What Planet Are You From? Movie Review

It’s always a shame to see great comedic minds fall so far from the mark. Garry Shandling is a funny man. Just check out any episode of The Larry Sanders Show. He has a wonderfully dry wit and is downright hilarious without drawing overt attention to himself. I just want to know what the hell happened to What Planet are You From?

Simple story line: Alien must come to Earth and impregnate female human being to establish future dominance of his planet’s race. Comedic premise: Alien must learn how to communicate to female human beings. Comedy rolls on: Alien encounters and makes ass of himself to female human beings. Comedy continues: Alien tracked by rogue FAA agent. Comedy continues even more: Alien meets female human and falls in love. Cue drama. That’s about it.

Let’s examine the facts. You have Mike Nichols, the Oscar-winning director of The Graduate, Catch-22, and the underrated Primary Colors, steering this oil tanker of a film. A great supporting cast of Annette Bening, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear, and Ben Kingsley all try to make something out of nothing of a script. Garry Shandling has co-written himself into a very dark corner of unfunny comedy. All of which means, I’m a bit lost.

Some funny moments can be found, buried in the film, but the jokes end up falling flat after the first fifteen minutes. The romantic situations that could have been executed become contrived and ridiculous. This would have made a great Adam Sandler/Rob Schneider vehicle. (Though even I must admit, Garry Shandling's vibrating penis deserves a least one bonus star.) And kudos to the likes of Bening, Goodman, Kinnear, and Kingsley for pouring some great acting into the most pointless of scripts.



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