It stars Jeff Daniels, a complete straight man, as a TV producer named Tim. He sees a flying saucer crash and is soon accepted by its pilot, a Martian named, for reasons of the human appearance he guesses, Uncle Martin. The Martian is played by Christopher Lloyd with passionate insanity, and the Martian’s space suit, named Zoot, voiced by Wayne Knight, becomes a character in its own way. Both Uncle Martin and Zoot can instantly shape-shift and depending on what color of alien gumball they’re chewing, Martin (and the humans) can turn into various monsters.
There’s a love story in the mix. As the film starts, Tim is in love with his on-air colleague, a reporter named Brace, played by Elizabeth Hurley. By the end, Tim has realized that Lizzie, played by Daryl Hannah, his technician, is better in every way. Everything is decided quickly, and at one point Lizzie changes into a buy-eyed monster and completely eats a villain. (Ebert said, “Soon after, defying one of Newton's laws--I'm not sure which one--she turns back into a lithesome young woman who has not put on any weight.”) The villains are all government scientists, let by Coleye (pronounced “coli”), an administrator obsessed with aliens. Played by Wallace Shawn, who often looks like he is about to do something corrupt with a clipboard, he desperately chases Tim and “Uncle Martin” because he wants to prove there is intelligent life on other planets. On the other hand, Uncle Martin only wants to lay low, be friends with Tim and Lizzie, repair his spaceship and go home. Then he discovers ice cream, and all he wants to do is eat ice cream.
There are some good moments in “My Favorite Martian,” which was inspired by the 1960s sitcom, and the best comes right at the top, where we see one of NASA’s Martian probing vehicles drive up to a rock, stop and run out of gas just before it would have stopped at an amazing discovery. Ebert admitted, “Soon after, defying one of Newton's laws--I'm not sure which one--she turns back into a lithesome young woman who has not put on any weight.”
It looks like everyone who made this film had a lot of fun. Spirits and energy are high, assaulting is permitted, dialogue is quick, nobody walks if they can run. Ebert ended his review by saying, “As kids' entertainment, it's like a live-action cartoon, and I can recommend it on that level, although not on a more ambitious plane. I came upon the movie just a few days after seeing "Children Of Heaven,'' a children's film from Iran that has the power to absorb and teach any child, and I found "My Favorite Martian'' noisy and superficial by comparison. (But of course it's noisy and superficial. That's its mission. I keep forgetting.)”
I had seen commercials for this film when it was being released in theaters, but I never bothered to go see it. Probably it was because it didn’t interest me, and I had completely forgotten about it for years. That is until I decided to check this out on Disney+ and that’s when I remembered the film from the parts that were in commercials. The film is fine, but I don’t think that I will ever watch this again. Yes, I do know this is my 1,100 review, and I’m reviewing a film that I’m not fond of, but what can you do, right? One thing that I really didn’t like about this film was the way it ended. This is one of those films where I feel it could have ended a few minutes before because I felt as though it really messed with the motives that this film was all about. Then again, this is a kid’s film, so maybe they felt as though they didn’t want to make kids feel sad, but as an adult, I think it could have ended early. I don’t recommend this, but if you want to watch it, it won’t hurt. The choice is yours.
Look out tomorrow to see what I will review next in “Disney Month 2021.”
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