What Planet Are You From? (2000)

A human-looking alien from a highly advanced but emotionless all-male society is sent to Earth to impregnate a woman and bring the child back to their planet. The alien ends up falling in love there. A suspicious F.A.A. Agent targets him.

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writers:

Garry Shandling (story), Michael Leeson (story)

Stars:

Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Garry Shandling	...	Harold Anderson
Annette Bening	...	Susan
John Goodman	...	Roland Jones
Greg Kinnear	...	Perry Gordon
Ben Kingsley	...	Graydon
Judy Greer	...	Rebecca
Danny Zorn	...	Randy
Harmony Smith	...	Rita
Richard Jenkins	...	Don Fisk
Linda Fiorentino	...	Helen Gordon
Caroline Aaron	...	Nadine
Nora Dunn	...	Madeline
Cricky Long	...	Janice
Camryn Manheim	...	Alison
Ann Cusack	...	Liz

Storyline

A highly advanced civilization, whose citizens feel no emotion and reproduce by cloning, plans to conquer Earth from the inside by sending an operative, fashioned with a humming, mechanical penis, to impregnate a human and stay until the birth. The alien, Harold Anderson, goes to Phoenix as a banker and sets to work finding a mate. His approaches to women are inept, and the humming phallus doesn't help, but on the advice of a banking colleague, he cruises an A.A. meeting, meets Susan, and somehow convinces her to marry him. The clock starts to tick: will she conceive, have a baby, and lose Harold (and the child) to his planet before he discovers emotion and starts to care?

---

Plot Keywords:

pregnancy | question in title | alien | husband wife relationship | sex scene | 

---

Taglines:

To save his planet, an alien must find a woman on Earth to have his baby. There's just one problem.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 March 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

De quelle planète viens-tu?

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,008,746, 5 March 2000, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$6,291,602, 26 March 2000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Brillstein-Grey Entertainment,Columbia Pictures Corporation,What Planet Are You From? Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 87 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mike Nichols and Garry Shandling did not get along well during the filming of this movie. Mike Nichols would get very frustrated with Garry Shandling's method acting.

---

Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: At the far reaches of the Universe lies a planet of men who have advanced technologically beyond the realm of human comprehension. This is no breeding - they are a product of cloning, and their reproductive organs have shrunk and disappeared. All emotions have been bred out of this race and each succeeding generation has become more ambitious and driven than the previous one. They want to rule the Universe, and now they are planning their next takeover from the inside.

---

Crazy Credits

At the very end of the credits, we hear the familiar "humming" sound and Susan's voice saying, "Oh, Christ! Turn that thing off."

---

Alternate Versions

The German DVD only runs 87 minutes. At least 3 scenes from the trailer are missing. The subplots involving Linda Fiorentino and John Goodman's characters are mostly deleted.

---

Connections

References The Crying Game (1992)

---

Soundtracks

Wedding March
Written by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
Performed by Anthony Newman
Courtesy of Sony Classical
By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

Cute, somewhat weak in areas, but cute with a touch

I wasn't expecting much, but found the movie to be nice and not a waste of time. The story quickly gets to meat of the matter in how aliens intend to take over the earth. And the depictions of their planet is interesting, but most of it revolves around a classroom environment.

Annette Bening plays another real estate agent, and so one can guess she's probably qualified to be one in reality by now. Greg Kinnear is typically excellent, he should be a cheaper version of Tom Hanks someday if not already. John Goodman did well as the chaser and did as well as Richard Benjamin did in a '70's Dracula comedy. The story is nice and possibly predictable, as is the ending, but it's a pleasant and feel good movie. Strange for a movie that has the ending like it does (awkward to say the least), but whenever you end the whole thing with a baby laughing it can't be any better. Ben Kingsley was ok as the boss, but his talents weren't used to their fullest, but playing the type of character he was probably didn't require him to tap into his full ability.

Would recommend this movie if you can handle "penis" being said. Every young man should see this movie before growing up and trying "to get into women's pants".

Shandling does a good job of being himself and his expressions are excellent, it's too bad he's not done this type of stuff more, he's much better than Jim Carrey and not as thick as Robin Williams, but then again he does another type of comedy than they do.

Isn't that sound normal when a guy has an erection... ; )

...ok, so that may just be all the blood flushing from my brain to my... ...penis that I am hearing.