garry shandling makes his long overdue starring film debut as an alien from a planet populated only by genetically created men , who are looking to take over the earth by propagating their own species there .
shandling is chosen for the mission , is given the name harold anderson , and is set up as a banker in seattle .
after a few disastrous " mating " attempts , he figures his best bet will be susan ( annette bening ) , a former alcoholic who eventually tells harold that she wo n't have sex again until she gets married .
the leader of harold 's planet ( ben kingsley ) tells him to marry her , and harold is soon exposed to all the " joys " of married life .
despite its title and premise which seem to imply that this is some jerry lewis vehicle from the late 1960s , what planet are you from ? is a very funny movie .
the plot ( which the film wisely does n't linger on the specifics of for too long ) is of course nothing more than framework for the jokes , most of which work very well
.
the material may be considered crude and tasteless by many , and i might have thought so as well had shandling not been the lead .
but he brings a sort of pathetic charm to the role , and it 's his performance that makes the film truly funny
instead of just offensive .
plus if you think about it , what planet are you from ?
could have very easily gone the gross - out route ( considering that shandling 's character is given a detachable penis that vibrates and hums when he gets excited ) .
we never see anything though , it 's all implied , which gives the film a touch of class amidst its crudeness .
i 'm glad to see that someone in hollywood still understands the concept of " less is more " .
the talented supporting cast certainly adds to one 's enjoyment of this film .
annette bening ( oddly playing a merged version of her real estate salesman character from american beauty and her ditzy spiritualist character from mars attacks ! ) does a fine job keeping up with shandling and makes a good catalyst for his brand of humor .
she even manages to pull off a potentially disastrous scene where she has to perform a rather goofy rendition of " high hopes " for a lengthy period of time .
ben kingsley , john goodman and greg kinnear
all fare well in their performances as well , and linda fiorentino . . .
good lord , there should be some sort of law stating that no woman can be that sexy .
everything about her character in this film oozes raw sexuality .
what planet are you from ? is available on dvd from columbia tristar home video .
the disc gives you the choice of either watching the film full frame or in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1 . 85 : 1 ( and enhanced for 16x9 televisions .
also included on the disc as extras : a decent making - of featurette , an isolated score track , talent files for the cast and crew , and the film 's original theatrical trailer ( as well as trailers for wolf , men in black , bugsy and as good as it gets ) .
when i first saw that the disc featured an isolated score track , i actually laughed .
how great could the music for a silly little comedy be for it to get it 's own isolated track ?
well as it turns out , it 's a mighty fine score from carter burwell ( fargo , the hudsucker proxy ) that
i enjoyed listening to again while i typed up this review .
kudos to columbia tristar for adding that feature to the disc .
what planet are your from ? was unjustly ignored in theaters , and i hope it finds its deserved audience on home video .
this fine dvd is certainly a great way to see it .
[ r ]
Output: P