Back in 1987, Dennis Quaid and Martin Short looked primed to blast into the box office stratosphere with the Spielberg produced Summer flick INNERSPACE.
Quaid stars as cocky pilot Tuck Pendleton, the first man to be miniaturized inside a "Fantastic Voyage" like craft in a new experimental process. When the bad guys break in to steal the technology, Pendleton finds himself injected into the blood stream of hypochondriac grocery store clerk, Jack Putter.
Martin Short is excellent as Putter, maximizing every facial expression and body contortion for laughs as his character is forced to run for his life and save Pendleton before his oxygen runs out.
The scenes where Tuck latches onto Putter's eardrum and starts talking through a loudspeaker outside his tiny ship to the confused man are hilarious. Putter can't figure out if its voices in his head, God, or he's crazy, but its a priceless scene.
Meg Ryan is fun & cute as Tuck's girlfriend Lydia who gets caught up in the adventure and sixties character actors William Schallert (as Putter's long suffering doctor) and Kevin McCarthy as our lead villain provide plenty of laughs.
The special effects by ILM are great, the music score by Jerry Goldsmith is excellent and Director Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Burbs) keeps thing fast and light.
So why didn't it do better at the box office? Hard to imagine, but if its any consolation, its still a blast nearly 30 years later. Short and Quaid have never been better.
Take Fantastic Voyage, mix in Spielberg's touch, play it for laughs and you have a miniature adventure that gets a full sized B.
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