San Francisco. After his girlfriend Lydia broke up with him due to his alcoholism, US Navy pilot Tuck enlists to a top secret project of miniaturization, in which his submarine shrinks to microscopic dimensions in a lab in order to be injected into a rabbit. However, a rival company, led by Victor, storms the lab, and a scientist flees and randomly injects Tuck's submarine into the body of the coiled Jack, a store clerk. Tuck attaches instruments on to Jack's eye and ear, and thus is able to talk to him. Reluctantly. Jack contacts Lydia and runs to find the second microchip held by Victor, who wants to sell it to foreign agents on a black market, in order to enlarge Tuck again. Despite obstacles, they find the microchip, Jack sneezes out Jack, whereas the lab enlarges Tuck back to normal size, so he marries Lydia.
Intended as a star making vehicle for comedian Martin Short, "Innerspace" did not attract much attention at the US box office, but it is still a fun and rather creative restructuring of "Fantastic Voyage". The story never truly blends in all those disparate elements together, since the director Joe Dante does not always have a sure sense for comedy, and thus some parts feel frustratingly convulsive, forced or 'rough' (for instance, the entire sequence where Jack sees the angry lady from his dream at the store, and the pain in his eye in the office, are simply unfunny), yet the story slowly builds its stamina, and improves with its running time. Excellent comedian Martin Short rises to the occasion and is able to carry the entire story, with some moments that are worthy of his talent. In one of the best, the miniaturized Tuck, in his submarine, establishes "contact" inside Jack's ear, and thus Jack can hear Tuck's voice, nervously looking around, but there is only a man and a woman sitting next to him in the waiting room, their lips not moving, so he manically asks the man: "Did you hear that?!" The villain henchman with the robotic hand, Mr. Igoe, has a fair share of good little jokes, as well: after completing his assignment in a mall, he walks by a clown, and cannot resist but not to pop the latter's balloon on his way out; in another, Mr. Igoe attaches a "vibrator" on his hand, as he leans towards a woman smiling at him. And at least one sequence is a marvel worthy of the best tricks by Méliès: the one where Tuck is able to change Jack's face into the Cowboy's face, and Lydia is shocked to see that Cowboy is still tied up in the bathroom, which is a great feat. The parallels between actions of Jack and Tuck have sense, while Tuck even becomes Jack "inner voice" of courage and initiative, changing his character for the better, and thus "Innerspace" works and feels dynamic, though the open ending works against it.
Grade:++
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