Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Just saw Ethan Hawke promoting his new movie on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallow (June 15, 2017). Can't believe he's 46. Well it got me reminiscing about his first movie, Explorers. So here I am. It may not be an epic flick but it is a classic. The movie My Science Project falls in the same category. Watching Explorers takes me back to my childhood.

Couldn't remember this film but was running out of good family films the kids hadn't seen and remembered all the other kids films from the eighties being fab so thought I'd give this a try. I was enjoying it and so were the kids until the aliens were revealed. It started so well! The acting was good, the different characters were very relatable, even the effects were fairly believable and it was good to see how the boys progressed with their knowledge until they created their spaceship. Even when they first got to the alien spaceship it was OK, like a big funhouse. But then we met the aliens. They were awful, really cringeingly awful. One of them didn't even really talk to the boys but just gabbled on like a cheesy American advert all the time. They were godawful ugly and looked and sounded completely fake. Spoiler... The idea that they were children was OK (i think Stephen king may have stolen and improved on this idea for his book Under the Dome!) but why oh why did they have to ruin a good movie with such farcical, nauseating aliens? Any belief in the film just went out of the window. I now think I may have watched it as a child but put it out of my mind because the end is so awful. What a shame as this could have been up there with the other 80's greats like Goonies and Big.

I'm a big fan of Joe Dante's oeuvre, although I'm more disposed towards his adult audience films (like PIRANHA and THE HOWLING) over his out-and-out kid's flicks. Saying that, EXPLORERS is still a decent kid's movie that manages to successfully capture that magical feel of danger and exploration of the best genre films. In many ways it's similar in feel to THE GOONIES, made on a lower budget perhaps but without the cloying sentimentality that Spielberg brought to GOONIES.There's plenty to like in EXPLORERS, not least the spirit of inventiveness and invention that allows the kids to build their own spaceship using trash and one of the most dated computers you'll see on screen (128k of memory? Wow!). Dante did well to cast Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix in the main roles, as both show off the talent that would make them successful later on in their careers. Plus there's a decent-sized cameo from Dick Miller and James Cromwell cast against type as a mad inventor.Although I never watched this film all the way through as a kid, I remember being put off by what I saw of the rubbery aliens. Even now they disappoint, although I understand that they're included as a sort of satire of American TV and culture, but they take the film towards GREMLINS territory rather than a kid's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Sadly, it's the budget deficit that prevents EXPLORERS from being a true genre classic, but you can still rely on Dante to deliver an entertaining movie for the most part.

This adventurous space tale stars River Phoenix as Ben whose dreams become a reality when along with two friends , River Phoenix , Jason Presson , create an interplanetary spacecraft in their makeshift laboratory to travel for other worlds . Ben Crandall is a young visionary who dreams of space travel while watching late-night B Sci-Fi movies , pouring over comic books, and playing computers games in the confines of his bedroom . Meantime, at college takes place the usual student problems , Bulies versus Neds and antics for the eggheads . The big time comes when they actually succeed in making a working spacecraft and set off for other planets . Amusing family fare about three young boys who use a contraption from their homemade laboratory undergoing several adventures and it turns out to be a crossover between Sci-Fi adventure and a teenager angst movie . This entertaining film displays emotion , sense of irony , ordinary schoolroom antics , parental troubles , puppy love , rip-roaring adventure and results to be pretty funny . Good trio formed by young stars as Ethan Hawke , River Phoenix and Presson as misfit best friends . The likable trio of suburban kids seeking alien life , they have fun as the teenage astronauts . Nicely main cast and agreeable supporting cast with Dana Ivey , James Cromwell , Mary Kay Place , Danny Nucci , Robert Picardo and Dick Miller, a secondary actor usual of Roger Corman and Joe Dante, among others. Effects are top-notch, the puppets Aliens are well brought to life, they're made by I.L. M. , George Lucas' Industrial Light Magic and magnificent make-up by expert Rob Bottin . Primitive visual effects by means of ancient computer generators .Colorful and brilliant cinematography by John Hora . Special mention to musical score by great Jerry Goldsmith .The motion picture was well told and imaginatively realized by director Joe Dante ; displaying his characteristic surreal wit and sense of amusement . Dante's most hits took place when found himself working alongside Steven Spielberg, John Landis and Australian director George Miller for the anthology movie ¨The Twilight Zone, The Movie¨ (1983) in which Dante directed the third segment .Steven Spielberg then hired him to work as director for ¨Gremlins¨ (1984) which was another box-office success. He directed some episodes for the Sci-Fi series "Amazing Stories" before directing his next Science Fiction feature which was ¨Innerspace¨ (1987) which, whilst critically well reviewed, was another box office failure. After directing five episodes of "Eerie, Indiana", Dante returned to the big-screen with the well-received ¨Matinee¨ (1993), an affectionate period satire set in 1962 against the background of the Cold War. Dante spent the next several years working for television and directed a satire on politics with ¨The Second Civil War¨ (1997). Dante's next two films, ¨Small Soldiers¨ (1998), and ¨Looney Toons: Back in Action¨ (2004) garnered good reviews but were not commercial hits. He was recruited by Mick Garris to direct two episodes of the anthology series "Masters of Horror" (2005 and 2006): "Homecoming" a biting political satire and the first American film to deal with the Iraq War.