Cocoon (1985) review

Senior citizens living in St. Petersburg, Florida - including Art (Don Ameche), Ben (Wilford Brimley) and Joe (Hume Cronyn) - discover a swimming pool with mossy pods at the bottom that, after they float around in it, makes them feel miraculously rejuvenated ... except those cocoons were placed there by Walter (Brian Dennehy) and his crew, who are aliens from the Planet Antarea and want to take them home.  This inexplicably popular popcorn movie was apparently a huge hit with audiences in the mid-80's despite fetishizing the elderly and treating them like frat boys with saggy skin (dancing! partying! bowling! boners!) - Ameche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but I think voter nostalgia played a big part in that.  The ending, where the old folks get whisked into the sky, could be read as a soft metaphor for euthanasia - notice how able-bodied sailor Jack (Steve Guttenberg) and little David (Barret Oliver) can't accompany them.  In a word: yikes.