Unlike the MPAA we do not assign
one
inscrutable rating based on age, but 3 objective ratings for SEX/NUDITY, VIOLENCE/GORE
and PROFANITY on a scale of 0 to 10, from lowest to highest,
depending on quantity and context.
In this comedy based on the old television show, reporter
Jeff Daniels dreams of achieving fame and fortune by exposing an alien (Christopher Lloyd)
who crash-lands on earth and pretends to be Daniel's human Uncle Martin. Elizabeth Hurley,
Daryl Hannah, Wallace Shawn, Christine Ebersole, Ray Walston, Steve Bond and Dawn Maxey
co-star.
SEX/NUDITY 3 - Sexual innuendo. Kissing. We see a man's bare backside, the
side of a man's bare backside, and a man who's obviously nude but only his bare chest is
visible. Lots of scantily clad women (in bikinis and cleavage-revealing tops).
VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - Cartoonish violence played mainly for laughs: A man whacks
a man in the head with a golf club, a man hits another man in the crotch with a golf club,
and a man hits another over the head with a bottle. A fistfight, some scuffles and a face
slap. We see few people fall and one explosion. An alien's body literally falls apart with
body parts lying around. An alien eats a man whole. A man is electrocuted. Gunshots are
fired at a car during a chase scene; a man is shot with a pellet gun and an alien's
"suit" is shot. We see a bit of blood on an alien's antennae when it's removed;
we also see a slimy alien and a red-tinged alien ectoplasm (it looks bloody).
the review continues below...
PROFANITY 2 - One scatological reference and a few mild obscenities. [profanity glossary]
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Aliens, friendship, ambition.
MESSAGE - We might not be alone in the universe.
(Note: A cartoon before the film shows a dog changing shape when alien experiments
are performed on him -- it's more comical than violent).
A CAVEAT: We've gone through several editorial changes since we
started covering films in 1992 and some of our early standards were
not as stringent as they are now. We therefore need to revisit many
older reviews, especially those written prior to 1998 or so; please
keep this in mind if you're consulting a review from that period.
While we plan to revisit and correct older reviews our resources are
limited and it is a slow, time-consuming process.
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