Rating: 
Summary: One star for those AMAZING clothes, that's all!
Review: I saw this first in 1985 when I was 23 years old. I don't remember what I really thought about it then. I guess I thought it was "okay". Well, the library had it and so I brought it home. For 11 years or so, we had no TV or movies in our lives. Now we have a 13" video player and watch all the great old classics. We wanted to see this to see Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn as older folks together, since we have liked them in some of the old classics.My opinion of this film...it is horrible. It was a big waste of time for me,but I saw it through to the end, to see what I remembered. All I remembered was that the old folks swam in the pool with the cocoons in it and felt better. That's about it. If I had remembered all the inappropriate language ( I just don't like hearing people swearing, and to hear old folks swearing and using sexual gutter language is even worse!) I wouldn't have bothered to watch it. I love how in the old films, everyone got along just fine without swearing all the time. Why do the modern films have to have it? People call this a family film??? I wouldn't let my children watch it, when everyone is swearing and grandpa uses words like "boner". I don't go for fantasy stuff and I felt this film was a bit corny in that area. One very humorous thing was the clothes in this film. Sure,you can expect old folks to lack in taste somewhat, but everyone did! It was hilarious...I mean were some of those outfits for real, or a joke??? Those plaid pants, those brightly colored leisure jackets with weird patterns... I am a Christian and also did not like the fact that this film gives people a false picture of the reality of eternity for man. Was glad when this was over, but my 19 yr. old daughter was gladder. We put in a 1930's film right afterwards to help us forget the cinematic strangeness we had just witnessed. How nice to watch a good film where people can communicate effectively without any swearing!
Rating: 
Summary: A true classic
Review: I was about five when this film came out. I became a huge fan of Jessica Tandy, Don Ameche and Wilford Brimley afterward. The entire cast was classic and spectacular and even now my heart jumps a few beats when I see this movie on cable tv. Most of the actors in this film were the greatest hollywood had to offer. Maureen Stapleton rocked and I can remember how hearing Frank Sinatra crooning, 'You make me feel so young' in the scene in the kitchen where Brimley and Stapleton dance. I became a huge Sinatra fan afterward. This is the perfect movie for young people for many reasons, but mostly because it's not like any other Alien flick out there.
Still one of my favorites!
Rating: 
Summary: I can't believe I'm the First
Review: I'm the first person to write a review of Cocoon! I thought it was a big hit. Oh well. It's very good. Great special effects. Very sentimental. The ending is too science fictiony though. If you really want good science fiction, rent Close Encounters.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Classic 80's Movie
Review: I've long been a bog fan of Ron Howard. I loved his acting and I also love his directing, past & present. To me, this movie ranks as one of his best. In all fairness to the Christians that have written reviews, I'd have to agree about the language issue. I probably would've cut back on the profanity if I'd have written the script. But on the other hand, this movie didn't have the typical nudity & violence that many movies did in the 90's and still do today. So, on that end of things, it's a much better movie. I saw this movie at a friend's house back in the 80's. Back in the fall of 2000, I bought a used copy off of the internet for myself. I usually watch it 2 to 3 times a year. I'm still amazed at the themes that are in this movie. You'll find things like marriage, family, friendship, moving on, handling tough times, and priorities, among the many. I always find myself re-examing my life after I see it. To those that emjoyed it, I agree wholeheartedly with what's been said by those reviewers. To those that didn't, I would simply ask this: How does this movie rank with movies that actually make the theaters today? Think about it.
Rating:
Summary: Friendly Extraterrestrials
Review: If you have read Stephen King's Dreamcatcher, please get to this film. A positive vision of Extraterrestrials. They are a world where people do not age, where there is no war, where is no disease, where there is no hatred. We can of course think there are no feelings either. Yet, there are and when they are confronted to the human world they discover feelings in no time, and those are not human at all, they are universal : the sadness of death, the sadness of leaving friends, and a few others, even love. Old people dream of living forever, even if it means being productive forever. There is nothing worse for pensioners than to be pensioners, that is to say people completely controled by rules and who have no productive activities for society or other people. A world of eternal productivity is a dream that only pensioners can afford. But it is the most human and the deepest feeling of them all. And this can only come from an estraterrestrial vision of the world. Will our society get to that level, ever, we don't know, we hope so, but we definitely cannot say it will happen ever. A marvelous film about aging and the drama of becoming useless for society, and a slave of dumb rules that deprive you of any freedom or free choice. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
Rating:
Summary: "Men should be explorers, no matter how old they are."
Review: In 1985, the well-known actor/director Ron Howard directed the charming and endearing sci-fi film "Cocoon". Set along the Florida coast, a group of aliens that have taken human form return to Earth to retrieve shipmates that they were forced to leave behind in suspended animation thousands of years ago. They hire a boat owned by Jack Bonner (Steve Guttenberg), who believes that his employers are nothing more than a group of divers and is very attracted to one of them who is named Kitty (Tahnee Welch). The alien in charge goes by the name of Walter (Brian Dennehy). After retrieving some very large objects from the ocean depths, the aliens take the objects to an indoor swimming pool within a large beach house that they have rented. Next door to the beach house is a retirement home. The aliens' activities as well as the desire to swim within the pool tempts several of the retirement home's eldery residents to sneak into the private beach house. These residents, which include Arthur Selwyn (Don Ameche, 1908-1993), Benjamin Luckett (Wilford Brimley) and Joseph Finley (Hume Cronyn, 1911-2003), start to feel invigorated after taking a swim in the pool; so they invite their wives to join them: Marilyn Luckett (Maureen Stapleton), Alma Finley (Jessica Tandy, 1909-1994) and Bess McCarthy (Gwen Verdon, 1925-2000). As their health and strength continue to improve, the six try to keep their illicit swimming pool activies a secret, but are not entirely successful. Further, not everyone offered restored youth approves. With its brilliant story, acting and directing, "Cocoon" won Don Ameche an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the film itself won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Other memorable characters in the film include Bernard Lefkowitz (Jack Gilford, 1908-1990), his wife Rosie Lefkowitz (Herta Ware), Benjamin & Marilyn's grandson David (Barret Oliver) and Susan (Linda Harrison, who played the character Nova in the 1968 "Planet of the Apes"). Memorable scenes include the swimming pool scenes, Jack and Kitty, the six residents doing various activities that they otherwise couldn't do, no longer a secret, and the closing scenes. Overall, I rate "Cocoon" with 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: "Men should be explorers, no matter how old they are."
Review: In 1985, the well-known actor/director Ron Howard directed the charming and endearing sci-fi film "Cocoon". Set along the Florida coast, a group of aliens that have taken human form return to Earth to retrieve shipmates that they were forced to leave behind in suspended animation thousands of years ago. They hire a boat owned by Jack Bonner (Steve Guttenberg), who believes that his employers are nothing more than a group of divers and is very attracted to one of them who is named Kitty (Tahnee Welch). The alien in charge goes by the name of Walter (Brian Dennehy). After retrieving some very large objects from the ocean depths, the aliens take the objects to an indoor swimming pool within a large beach house that they have rented. Next door to the beach house is a retirement home. The aliens' activities as well as the desire to swim within the pool tempts several of the retirement home's eldery residents to sneak into the private beach house. These residents, which include Arthur Selwyn (Don Ameche, 1908-1993), Benjamin Luckett (Wilford Brimley) and Joseph Finley (Hume Cronyn, 1911-2003), start to feel invigorated after taking a swim in the pool; so they invite their wives to join them: Marilyn Luckett (Maureen Stapleton), Alma Finley (Jessica Tandy, 1909-1994) and Bess McCarthy (Gwen Verdon, 1925-2000). As their health and strength continue to improve, the six try to keep their illicit swimming pool activies a secret, but are not entirely successful. Further, not everyone offered restored youth approves. With its brilliant story, acting and directing, "Cocoon" won Don Ameche an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the film itself won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Other memorable characters in the film include Bernard Lefkowitz (Jack Gilford, 1908-1990), his wife Rosie Lefkowitz (Herta Ware), Benjamin & Marilyn's grandson David (Barret Oliver) and Susan (Linda Harrison, who played the character Nova in the 1968 "Planet of the Apes"). Memorable scenes include the swimming pool scenes, Jack and Kitty, the six residents doing various activities that they otherwise couldn't do, no longer a secret, and the closing scenes. Overall, I rate "Cocoon" with 5 out of 5 stars and highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Snug sentimentality.
Review: Putative science fiction movie about the culture clash between aliens with vast reserves of motiveless benignity and senior-citizen Earthlings . . . it's really more grounded in the tradition of fairy tales, or, perhaps more apt, children's stories to be read before bedtime. Along the fairy tale line we have the overriding symbol of the Fountain of Youth (in this case, the Indoor Swimming Pool of Youth) which is supposed to indicate, roughly, a Be-Careful-You-May-Get-What-You-Wish-For moral. The movie is annoying, redeemed only by the charm of the old campaigners in the cast. It's not the fairy tale aspect that irritates so much as the cloying sentimentality that the tale is cocooned in. Director Ron Howard seems obviously influenced by his (apparent) idol, Steven Spielberg, that other great . . . "populist entertainer". (I was going to use another phrase.) Howard, Spielberg -- what's the difference? Same basic outlook; same basic movies.
Rating:
Summary: Formulaic, yes...but unexpected as well...
Review: Sometimes forced, but also very forward and real as well. My own grandmother lived in the very same retirement community featured in the film before it reached theaters, and many of the bittersweet scenes are very genuine to me , handled well by an excellent cast of seasoned actors (some of most poignant scenes for me are when things are acknowledged without dialogue...seeing people of your own generation passing away before your very eyes as practically an everyday occurance, for example...). The grandparent talking about having to be parted with his grandchild someday--regardless of his destination--was something I could relate to in my own life, as I`m sure many people can; the topic is timeless. Now in my thirties, I look back at the relationships between generations, the subject of divorce becoming more of a reality that was increasingly hard to ignore in my own generation, and the way we treated Seniors in general and do today as well. The characters are not the passive and doddering old folks we`ve come to stereotype; they have lives of their own, individual personalities, and their "eccentricities" are those of everyday people and how they approach both life and death. Yes, the soundtrack in particular is reminiscent of "E.T." and "An American Tail", and yes, it is overdone in parts and very `80`s, but the main story revolves around not the Sci-Fi elements, but around the relationships of friends and loved ones facing the reality of aging. See it for that, and don`t miss the great chemistry between the likes of Jessica Tandy ("pre-Miss Daisy" with her husband Hume Cronyn), Don Ameche, Maureen Stapleton, Wilford Brimley, et.al. Take away what you will from the movie; it has enough touching and funny moments worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Who wants to live forever?
Review: This is a charming comedy based in the science fiction the addresses the issue of immortality, everlasting love, and the price paid for either. It was a movie the could potentially move the easy criers to tears, and will make anyone watching it laugh. The cast is great and Ron Howard has outdone himself. Truly enjoyable.
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