This is what I feared. The version of the film that I saw had the suit, named ZOOT, well the suit's voice was temp tracked by Robin Williams from ALADDIN, GOOD MORNING VIETNAM and WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. As a result it was fuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy as hell. But apparently... well the voice work they got for the 'real' voice just isn't funny. This is a humongous shame. Personally if I were Disney I wouldn't release this film unless that ZOOT character's voice was dead on. I'd go after Robin Williams hurling obscene amounts of cash, I'd show him the temp tracked version, and say IMPROV THAT MOVING PILE OF SILVER LAMET TILL EVERYONE WATCHING DIES OF HYPERVENTILATION!!!! It's the whole key to the film. And the film is pretty good, but the suit is the key to making it real good and real profitable. Don't release it till ya get it just right. Don't half ass this.
MY FAVORITE MARTIAN
Reviewed by "Odin"
Call it the Curse of Carrey. Moviemakers now seem to fear that any comedic mode other than industrial-strength wackiness and full-out frenzy will lull kids to sleep. Case in point: The new film version of "My Favorite Martian," (viewed in work-print form, with a few incomplete effects shots and a temporary music track), which maximizes the madcap, and completely misses the low-key charm of the television original.
That show, like this film, was skewed for youngsters. But it nevertheless featured a genial, ingratiating brand of comedy, with Ray Walston (as the wayward spacefarer) offering weekly rounds of wise advice to young Bill Bixby, his earth-bound "nephew." This Obi-Wan/Luke relationship provided the show with a solid foundation; the film version rests on far less solid ground.
This time around, the misguided Martian is Christopher Lloyd. He seems, at first glance, ideally cast. Alas, here he Festers when he should have Browned - that is, he models his Martian after his "Addams Family" role rather than his "Back to the Future" character. We get frantic oafishness when we want lovable eccentricity; we get aggro when we want avuncular. He's not just alien: He's alienating.
Nevertheless, as the film lurches past the two-thirds point, Lloyd's terrestrial host (Jeff Daniels, doing the Bill Bixby role very nicely) inexplicably starts to gush about how much he likes his "Uncle Martin." It's hard to see why, since Lloyd's methed-up Martian is a bigger pain in the ass than a kerosene enema. The fondness seems forced, as though the screenwriters were following a set of instructions: "PAGE 70 - INSERT 'HEART' HERE."
The comic "highlights" of the film focus on a secondary character: Zoot, the anthropormorphic space-suit worn by Lloyd. Once doffed, the suit comes to life and does shtick. Like the Genie in "Aladdin," he ("it"?) practically bursts at the seams with pop-cultural references. (Robin Williams reportedly did the voice of Zoot in one early version of the film, but I didn't recognize his work in the credit-less print I saw.)
Alas, Zoot just isn't funny. In fact, he's quite confusing: If Lloyd's Martian knows so little about Earthling ways, why are his threads so savvy? Zoot spends much of the film lounging in the clothes washer, which he takes for a hot tub, snapping his fingers for another mai-tai: One can only wonder how a CGI image can manage to be simultaneously so surreal and yet so dull. The character's name only reminds us of a line from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (an infinitely funnier movie): "Bad, BAD Zoot!"
The plot involves Daniels' two rival ladyfriends: Elizabeth Hurley, as the gorgeous-but-ghastly creature he lusts after, and Darryl Hannah, as the girl-with-good-values we know he'll end up with. Wally Shawn plays the fanatical Martian-hunter from SETI. In keeping with the rest of the film's misjudged tone, his over-the-top Carrey-cature is shrill, irritating, and as funny as the flu.
The director and screenwriter seem to have taken primary inspiration from the Three Stooges, giving us increasingly amped-up antics without allowing the audience to catch its breath. There are tons of special effects involving monsters, misplaced body parts, and incredible shrinking spaceships. But there's no wit, no quotable dialogue, no humanity. Kids in the audience seemed to squeal delightedly at the slapstick, so the film may do well with the pre-adolescent crowd. But anyone old enough to recall the original will feel nostalgia give way to nausea.
SPOILER ALERT:
Ray Walston has a recurring role here as a J. Allen Hynek-esque UFO investigator with a secret. The secret is easily guessed about twenty minutes into the film, when Lloyd mentions that a previous Martian misadventurer crash-landed on Earth back in 1964. But if Walston is here playing the TV alien of old, seeking to hitch a ride back home, why doesn't he notice how closely this story recapitulates the old one - to the point where it gives us another Tim O'Hara and another Mrs. Brown?
