Cocoon, le retour

The only reason this movie was made, was to capitalize on the success of the first Cocoon (1985) and make money. Pointless; witless; inane; formulistic; vapid; moneygrubbing to the point of pandering. A loathsome movie!

I was fascinated by the original Cocoon movie which had a real novel theme and succeeded in making most of us think of the value of old age, the struggles, aspirations and what would happen "if only they could". It was touchy, endearing and with real after thoughts generated out of the theme of aging.

But the return is nothing novel and nothing like the first. It is embarrassing at times. Jack is back with Kitty! Oh ma! We may have excused the innocence of the initial encounter but what is happening in this movie was from clumsy to simply unsophisticated. The pregnancy topic is a mediocre addition, there is an under developed story between the Grandpa and the grandson and overall, nothing really new happening we have not seen in or extrapolated from the first movie. The original cast of "oldies" stays more or less within character and if it was not for hem and actors like Jessica Tandy (Driving Miss Daisy, Fried Green Tomatoes, ...) I would have given an even worst grading.

In short, the magic was gone and it would have been best not to make a sequel.

Completely lacking in originality, and even more in unpredictability, "The Return" gives one the feeling of 'déjà vu', as director Petrie sticks with the identical formula in order to guarantee success. This unfortunately also guarantees that we will get no inspiration from this sequel.

Yet in this light it is well filmed, with each character returning to fill us with the same emotions as the first "Cocoon" film. Stars Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy and Steve Gutenberg all return among others. James Horner's music is also back to enhance the mood. Never as good as the first, but never mind.

Sunday, May 24, 1992 - Video

Multiple different plots, none of them interesting. They try to cram a bunch of stuff in, but don't focus long on any one thing. There's the kid who can't play baseball real good, bernie and his dead wife, the guy whose cancer comes back, the wife who gets hit by a car, the other two old people who are pregnant, wilford brimley and his wife are having doubts about leaving, gutenberg and welch's relationship, an earthquake releases cocoons, an alien gets captured and they have to rescue it, and more. Why are there so many plots, all of them maudlin?

It is laugh out loud funny when the alien looks at courtney cox. It looks like someone in a lumpy vacuum-sealed garbage bag.

I would recommend this to people who want to see a shirtless steve guttenberg in the best shape of his life and people who really like side plots.

I had hesitated on watching this sequel because it good bad reviews, but I really enjoyed it. They had to come back for the cocoons, right? What makes this movie worthwhile is that all of the Seniors struggle with whether they want to leave Earth again. Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be.