MovieChat Forums > D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) Discussion > Shudderingly bad 'E. T.' knockoff.

Shudderingly bad 'E. T.' knockoff.

posted 20 years ago by sneakyclevermongols
18 replies | jump to latest

In the wake of "E. T.", there were a slew of wanna-be movies who tried to play off of the same formula:

"Loveable misfit alien/robot/freak of nature/etc., gets adopted by sympathetic human(s) and displays surprisingly human learning behavior; the bad G-men usually show up and try to 'get him,' to exploit for their own nefarious purposes. After a heart-wringing fake death, the hero gets away. Fade out, the end."

Some knockoffs played this to humorous, even successful effect ("Short Circuit" comes to mind. Just the first one, not the sequels.) Others, like "batteries not included" and "D.A.R.Y.L.," made me want to claw my way through rows of theatre seats to precious, sunlit freedom.

As a small child, I was dragged to see BOTH in the theatres. I have never forgiven my family since.

Please, good viewer, bury this one in the cat-box like the turd it is.

[–] willowtree602 20 years ago

"Mac & Me" also comes to mind!

"I was born on the side of a hill"

[–] silversunpickups 19 years ago

I don't know why, though, E.T. sucked.

[–] Geinmachine 19 years ago

True, but it was a success.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ladystorm282001 19 years ago

You people must definatly be action buffs, all those movies that you named are great movies. Good quality family movies with out a bunch of junk in them, so you don't like them, but other people do. :)

[–] mstrorm 17 years ago

When I saw it (admittedly well over 15 years ago), it reminded me more of the slightly better "Flight of the Navigator". Though as (according to IMDB) DARYL actually came out the year before Navigator, I can't really hold that against it :)

Despite the similarities, and the fact that even then I was probably slightly older than the intended audience, I still thought it was a decent enough film. Whether I'd think the same if I saw it today, I don't know- as I said, it's a long time since I saw it.

[–] sign543 16 years ago

<<As a small child, I was dragged to see BOTH in the theatres. I have never forgiven my family since. >>

Oh, brother, get some real problems.

[–] xxfloridaboy87xx 16 years ago

All those wanna-bes were great though, they all had magic, I just don't see it much in today's kid movies, same goes for teen movies of the 80's.

[–] Elvine 16 years ago

I saw both this and E.T. as a child. Found E.T. to be extremely boring, and watched Daryl over and over again.

[–] jengreens 15 years ago

I never thought of this movie as a knockoff of E.T because one is about an alien and the other is about a boy robot who becomes human. However, I thought that DARYL and E.T were both very good.

[–] Remisser 16 years ago

I don't see any connection between this movie and ET. There were no aliens, the "bad G-men" were the ones who created the boy. Still I don't think ET set the mold of this genre....."Escape to Witch Mountain" in 1975 comes to mind....

[–] underthenet 16 years ago

'Mac and Me' rules.