Test pilot Tuck Pendleton (Quaid) volunteers to test a special vessel for a miniaturization project. When he is accidentally injected into a nerve-frazzled supermarket clerk named Jack Putter (Short), Tuck must convince Jack to find his ex-girlfriend, Lydia (Ryan), to help extract Tuck and his ship and re-enlarge them before his oxygen runs out, all while keeping ahead of killer industrial spies.
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When looking through 80’s flicks to watch, I stumbled across one I hadn’t seen in decades – Innerspace. A comedy from that decade, it’s been pretty much forgotten, as all of its stars have moved on to bigger hits: Dennis Quaid (The Day After Tomorrow), Martin Short (Three Amigos!) and Meg Ryan (Sleepless in Seattle). Would this classic sci-fi comedy still be worth watching, or is better relegated to the junk bin?
All three of its main stars do a good job in Innerspace, and all stay pretty much in tune with their normal characters. Dennis Quaid is the dashing hotshot pilot that seem to always land on his feet; Meg Ryan is the girl-next-door love interest, and Martin Short is the goofy but likeable loser. It’s not much of a stretch for any of them, but they seem to have a bit of fun in this wacky film.
Miniaturization seems to have gotten a second chance at the movie theaters with Ant-Man showing it can still be entertaining. But that probably owes a lot to the miniaturization craze kicked off by Honey I Shrunk the Kids back in the 80’s. Innerspace capitalizes on that craze, and injects a miniature pilot (and submersible) into the bloodstream of an unsuspecting goofball. This setup gives Martin Short plenty of chances to act like a goofball, and he plays it to the hilt, in some of the best sequences in the film.
Unfortunately, Innerspace amps up the cheese level to a degree recognizable from most 80’s action comedies. It’s funny, sure, but don’t try to put much thought into watching it. Just pop some popcorn, chuckle at Martin Short’s goofy antics, and don’t look too deep – there’s all sorts of plot holes just waiting to be found.
The special effects are decent enough. While the inner workings of the human body seem pretty hazy and indistinct (they weren’t aiming for the gross-out, just setting the scene), the few clearer sequences are still impressive even now. No cheesy 80’s lighting effects here! While they might not have had the tech to showcase the details they may have wanted (as evidenced by the ancient computers in the lab sequences), their approach gives just enough to keep the visuals looking decent even over 35 years later.
If you feel like you’ve kind of seen this story before Innerspace, most likely you have. Most notably, in Fantastic Voyage and a similar version in the live-action/animation hybrid Osmosis Jones. Still, Quaid, Short and Ryan stay true to form and help to make this one funny enough to be worth checking out anyway.
