Hey folks, Harry here. This has been a troubled film from the net coverage point of view. Word being that it's smile funny but not laugh funny, if ya get my meaning. It's been undergoing some level of reworking, but how much... I do not know. According to Big Bro here, it's coming along pretty nicely but still has a couple of bumps... Let's hope ol Mike Nichols is able to iron out all the kinks (problems not sexual weird stuff) and this one plays well when it comes out later this year. Here's the look...
hey harr, this is big brother here with a report from the advance screening of the new Mike Nichols film What Planet Are You From? Granted its a stupid title, but the film's got Garry Shandling, the amazing Annette Bening, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear, Linda Fiorentino, Ben Kingsley and cameos from Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Nora Dunn. The story involves an alien played by Shandling who is sent down to Earth by his planet's leader to impregnate a woman in order to populate Earth and eventually take over the planet. This needs to be done of course, because on Shandling's planet there are only men, and their genitals have all "shrunken up and dissappeared." There is a very funny sequence in the beginning where the audience of male aliens is learning how to woo the women of earth. "Just keep repeating the phrase 'A-ha'" Anyway, Shandling is chosen to be sent on the Earth mission, and is fitted with a penis which sounds like a vibrator each time he gets aroused -- the joke gets real old real fast, although its used right up until the end. Once arriving on Earth, there's a funny sequence where Shandling propositions nearly every woman he meets, including missionaries and things like that. He goes to work at a bank or something and meets Greg Kinnear who takes him out to local strip joints and A.A. meetings in hopes of meeting women. Shandling ends up meeting recovered alcoholic Susan Hart, played by Annette Bening, who almost does a parody of the part that she played in American Beauty. Here she is so whiney and unsure that she is instantly won over by Shandling's mysterious ways and desire to have children. Anyway, the rest of the plot is pretty predictable. There's complications because John Goodman suspects Shandling's alien background and is out to prove it. And of course, Shandling eventually is called back to his planet, but shockingly he doesn't want to go back, he wants to stay on Earth. Really original stuff. That being said, you won't even notice that kind of thing. The film makes up for a plot that you know you've seen a hundred times over with wonderfully funny scenarios, and mostly smart comedy. If you can look past the flaws, the film becomes a light, fun, entertaining experience that should be one of those films that you dont go to see expecting a great movie, only to have a really enjoyable experience at a great comedy.
I think that if this film were not directed by Mike Nichols, with his wonderful sense of timing and comedy, and starring such fabulously talented stars, then this would end up as just another idea that sounds like one of those fake pitches from the beginning of "The Player" or as some stupid Garry Marshall piece of shit. Shandling is great, and Annette Bening can do no wrong in my opinion. Kinnear is good enough, while Goodman and Kingsley are shafted with predictable bad guy roles. As for Linda Fiorentino, I have no idea why she is in this movie, as she sort of adds nothing to it. She is a fantastic talent, who keeps on wasting herself in stupid fare like Men In Black and Dogma. I wish Janeane Garofalo would go back to appearing in all of the movie, rather than making cameos, but if she ends up in that show on HBO, I'll be fine.
All in all, What Planet Are You From? is a very cute movie, with a few flaws, which they can hopefully patch up before the movie comes out in theaters.
thanks harry
