Rather long for a film like this, it could have made its point in 90 minutes and been even more entertaining. It takes at least a half an hour to get the story started after a long exposition sequences over scientific experiments which ends with supermarket assistant manager Martin Short being with a syringe that sends the shrunken Dennis Quaid soaring through his body, sending government agents after him, and creating a bizarre series of events that are more frustrating than amusing. Short must locate Quaid's girlfriend, reporter Meg Ryan, but this just puts everybody in danger.

While this is labeled as a science-fiction comedy, other than Short's presence, I felt nothing comical within it. In fact, this is rather intense and Short is in danger from the moment that the syringe is pricked into him. A lot of the stuff going on with Quaid inside Short's body was actually uncomfortable to hear about, and basically, the star of the film are the special effects, not the mega stars Quaid, Ryan and Short. Kevin McCarthy is a major bad guy, and there are some fun cameos by familiar faces including Kathleen Freeman, Henry Gibson, William Schallert, Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin.

After a while outside of the special effects, it becomes very tedious, and you can see why this has not entered into the canon of classics from the Spielberg production team. They should have focused on the story as much as they did the special effects, so the direction of Joe Dante doesn't really stand up to snuff. Fiona Lewis is a rather severe scientist with Robert Picardo ridiculously over the top as a Mexican cowboy a little too impressed with himself. This may have been a hot summer blockbuster in 1987, but in film history, it's frozen as far as its Legacy is concerned.

Joe Dante may be the zaniest director out there, along with Tim Burton. "Matinee" is my favorite of his movies, but "Innerspace" is certainly also up there. For the for couple of minutes, I couldn't figure out what was going on, but suddenly, the plot became clear. Lt. Tuck Pendleton (Dennis Quaid) is shrunk down to the size of a dust speck to be injected into an animal - a la "Fantastic Voyage". But then, a terrorist group seizes the lab and one of the scientists carries the hypodermic out. With his last bit of strength, he injects Tuck into local dweeb Jack Putter (Martin Short) - without informing Jack of this. From there, some very embarrassing predicaments arise for the two men, not the least of which is how to explain the situation to explain to Tuck's hubby Lydia Maxwell (Meg Ryan).

Throughout, "Innerspace" has Dante's quirky mark all over it. Dante of course gives a role to Dick Miller: in this case, Miller plays a cab driver. Dante regulars Kevin McCarthy and Robert Picardo also star, the former as villain Victor Scrimshaw, the latter as Scrimshaw's associate Cowboy. With some crazy lines, this movie is pure fun for everyone.

One of those quintessential family movies of the 1980s, INNERSPACE turns out not to have dated a bit since it was first release. The story, which is heavily indebted to the '60s movie FANTASTIC VOYAGE, sees Dennis Quaid shrunk down to miniature size and injected into the body of super-nerd Martin Short. What follows plays out as a live action cartoon, which is no surprise with Joe Dante at the helm. Dante is one of those directors who doesn't know how to make an unappealing movie, and INNERSPACE is one of his most entertaining efforts.

I've never been a huge fan of Dennis Quaid, and his performance here is hardly endearing: he plays a rude, arrogant, loud-mouthed drunk for much of the film, and casting Meg Ryan as his insipid girlfriend isn't much help either. Still, I do like Martin Short, and his turn here is rather endearing and genuinely funny, especially when infused with the clumsy slapstick style of humour. Dante has a great eye for a supporting cast, fleshing out roles for the likes of old-timer Kevin McCarthy (a ball as the bad guy),Vernon Wells as the hit-man, Fiona Lewis, Robert Picardo as an unlikely cowboy and, of course, Dick Miller.

The script is light and airy and never lets itself get bogged down in science. The journeys inside the body are excellent and have all the imagination of an outer space classic. Finally, we get Rob Bottin contributing some literally jaw-dropping FX work, which rounds out the package nicely. The 1980s may well have been the decade that taste forgot, but they sure knew how to make a fun movie back then.