Batteries Not Included (1987) | Matthew Robbins

Published: Jan. 19, 2019, 4:45 a.m.

Real-life married couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy\xa0star as Frank and Faye Riley, the owners of a small diner in a dilapidated building that also houses their apartment in the slums of Manhattan.\xa0 The rest of the tenants of the building are being paid off to evacuate ASAP, so that greedy land developers can take over and demolish the building in order to erect some high-rise corporate edifices.\xa0 Those that refuse are being threatened with injury \u201cor worse\u201d by some local thugs that are also on the corporate payroll to scare the bejesus out of the remaining tenants.\xa0 Without anyone to turn to, a desperate plea may have saved the day, as a couple of miniature flying saucers arrive, consuming metal materials and then fixing up damaged parts of the building.\xa0 The saucers befriend the remaining tenants, although the thugs and land developers are determined to put an end to this new development even if it costs lives in the process.\xa0 Steven Spielberg produced this quaint sci-fi fairy tale.