Batteries Not Included

At the heart of this Spielberg production is a clever idea: pocket-sized flying saucers with heavy-lidded flashlights. Unfortunately, the schmaltzy tale that accompanies them would make you puke. Elderly couple Faye and Frank (Tandy and Cronyn) are respectively loco and feisty. Their New York brownstone is threatened with demolition, so Frank prays for a miracle, which arrives in the form of little creatures from another planet. They take up residence in the tenement, where they show an amazing propensity for mending things that are damaged - bye-bye suspense. Robbins' handling of the human element is as sickly and soggy as a dunked doughnut, and the script makes gonks out of its characters. But the flirting frisbee scenes are pretty neat.