Grade:  D

Director:  Mike Nichols		Released:  March 2000
Writer:  Garry Shandling, Michael Leeson		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Garry Shandling, Annette Bening		Running time:  104 minutes

Ratings System

I like comedies that revolve around the idea of sex with aliens.  Well, maybe not.  But even if I did, the execution is so poor in What Planet Are You From? that there's no chance for it to be funny.  Mechanical noises emanating from one's crotch is not inherently funny, other people's reactions to that noise could be funny, but not when those people's only reaction is inquisitiveness.  I can only assume that when writing the script Shandling must have been trying to use it as a metaphor for feeling treated by women like nothing more than a vibrator.

At the base of the story concept, it's not clear to me why an emotionless, conception-less alien race would need to impregnate an earth woman in order to take over the planet.  If they have no emotions, they should be ruthless, right?  They should just arrive en masse and start taking over.  Since they don't conceive, they clone, creating the largest army ever should be no problem.  And again, since they have no emotions, the deaths of their people during the ensuing battles shouldn't bother them.  It's simply not plausible that they would want to invade Earth by stealth.

- crocoPuffs