*batteries not included
- cosy
- brisk
- gentle
- surreal
- redemptive
- tender
Cosy, kinetic, gentle family / comedy, surreal in texture. Redemptive, epic, tender, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.
How every film is hand-scored →In a soon to be demolished block of apartments, the residents resist the criminal methods used to force them to leave so a greedy tycoon can build his new skyscraper. When tiny mechanical aliens land for a recharge, they decide to stay and help out.
Our read · *batteries not included (1987) reads as a cosy, kinetic, surreal family · comedy · fantasy entry — gentle in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, tender in temperature, redemptive in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.
More info & search links
The shape of *batteries not included
What watching it is actually like.
“You want cozy eighties sci-fi where tiny aliens help elders save their home.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if sentimental Amblin comforts and dated effects feel too soft.
The reading.
Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.
Eight films that read most like this one.
Closeness in the twelve-axis space — how the film actually reads, not “people also liked.”
Discussion
What does your Movie DNA look like?
Rate a few films you've seen. We map your taste across the same twelve axes and find the films you'll actually want to watch tonight.
Calibrate yourself