*batteries not included

*batteries not included is a 1987 family film directed by Matthew Robbins about an apartment block under threat from property development which is saved by cute extraterrestrial living machines dubbed "fix-its". The story was originally intended to be featured in the TV series Amazing Stories, but Steven Spielberg liked the idea so much that he decided to make it a theatrical release. Many of the film's foreign releases (including at least French, German, Italian and Portuguese) used the title Miracle on 8th Street. The film is set in (then) modern-day New York. Frank and Faye Riley, an elderly couple who run an apartment and restaurant in the run-down East Village neighborhood, come under threat by a nearby property development. The development manager, Mr. Lacey, sends a hoodlum named Carlos and his gang to "pay off" the couple and their boarders to move out. When Frank and Faye Riley refuse to move, Carlos damages the building. Things look bleak until the appearance of a...