Okay, I didn't listen to my better judgment and returned to this COCOON sequel. Ouch! To give you an idea of how wrongheaded this follow-up is, the opening ten minutes features a scene where an old man tries to commit suicide and it is played for laughs. So the old folks and the Anterians are back on earth. While the aliens try to save the cocoons with returning Steve Guttenberg, the old folks run around for a few days and find out they are old again on earth (but not before schooling some young punks on the basketball court). Everyone one from the original is back (lead alien Brian Dennehy only for a cameo though) with Courtney Cox the only major new addition as a young scientist who is studying one of the captured cocoons. The biggest problem with the film is it really has no reason to exist. Well, outside of making money of course. It is shot so blandly that it looks almost like a TV movie and the human drama, a major strength of the first film, is so un-subtle this time around. The film even ends with highlights from the first film over the end credits as if to say, "Hey, you remember the good time you had back then. Let's try and transfer some of that feeling over to this one." Yuck. Stick with the original film.
Review of Cocoon: The Return
