It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great Film overall

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

What Planet are You From? (2000): Dir: Mike Nichols / Cast: Gary Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman, Ben Kingsley, Greg Kinnear: Interesting concept derailed by excessive vulgarity and a complete lack of intelligence. Gary Shandling plays an alien sent to earth to pregnant a woman and bring back the child. He encounters a woman at an alcoholics meeting. Problem is that she wishes to get married first. Predictable and vulgar with cheesy special effects. Director Mike Nichols is capable of so much better than this. Films such as Primary Colors and The Birdcage showcase his talent for directing comedy but here he is way off scale. The first problem is that Shandling is unsympathetic. Annette Bening fares much better as a woman battling addiction and takes the idea of commitment seriously. It is truly funny that she came away from a great performance in American Beauty to being reduced to this crud. John Goodman had potential as someone out to prove an alien has landed but the role is cardboard. Ben Kingsley plays the alien leader who beams down via toilet. Perhaps that is where he should have sent the script. Greg Kinnear plays a womanizing co-worker of Bening's who attempts to pick up women at Alcoholics Anonymous. This isn't even remotely funny, and the production values aren't any better. Film spoofs commitment but one must wonder what planet the screenwriter is from. Score: 3 ½ / 10

This film can be summed up like this: Garry Shandling really needs to star in more films.An alien from a planet of cloned men is sent to Earth equipped with mechanical genitalia that happens to make a whirring noise for the reasons of impregnating an Earth woman. At this point in the film, you either go with it, or you don't. So if you're not into the film already, you might as well stop. For your own sake, I hope you choose to take this ride.The awkward space-being lands on various dysfunctional women until he lands on a woman so experienced with dysfunction, she's found a way to be charming with it. The alien, Harold, has many problems to deal with in the workplace, the home, and the home planet.Annette Bening, Greg Kinnear, and John Goodman all make for a good supporting cast, without them, Garry Shandling's awkward and hilarious comedy of wouldn't be effective. And thankfully, it very much is.

I was surprised to see such a low, average rating (5.5) for a movie that is so very funny.It plants benign little seeds of humor that might seem obviously pedestrian while actually being subtly witty. That is something I like about the humor so very much.I believe that if it were not for the very special, perhaps accidental, recipe of actors, writing, direction, etc., the movie would probably be unremarkable. It has that certain something that is not easily definable, something that will probably not be appreciated for decades.I love the strange yet reality-revealing interaction between the characters. Annette Bening's character, Susan, is wonderfully screwed-up and open minded, which works off of Garry Changling's character, Harold, so well. Harold is such an innocently unapologetic pig, which pulls Susan in because of his raw honesty. This is both strange and refreshing in a vulgar way.

Knowing that Mike Nichols directed greats like "The Graduate", "Catch-22", "Carnal Knowledge" and "Silkwood", it's a real shock that he directed something as silly as "What Planet Are You From?". The movie has space alien Garry Shandling coming to Earth to impregnate a woman after the men on his planet lose the ability to reproduce, and a bunch of goofy things happen. How many times have we seen this sort of story? It's not a bad movie, but not any kind of masterpiece. A way to pass time at best. Maybe we're too cruel to Mike Nichols, expecting some great every time. An OK movie. Also starring Annette Bening, John Goodman, Ben Kingsley, Greg Kinnear, Richard Jenkins (aka Nate Sr. on "Six Feet Under"), Linda Fiorentino and Caroline Aaron.