Product Details

• Actors: Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford
• Directors: Ron Howard
• Writers: David Saperstein, Tom Benedek
• Producers: David Brown, Lili Fini Zanuck, Richard D. Zanuck, Robert Doudell
• Format: Subtitled, Color, Full Screen, Widescreen
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00020HAV0
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,314 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Cocoon" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

An offbeat and charming comedy with elements of science fiction thrown in, director Ron Howard's (Ransom, Apollo 13) unlikely fantasy ponders the price of immortality and the power of everlasting love. A group of aliens travel to a Florida retirement community to rescue some long-stranded colleagues cocooned and buried beneath the sea. But as the aliens take on human form and stash their counterparts in a swimming pool, a group of elderly retirees discover the pool and after swimming in the water find themselves rejuvenated, with boundless energy and insatiable appetites. Soon the retirees are forced to choose between living out their lives on earth with their families, or leaving with the aliens and attaining immortality. More character driven than dependent on the incredible plot, the film's charm comes from its characters and the wonderful cast, including Don Ameche, who won an Academy Award for his role as one of the randy retirees. --Robert Lane

Product Description

Don Ameche (1985 Academy Award®, Best Supporting Actor), Hume Cronyn, Jack Gilford, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Wilford Brimley and Steve Guttenberg star in this charming fantasy adventure.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every "old folk" should see this... November 6, 2004

By R. Gawlitta

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rescue of stranded aliens leads to charming comedy December 23, 2003

By Peggy Vincent

Format:VHS Tape

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.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A moving, funny, and original sci-fi/fantasy/drama. December 7, 2001

By Erik Morton

Format:VHS Tape

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!

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Summer Movie From the Eighties September 2, 2004

By David Baldwin

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Friendly Extraterrestrials April 17, 2001

By Jacques COULARDEAU

Format:VHS Tape

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.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greats May 1, 2000

By jasenao

Format:VHS Tape

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.