Product Description

Don Ameche (1985 Academy Award®, Best Supporting Actor), Hume Cronyn, Jack Gilford, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Wilford Brimley and Steve Guttenberg star in this charming fantasy adventure.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8891 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Subtitled, Color, Full Screen, Widescreen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
An offbeat and charming comedy with elements of science fiction thrown in, director Ron Howard's (Ransom, Apollo 13) unlikely fantasy ponders the price of immortality and the power of everlasting love. A group of aliens travel to a Florida retirement community to rescue some long-stranded colleagues cocooned and buried beneath the sea. But as the aliens take on human form and stash their counterparts in a swimming pool, a group of elderly retirees discover the pool and after swimming in the water find themselves rejuvenated, with boundless energy and insatiable appetites. Soon the retirees are forced to choose between living out their lives on earth with their families, or leaving with the aliens and attaining immortality. More character driven than dependent on the incredible plot, the film's charm comes from its characters and the wonderful cast, including Don Ameche, who won an Academy Award for his role as one of the randy retirees. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews

Rescue of stranded aliens leads to charming comedy
A group of aliens arrives in a Florida retirement community to rescue their colleagues who have been cocooned and settled beneath the sea. The aliens unzip and zip on their human costumes - the initial unveiling, witnessed by the boat captain, is beautiful and worthy of an award - and stash their rescued buddies in the compound's swimming pool. The retirees, after swimming in the pool, experience personal rejuvenation: they make love like teenage boys, eat like athletes, and Don Ameche's Olympian diving performance is memorable in itself. And then the retirees, now in on the secret, are asked to choose between attaining immortality by leaving with the aliens - or living our their lifespan on earth with their surviving loved ones.
Wonderful, heartening and heartbreaking, inspiring film, directed by Ron Howard, and soooo beautifully cast.

Every "old folk" should see this...
When I first saw this film on video, I decided to rent a video player and visit my elderly parents...and they never had such a good time.My folks are gone now, and my stubborn dad, who hated practically everything, laughed is butt off. He hated movies, in general, but his reaction to "Cocoon" was gratifyting to me. I could analyze many aspects of the film, but there's little to say, other than the fact that the actors were in touch with their material and ran with it. Ron Howard made a more important film than he may know. To me, anyway... Every old folk should see this film.

A moving, funny, and original sci-fi/fantasy/drama.
This is one of the few movies I've seen that has really made me cry. Director Ron Howard scores it big with this wonderful movie, and the plot is verrrrry original; three old men who live at a retirement center sneak over to a close-by deserted house every day to take a swim in the swimming pool. But a group of aliens disguised as humans come down to earth to save some of their comrades that they left there thousands of years ago, who are now sealed in large rock-like cocoons beneath the ocean, and take them home. And when they put the cocoons in the swimming pool to keep them alive and the old men go for a swim, they come out feeling like a million bucks! This would be a perfect family film if it wasn't so sexual and vulgar at times (hence the PG-13 rating). But for nine years and up, this is a sure treat. Don Ameche does a wonderful job as one of the old men, and Steve Guttenberg is downright funny as the guy who owns the boat the aliens use, and has a love affair with one of the aliens, as well. It has good lessons on friendship and love, and is a tear-jerker at times. A VERY GOOD movie!