Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

GusF It's an absolutely sublime film with a stellar cast of actors playing the elderly characters, particularly Don Ameche (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the film, only his seventh in 36 years, at the age of 77), Jessica Tandy (another elderly Oscar winner but for "Driving Miss Daisy"), her husband Hume Cronyn and Wilford Brimley (the only one still alive, sadly). The younger actors are well cast too such as Brian Dennehy, Steve Guttenberg, Tahnee Welch (who is a better actress than her more famous mother Raquel) and Barret Oliver.The film has an excellent script and explores its timeless themes very well. You certainly don't have to be the characters' age to appreciate the film or even relate to all of their experiences. Ron Howard, one of the best directors of his generation, does a sterling job with the material. Not many films then or now focus their attention almost entirely on characters (particularly ordinary ones) in their 70s but it was a gamble that paid off. These days, I don't think that Hollywood would be willing to take the risk.Only 50 when the film was made, Brimley was decades younger than most of the film's other stars but he looked older than he was. By way of comparison, he was 27 years younger than Gilford and less than 11 years older than Linda Harrison (of "Planet of the Apes" fame, who it was nice to finally hear say more than one word!) who played his daughter in the film. He may have played an elderly man but he is seven years younger than Roger Moore, who played James Bond for the last time in "A View to a Kill" which was released at much the same time! One thing that I loved particularly loved about the film was that the elderly people act like real people. Most of them are just as confused and apprehensive about life as far younger people are. Often in films and TV, elderly characters are either on life support or have no personality outside of the fact that they're old. In this film, they're all individuals and behave as such. Art Selwyn - played by the simply wonderful Don Ameche - is my favourite character. He is basically a well-meaning cad (for want of a better description), an older version of the kind of character that Ameche often played in the 1930s and 1940s.I've always thought that 1985 was the best year for kids, teen and family films and this is my favourite of all the ones that I've seen with the exception of "Back to the Future".

gwnightscream Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Steve Guttenberg, Jessica Tandy and Brian Dennehy star in Ron Howard's 1985 sci-fi film. This takes place in St. Petersburg, Florida where we meet senior citizen pals, Art (Ameche), Ben (Brimley) and Joe (Cronyn) who discover a way to feel youthful again when they swim in a pool energized by alien cocoons. Dennehy (First Blood) plays alien, Walter who is trying to save his friends inside the cocoons and take them to his home planet, Anterea. Guttenberg (Police Academy) plays boatman, Jack who is hired by Walter and his crew to retrieve the cocoons from the ocean discovering they're aliens and Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy) plays Joe's wife, Alma. Soon, Walter loses one of his friends as do Ben and his friends making a deal for them to come with him to Anterea where they will never get older or die. Howard's brother, Clint and father, Rance also appear. This is a good, light-hearted sci-fi flick with a great cast & excellent score by James Horner I recommend.

bkoganbing The Citizen Kane of Ron Howard's directorial career has to be and still is Cocoon. It's a film that combines fantasy and science fiction better than any ever done before or since and it's the most life affirming item you'll ever see on the big screen or small. It also gives some of our older players some really fine roles and brought an Oscar late in his career to one of the class acts of Hollywood.The citizens of one of thousands of nursing homes are just whiling away the end hours of their lives and in Florida there's more of these homes than most places. Three of those citizens are Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn and Don Ameche. One of their activities is to go into an indoor swimming pool in a vacant house next door.But those activities are interrupted when four strangers, Brian Dennehy, Linda Harrison, Clint Howard, and Tyrone Power IV rent the place. It's that swimming pool that interests them. The quartet also rents Steve Guttenberg's boat and they bring up some large size boulder type rocks which they place in the pool.Our senior citizens keep going into the pool even with the rocks there and pretty soon they're noticing some marvelous changes, in Hume Cronyn, the most marvelous of all as his cancer goes into a complete remission, mystifying his doctors. That leads our group now joined by wives Jessica Tandy and Maureen Stapleton for Cronyn and Brimley and companion Gwen Verdon for Ameche that these are some special people.Special they are, humans they're not as the quartet shows them they're aliens in human body suits. And after some heartache and tragedy for both earth people and aliens, the aliens offer these old folks a chance never given to any humans before. For that you see Cocoon for.This is the kind of film that you can watch over and over and still feel good about yourselves and feel good that there are others out there in the vast universe who've played the game of life and have mastered the rules. There are so many other science fiction films that show monsters and other worldly creatures coming to earth with the most malicious of intentions. Cocoon is such a refreshing change.Cocoon got two Oscars in 1985 for special effects and a Best Supporting Actor Award for Don Ameche. In a sense it was wrong to single out Ameche because all the senior citizen players cut some fine characters that you'll remember and enjoy. But Ameche was always a class act in Hollywood, a person you'll not hear an unkind word about written or spoken by his contemporaries in a career that lasted from the Thirties to the Nineties. It was an award for a lifetime more than anything else.One of those characters also was Jack Gilford. There's a famous classic Twilight Zone episode which also takes place in a senior citizen home where the residents there are given the same chance as these people are. With a lot less attention I might add. Gilford fulfills the same function as Russell Collins did in The Twilight Zone, the one who stays behind because he can't bring himself to take the step necessary.Who knows how long or if humankind will approach what these aliens have, but in many ways Cocoon offers a peak into an existence more fabulous than ever portrayed on film before.

MongoTheMuser This is a lovely, not-to-be-missed, golden-era style "Fountain of Youth" comedy and drama -- just add a touch of aliens! The incredibly talented cast of actors portraying the "old folks" all breathe wonderful life into each scene. Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, and Hume Cronyn do especially fine, natural portrayals here, as does Jack Gilford, although his role is more that of a single-note character. Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy and Gwen Verdon do stellar work here as well. This is a warm, lovable film about friendship and laughter in the face of aging. Mongo's Rating: 8.3 stars in a 10- star world. That's the Upside -- and this charmer of a film is nearly all so. The Downside? Steve Guttenberg nearly poisons the film with his sticky, clownishly hollow portrayals. He nearly brings his reverse Midas touch to bear here as well, but remains at the far edges of tolerability. Still, your nausea-meter may be pinging in the red, dangerously so, during his unavoidably numerous appearances.)