Explorers was a mid-1980s movie starring a very young Ethan Hawke (in his first movie role) and a very young River Phoenix (both were around 13 years old at the time the movie was shot). The premise of the movie is that Hawke's character, Ben, who is huge into space, aliens, and science fiction, dreams of what is essentially a circuit that can create a force sphere that can allow for space flight. Phoenix plays Wolfgang, a science nerd who builds the circuit, and Jason Presson plays Darren, a kid that is kind of a loner but gets caught up in the experiment and helps to build a ship. Of course, they end up going into space and meeting actual aliens, but there is a bit of a twist to that part of the story.
The supporting cast is made up of many recognizable actors including Meshach Taylor, Dick Miller, James Cromwell, and Amanda Peterson, who was another recognizable child actor for those of us who grew up in the 1980s. Robert Picardo played several roles in the movie. He is, of course, probably best known for his role on Star Trek Voyager, but he is almost unrecognizable in each of the roles, including that of the "main" alien.
For those who get the Blu-Ray, there are two discs, one with the theatrical version of the movie and one with the home video version of the movie. Surprisingly, the theatrical version is a few minutes longer than the home video release. Each disc has the same bonus features, the main ones being an hour-long making-of feature, deleted scenes (that can be played with or without commentary by the director) interviews with a couple different crew members, and the theatrical trailer. A good amount of material for those who like watching the extras.
Overall, the movie, while certainly dated, is still very enjoyable. It has a pretty timeless theme that helps distract from the fact that it feels like a mid-80s movie. Interestingly, if you watch the making-of feature you will find out that the movie was really incomplete, but had to be finished to meet the summer release deadline. So elements had to be taken out, and the edit that was released to theaters was not what the director, Joe Dante, wanted to release. Even so, the movie was pretty well written and well-acted, even though the main actors were kids, and still very green. For many people, this is probably more of a nostalgia movie they remember from their childhood, but if you have not seen it, it is definitely worth checking out.
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