reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (07/16/85)
"Explorers" is so lightweight that you'd better hope nobody
coughs when you see it, or it might get blown away. It's well
made, sort of sweet, definitely harmless, fairly entertaining,
and lacking in anything approximating substance. "The Goonies",
by contrast, was a large, indigestible lump. I preferred "Ex-
plorers", but neither film seems of any great importance to me.
You could easily skip "Explorers" and not have to worry about
having missed much of anything.
Telling almost anything beyond the barest essentials of the
beginning of the film would be (and, in the case of many re-
viewers, has been) criminal, for the film has so little plot.
For those who don't like to see a film without knowing a little
bit about it, the most I can fairly tell you is that "Explorers"
is about three boys who, inspired by odd dreams, build a space-
ship.
Joe Dante reveals an unexpected taste for children's tri-
fles, for that is what "Explorers" really is. Who would have
thought that the director of "Piranha", "The Howling", and "Grem-
lins" would come up with a film which almost no parent could pos-
sibly object to? Of course, there is the little problem that, by
and large, once children are old enough to choose films for them-
selves, the last thing they want to see is a film their parents
don't object to. Where, then, will "Explorers" find its audi-
ence? Certainly not among adults, or at least not more than one
time each.
Dante spent too much time watching "E.T." The first half of
the "Explorers" is filled with shots cribbed from Spielberg's
film: slow pans over children's toys, light mists in moonlit
woods, scrounging junk to patch together a high-tech device, and
so on. When the orchestra, led by a bevy of violins, kicks in,
the sense of deja vu is intense. A few characteristic Dante
touches, like the Charles M. Jones Jr. High (that's Chuck Jones,
master director of Bugs Bunny cartoons), liven things up momen-
tarily, but they are few and far between. If "The Goonies"
seemed an overreaction to the fuss about "Indiana Jones", "Ex-
plorers" is an almost alarming retreat in the face of the criti-
cism of "Gremlins". It's the only alarming thing about the film.
For his leads, Dante, doubtless with producer Spielberg's
help, has dipped into the same old pool and come up with three
more attractive, white, male Yuppie puppies. All are adequate,
none are extraordinary, and, in the already overburdened child
actor market, I doubt if they will resurface. Dick Miller, long
time Roger Corman alumnus and a constant fixture in Dante's
films, plays a rather irrelevant part, and that is about all the
cast that matters.
Which leads us to an interesting point. Anyone else out
there think that Steven Spielberg is a sexist? Boys are always
at the center of his films, never girls. The girls in "The
Goonies" are something of spoilsports and don't have as many in-
teresting things to do as the boys. The protagonist of "Back to
the Future" is male. So was the protagonist of "Gremlins". The
little sidekick in "Indiana Jones" was male, and the only woman
was a screeching caricature. The kids in "Explorers" are all
boys, the only girl serving more or less as an icon. Only her
irresistibility kept Drew Barrymore from fading into the back-
ground in "E.T." The women in "Jaws" had minor roles. Only in
"Poltergeist" did Spielberg give us important female characters.
The female parts in "Raiders" and "Close Encounters" weren't too
bad, but they were definitely supporting roles. (There were no
large women's parts in "Fandango" either, but Spielberg took his
name off of that when he saw it wasn't going to be a smash.) You
have to go all the way back to "The Sugarland Express" to find
one of his films which really revolves around a female character.
I doubt if Spielberg is doing this consciously, but the fact
remains that, with George Lucas drowsing in somnolence (and let's
all remember the many great roles he gave to women in the "Star
Wars" films: Princess Leia and... and... wasn't there a woman in
one of the rebel warrooms in "The Empire Strikes Back"?), Spiel-
berg is undeniably the most powerful filmmaker working. He can,
and does, literally make what he wants to make, how he wants to
make it. And it doesn't seem to occur to him to give good roles
to women. Some of the most popular films of the last few years,
and likely some of the most popular films of the next few years,
are being made with little or no on-screen female presence. Talk
about lack of role models.
But, getting back to "Explorers", Spielberg and Dante have
dolled up the production in their usual style, with first rate
effects from Industrial Light and Magic and the usual profession-
al jobs from all the other departments. "Explorers" is just a
well-dressed trifle, and might have been a better film at half
the cost, if a little more vitality could have been injected into
it.
At worst, "Explorers" won't harm anyone, and can serve as a
reasonable entertainment for a couple hours. Boys of 11-14 may
find it a bit more appealing, since the story is told from their
point of view. Anyone else is likely to forget "Explorers" very
quickly. With the number of good, memorable films around, "Ex-
plorers" is one to catch up with when you aren't in the mood for
too much excitement.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reihermarkb@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Mark Biggar) (07/16/85)
Lightweight, but I enjoyed it. Did anyone else notice "rosebud" amoung
the junk at the junk yard?
Mark Biggar
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,akgua,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!markballynh@ucbvax.ARPA (Allyn Hardyck) (07/20/85)
In article <6334@ucla-cs.ARPA> reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP writes: > Telling almost anything beyond the barest essentials of the >beginning of the film would be (and, in the case of many re- >viewers, has been) criminal, for the film has so little plot. The East Bay Express (local rag) already did this - Bay Area people, if you're interested don't look at it too closely. (They did this before with the Twilight Zone movie, the jerks.) >You have to go all the way back to "The Sugarland Express" to find >one of his films which really revolves around a female character. Or forward, to his current filming of "The Color Purple" in North Carolina with Whoopi Goldberg.