‘I’m right here, INSIDE you INSIDE YOUR BODY!’
It’s almost impossible to predict which films will become culturally important and which films will just fall by the wayside like a fart in the wind. Innerspace shares a director with Gremlins (Joe Dante), an executive producer with every damn blockbuster ever made (Steven Spielberg) and a star with The Day After Tomorrow (Dennis Quaid) and yet… it hasn’t be mentioned in polite conversation since about 1992. Despite sharing a similar premise with Honey I Shrunk the Kids and having a similar feel to many of those classic 80s movies from days of yore, something about Innerspace has prevented it from enduring in the hearts of men. The possibility must be considered that this collective amnesia has been brought about because Innerspace simply isn’t that good.
Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) is a test pilot and jackass. A loveable rogue. He takes a break from starting fights at the gentleman’s club to inhabit the body of a neurotic store clerk (Martin Short), all under the watchful eye of his on/off girlfriend Lydia (Meg Ryan).
It all starts so well for Innerspace. Dennis Quaid is wonderful as a kind of even more obnoxious version of Maverick from Top Gun and Martin Short has a lot of fun portraying a highly strung supermarket clerk. So far, so cult classic. Things start to go wrong when the preposterous central premise kicks in. Once Quaid disappears into the black hole that is Martin Short’s subconscious, the whole thing feels like a kind of trundle to a predictable conclusion. There are some funny moments along the way, and both main players give it their all (particularly Short was is fantastic throughout) but, in the end, the jokes don’t land often enough, the script isn’t memorable enough and the plot is just too weird to really be deemed a success.
Innerspace is an enjoyable way to spend an hour or so if you are looking for a hit of niche 80s nostalgia, but unfortunately for director and his cast, there are so many other films that are a bit like this one except that they are considerably better. Don’t expect it to make a comeback any time soon.