is to say people completely controled by rules and who have no productive activities for society or other people. A world of eternal productivity is a dream that only pensioners can afford. But it is the most human and the deepest feeling of them all. And this can only come from an estraterrestrial vision of the world. Will our society get to that level, ever, we don't know, we hope so, but we definitely cannot say it will happen ever. A marvelous film about aging and the drama of becoming useless for society, and a slave of dumb rules that deprive you of any freedom or free choice. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

This movie is unique in that the main characters are senior citizens. It is another film in the parade of science fiction pictures that came out in the early eighties. But what sets this one apart from the others is the premise of events affecting people in the latter part of their lives. The actors in this film are truly talented and shine in their roles. As you learn from the commentary by Ron Howard, many lines were improvised on the spot and add immeasurably to the emotional texture of the screenplay.

Ron Howard has made a memorable movie that will entertain people of most ages. I would not call it a family film as it has several profanities that parents will not want young children to hear.

I saw it when I was 8 and still love it until today.The story is funny,touching,and heartwarming.One of the best 80's movies.Worth watching over and over.

I remember going to Movie Gallery with my mom and seeing Cocoon on the shelves a few years ago. I asked her if it was good and she said no. There's a lot of movies that I really like that she hates. I read about it and I wanted to see it. When I did, I wondered why she didn't like it. It was about an alien family that kept mysterious eggs in a swimming pool while they stayed here on earth. Some old people found out after swimming in the pool while the eggs were in it, that it made them feel young again. All the actors did a great job acting young as did the wives who liked it at first but later got tired of their husbands wanting to go everywhere and do everything.

Some of the lines from the film were hilarious and it even had some suspense in parts. It kept me interested because I wanted to see if the old guys got caught in the pool after promising the aliens they wouldn't get anywhere near them and to see how the movie ended. The ending sequence had some great special effects; especially for a film that came out in the mid 80's.

If you like comedy movies with a touch of sci-fi or if you like laughing at all, I definitely recommend getting this movie. In my opinion, it's a classic.

The Film COCOON is a definite classic.It's much more than just a comedy.The basic outline of the Aliens who come to rescue their groundcrew and how some old folks get involved is revealing on many levels. It is a great film with superb entertainment value, and if you look at it more deeply( after listening to The Directors Commentary)then you will be the richer for it.
The majority of scenes are all "practical" using the existing places in St Petersburg on the West Coast of Florida; this area is very historic in all respects. What some people may miss is that the evening shots are mostly done in or near the Bahamas( East Coast !!), so that was a bit of a cheat.
Anyway, the only down side of this edition is the dual Sided single Disc with Widescreen and Full Screen... those single discs with two sides are such a headache since their size is not consistent with most players ( especially PC based Players) but works perfectly on the DVP 642 by Phillips, as at this date, that Phillips DVD player is the best value for dollar DVD player around in Zone 1, which also plays mutiple Zones of various discs.
The Extra features are very good, especially on the general cost of this disc which is usually under 6 dollars.
You will see the problems with Analogue to digital transfers ( especially near the start) where the window shot is done Chroma-key, and some visual definition issues occur, which COULD have been cleaned up if the studio had spent the money.

Overall , an excellent package.

It was Father's Day, 1985. "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom" was the big movie playing against this Ron Howard film, which was still going strong. I'd convinced the family to see this movie on the strength of Siskel & Ebert's "At The Movies" review. Once we were seated in the nearly full theater, I heard a kid grumble about this not being "Indiana Jones..." The spaceship did a planetary flyby, and movie magic took over. My father, one of "The Greatest Generation," who'd weathered the deaths of his parents shortly before and during The Depression, and served with the 442nd RCT in Italy was a no-nonsense sort. He mentioned that this was a good film, a little far-fetched, but nice nevertheless. I suspect that seeing classic actors like Don Ameche in a lively film about taking chances and meeting Life head on made his day. He died in 1998, but this is/was something wonderful that the whole family enjoyed. And I didn't hear another peep out of that kid about missing "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom," either.