Product Details

• Actors: Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Frank McRae, Elizabeth Peña, Michael Carmine (II)
• Directors: Matthew Robbins
• Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 1, 1992
• Run Time: 106 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1558800034
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,704 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Quite possibly the nadir of Steven Spielberg's career as a producer, this piece of sentimental junk from 1987 concerns five little spacecraft which arrive on Earth just in time to help out some New Yorkers getting kicked out of a tenement. The script's goo just sticks to the viewer, and the cast looks silly by trying not to be silly. You get the feeling that Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment was pretty much throwing stuff at the wall to see what would hang there, and they came up with this ridiculous thing. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Belongs in every children's collection, March 24, 2004

By	wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: *Batteries Not Included (DVD)

... whether or not you have kids. It has some moments that might make a four-year-old cling to an adult, but every kid I know likes it. No guns, no bloody fights, no chases, and it still holds their interest.

There's plenty here for an adult - "dotty grandma" isn't a completely comic character here. She's not just a tragic figure of senility, either, though she's some of both. Mostly, she's just making her way through each day the best she can, and better than people seem willing to believe. Most of the other characters are similarly on the edge but muddling by well enough, with a little help from their friends.

I honestly can't call this a science fiction movie, despite its SF elements. It's sweet (almost sappy) and funny, the poor-but-honest folk win out over the thugs and evil corporations, and they all live happily ever after. Well, for now, at least.

If there's ever a list of "most under-rated movies", this one gets my vote. I like it.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sentimental little beauty from Spielberg, December 24, 2003

By	Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This 1987 little sentimental ditty was utterly irresistible to the public, even as critics panned it as too schmaltzy. It concerns a squadron of little UFOs who arrive on the room of a NY apartment building, one which is about to be razed as soon as the owners can manage to evict the quirky bunch of tenants. The tenants include Hume Cronin and Jessica Tandy (always and forever a winning pair) as well as a guy who plays a mentally (or emotionally - or maybe both) disabled man who speaks only in set phrases from commercials or TV jingles or product tags, such as that of the title: Batteries Not Included. As the tenants band together to save the lives of the little aliens, including a spine-tingling scene in which one gives birth, the aliens come to the rescue of the folks in danger of eviction - and the tenants, previously a disparate bunch, come together to form a community.
Heartwarming. Great family entertainment

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Blockbuster for Hume and Jessica, June 4, 2000

By	Barbara Farr Kelley (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy have been in many movies together, one reason because they are married in real life (until she died a few years ago) and they were so great together. This movie was heart-wrenching in the fact that Jessica's character had lost her mind since the death of her son in a car accident. It was sweet and memorable and funny with the little spaceships helping them out in their time of need. The little guys brought her back to her senses, and even kept the bad guys from tearing down the building where the people lived.

This is a great show and should be viewed by everyone. If you liked ET, you would love Batteries Not Included. Any movie that has me laughing and crying in the same movie, has got to be great.