Steven Spielberg's Amblin Productions has come up with a typically heartwarming fantasy that retraces the ground covered by E.T., COCOON, and SHORT CIRCUIT by including cute (and marketable) aliens who work miracles for a small group of oppressed people. Set in the slums of Manhattan's
Lower East Side, BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED stars Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy as an elderly couple who, along with a few other residents, resist the gentrification plans of a greedy real estate developer. Things look grim until two flying saucers the size of hubcaps appear on the scene. Dripping
with cutesy sentimentality, BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED still provides enough entertainment to hold the attention of the audience, especially if that audience is below the age of reason. The performances are passable: Tandy and Cronyn are talented enough to avoid looking foolish. The special effects
team has created some truly convincing sequences that give the saucers more personality than the human characters.
