Flight of the Navigator (1986)

Directed by Randal Kleiser. Starring Joey Cramer, Cliff DeYoung, Veronica Cartwright, Howard Hesseman, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matt Adler, Jonathan Sanger, Albie Whitaker, (voice) Paul Reubens. [PG]

A suburban youth (Cramer) in 1978 Florida takes a bad fall in the woods. When he regains consciousness, eight years have passed, but while his family members have dutifully aged during the interim, he’s the same age—a “victim” of time dilation and an experiment administered by an alien spacecraft’s artificial intelligence, now being kept at a NASA research facility. Think the kid and the spaceship are going to reunite and go on a wild adventure together? Pretty good junior sci-fi flick starts out as an engaging mystery within familiar trappings and character types—had it not been made by Walt Disney Pictures, I would have expected Steven Spielberg’s name to be attached as an executive producer—and later turns into a less-successful kid’s space-age fantasy. The problem with that second half, aside from being oriented too much toward immature shenanigans, is that there’s no real dramatic build-up, and all of the excitement comes courtesy of the hardware, not a sense of danger or discovery. Alan Silvestri’s electronic score and the sleek digital effects are pluses, but the young protagonist is little more than a clone of Henry Thomas’ Elliott from E.T. The ship’s computer, called “Max”, is voiced by Paul “Pee-wee Herman” Reubens, but he went credited as “Paul Mall”; you’d never have guessed the true identity…until the point where Max’s “personality” changes and guessing is no longer necessary.

66/100