*batteries not included (1987)

 

Directed by: Matthew Robbins
Starring: Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Frank McRae, Elizabeth Pena, Dennis Boutsikaris, Michael Carmine, John Pankow, Michael Greene, Tom Aldredge, Wendy Schaal

107 minutes
(PG - mild language, some sci-fi/fantasy violence)

PLOT:
Lacey Incorporated, a development company, has demolished an entire block on New York City's Lower East Side, the one old building remaining because a handful of its tenants refuse to be bought or forced out. Lacey's right hand man, Kovacs, has hired Carlos and some other men as muscle, they attempting to force the remaining tenants out in any way they can, including the use of violence if need be. Each within the misfit group of tenants has one issue or another in his or her life, some of these issues which make staying in the building and neighborhood all the more important. After Carlos delivers what he considers the final blow in handing over the buyout money and then destroying most of the tenants' personal possessions still remaining in the building, the tenants find that they have a group of new, inexplicable allies: two animated, flying electronic objects seemingly created by their destroyed metal possessions. These objects literally and figuratively are fed and thus able to assist in recreating destroyed objects and to procreate by nuts and bolts and a constant supply of electricity, they who have made a home in the shed on the building's roof. While the tenants differ on whether they should figure out who/what these objects are and why the objects are there or whether they should not look this proverbial gift horse in the mouth, one question in the realm of "why" is if there is a limited time frame that these objects will be around to help in the battle against Lacey and Carlos. Meanwhile, Carlos is determined to find out what/who these objects are in wanting to destroy what made him look like a fool, and Lacey goes to even more extreme measures to reach his end goal.

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