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What Planet Are You From?

  • 2000
  • R
  • 1h 45m
IMDb RATING
5.7/10
10K
YOUR RATING
Poster
Home Video Trailer from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Play trailer2:18
1 Video
68 Photos
SatireComedySci-Fi

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 lo... Read allA 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.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
    • Michael Leeson
    • Ed Solomon
  • Stars
    • Garry Shandling
    • Annette Bening
    • John Goodman
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.7/10
    10K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Mike Nichols
    • Writers
      • Garry Shandling
      • Michael Leeson
      • Ed Solomon
    • Stars
      • Garry Shandling
      • Annette Bening
      • John Goodman
    • 101User reviews
    • 38Critic reviews
    • 41Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination total

    Videos1

    What Planet Are You From?
    Trailer 2:18
    What Planet Are You From?

    Photos68

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    Top cast87

    Edit
    Garry Shandling
    Garry Shandling
    • Harold Anderson
    Annette Bening
    Annette Bening
    • Susan
    John Goodman
    John Goodman
    • Roland Jones
    Greg Kinnear
    Greg Kinnear
    • Perry Gordon
    Ben Kingsley
    Ben Kingsley
    • Graydon
    Judy Greer
    Judy Greer
    • Rebecca
    Danny Zorn
    Danny Zorn
    • Randy
    Harmony Smith
    Harmony Smith
    • Rita
    Richard Jenkins
    Richard Jenkins
    • Don Fisk
    Linda Fiorentino
    Linda Fiorentino
    • Helen Gordon
    Caroline Aaron
    Caroline Aaron
    • Nadine
    Nora Dunn
    Nora Dunn
    • Madeline
    Cricky Long
    • Janice
    Camryn Manheim
    Camryn Manheim
    • Alison
    Ann Cusack
    Ann Cusack
    • Liz
    Jane Lynch
    Jane Lynch
    • Doreen
    Richard Minchenberg
    Richard Minchenberg
    • Dr. Weitzman
    Drinda Lalumia
    • Drunken Lady
    • Director
      • Mike Nichols
    • Writers
      • Garry Shandling
      • Michael Leeson
      • Ed Solomon
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews101

    5.710K
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    Featured reviews

    7FlickJunkie-2

    Funny Interplanetary Sex Farce

    This is a cute little sex farce starring and written by Garry Shandling. Harold Anderson (Shandling) is actually an alien on a very special mission. He must impregnate an earth woman to begin the infiltration of earth for eventual domination and takeover. He has done his research and learned to be a good listener, dutifully repeating `uh huh' at every utterance by a female. Unfortunately, there are certain subtleties he hasn't mastered in the fine art of seduction, and he gets his face slapped repeatedly.

    After countless humorous failures, he meets Susan (Annette Benning), his future mate and discovers that the only way she will have sex with him is if he marries her. After the nuptials he learns that all the rules of engagement have changed.

    This droll script ranges from mildly silly to hysterical as it holds a circus mirror up to our mating rituals. Shandling is always funny with his deadpan whiney style, but the real treat here is Annette Benning. She makes this film work as Shandling's overwrought love interest. As she did in `American Beauty', she plays another caricature role to perfection. Here she is the aging female who has been a continual loser at the dating game and is desperately searching for love. Her brilliant performance is a treat that upstages Shandling at every turn. In addition, the rest of the cast is wonderful and fits well with Shandling's wry sense of humor.

    This is a fun and very light comedy that works well most of the time. I rated it 7/10. Viewers who are offended by nudity, profanity and sexual situations should pass. Others will probably enjoy more than a few good laughs.
    8Movie-Misfit

    I hate rom-coms, but this is just brilliant!

    As an avid action, horror, comedy, and anything non-rom-com fan, I hate the typical Hollywood bull of same old same romantic comedies they are constantly spitting out expecting audiences to appreciate!

    But on its release, I was lucky enough to fall upon this little gem of a film from the hilarious Gary Shandling - What Planet are You From?

    From the get-go this film is hilarious, with Gary's dead-pan humour and ridiculous faces. Annette Benning is fantastic as is most of the other cast who fit their roles perfectly and look like they are having a blast doing so!

    Carrying enough romance without being sickening, the film is almost perfect with constant laugh out loud moments and an over-all feel good achievement by the end of it.

    Was great to see it again after so many years and found it even funnier this time around!
    8draftyrafters

    PLANET is in a world of its own

    Garry Shandling is an unattractive man who looks as if he is suffering from a perpetual state of constipation, and, can you believe it?, he still manages to be enjoyable (and even loveable, of all things) in his latest movie, What Planet Are You From? Despite a clunky title and an unlikely leading man (even Shandling himself seems stunned by the reality of it), this movie manages to just barely pull off a decent performance.

    The premise seems much more suited to an hour and a half of repetitive penis jokes (and, in some ways, it gets close to that): Shandling plays Harold Anderson, an alien from a planet inhabited by impotent, super-intelligent men bent on universal domination. Led by a stiff-lipped Ben Kingsley (whose neck seems to have disappeared) this race of uber-men has lost all semblances of emotion, let alone sexuality. In their quest for universal rulership, they have chosen Earth as their next target. Their goal? To impregnate a human woman and begin populating the world with "their kind."

    Of the millions of available aliens, Shandling is chosen as their ambassador, and after being fitted with an artificial and somewhat dysfunctional penis (it hums when erect), he travels to Earth in a glowing white ball and immediately begins incorporating the lessons he learned about the delicate art of female seduction. For instance, he has an endless bevy of "nice footwear" and "nice perfume" remarks, including some slang: "Kitty likes to scratch!"

    Sounds like a one-hour one-liner, huh?

    Fortunately, it's not. It's safe to say the movie would have fallen flat on its alien face if it weren't for the stellar performance of Annette Benning as the one woman who finally falls for the bumbling alien's "charms." She manages to take this ludicrous premise and bring a touching dose of reality to it, giving a normally crass idea a glimmer of merit. She is what diversifies Shandling's occasionally monotonous character, and it is through her eyes that the film sheds its hokiness and becomes a real movie.

    Co-stars John Goodman and Greg Kinnear, to their credit, do a great job as well, both of them displaying an untypical amount of restraint. As far-fetched as it seems, it is the undertones and quiet moments in this film that render it watchable. Likewise, those moments are what keep the joke from getting old. Director Mike Nichols (who gave us such gems as Catch-22 and The Graduate) has combined the quiet soul of his Regarding Henry with the flamboyant ditziness of his The Birdcage to come up with something truly remarkable: a Garry Shandling movie that works.

    It certainly has its flaws, like most flicks, and many times the plot seems to stop and start just like Harold's malfunctioning member. However, although the jokes reach levels the man from Nantucket would be proud of, they mostly act as reminders that, no matter how much we poke fun at sex and marriage, most of the jokes are true. What Planet Are You From? has its out-there moments, but it still hits close to home.
    7Isaac5855

    Another of My Guilty Pleasures...

    I don't know why I'm afraid to admit it, but WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? is definitely one of my guilty pleasures which I have viewed multiple times and still find highly entertaining. This cute and entertaining comedy stars Garry Shandling as an alien sent to earth to impregnate a woman and bring the baby back to his planet. He ends up targeting a real estate agent and recovering alcoholic (Annette Bening) as his target, but he doesn't plan on complications like love, marriage, friends, business competitors...those little things that we earthlings deal with on a daily basis but an alien from another planet would have no concept of. The opening scenes of the aliens being educated on the female erogenous zones are quite amusing as is Shandling's explanations of women to aliens when he returns to his planet after impregnating Bening and stealing the baby. Bening is charming in a rare comedic turn and even gets to sing. Greg Kinnear scores as a slimy co-worker of Shandling's and Linda Fiorentino makes the most of her brief appearance as his sexy wife. John Goodman is solid as a cynical UFO investigator who can't get anyone to believe there is an alien on earth and has to deal with his paranoid wife (Caroline Aaron) who is convinced the man is cheating on her. Ben Kingsley, in a refreshing change of pace, plays the stone-faced leader of Shandling's planet and Camryn Manheim, Nora Dunn, and Ann Cusack appear as Bening's girlfriends. Shandling co-wrote this comedy, smoothly directed by Mike Nichols, of all people. It's no masterpiece, but there are worse ways to kill 90 minutes and there are laughs to be had along the way.
    Bob Pr.

    Mildly amusing date movie

    I was interested in seeing this because of Shandling's press for his HBO shows. The underlying premise for the movie seems based on the "Men are from Mars..." theme and it goes for many of that predictable type of gags, adding to it a repetitive use of the alien's (Shandling's) prosthetic penis that makes a humming noise when interested (energized). This strikes some people as being just hilariously funny and others as being either mildly amusing or possibly boring -- (as various as reactions to boogers or whoopee cushions can produce, but not necessarily for exactly the same people).

    This is a cartoon-like farce that takes some liberties with reality. You won't like it if you insist that everything hang fairly tightly together and make logical sense. Annette Benning and John Goodman do nice jobs in their roles (in "American Beauty" she was one-dimensional -- here she has a broad range including vulnerability & hurt); without their roles the movie would have been lifeless.

    Consider it as a light weight date movie with some value for suggestive comments; it can easily lead to saying things like, 'do I hear something humming?' or 'you've started something buzzing.'

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    Related interests

    Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
    Satire
    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    James Earl Jones and David Prowse in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
    Sci-Fi

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Mike Nichols regretted directing this film, which many regard as his worst. It was a box-office failure and was never given a commercial cinema release in the UK.
    • Goofs
      All entries contain spoilers
    • Quotes

      Graydon: You appear intelligent, but when you open your mouth the effect is spoiled.

    • Crazy credits
      Playing on the oft-noted resemblance between Annette Bening and the lady bearing the torch in the Columbia Pictures logo, Bening's face replaces the Columbia lady's.
    • 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
      Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Drowning Mona/My Dog Skip/What Planet Are You From?/The Next Best Thing/Miss Julie (2000)
    • Soundtracks
      Lady Marmalade
      Written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan

      Performed by LaBelle

      Courtesy of Epic Records

      By Arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

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    FAQ19

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 3, 2000 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Germany
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • 你混那個星球的
    • Filming locations
      • Phoenix, Arizona, USA
    • Production companies
      • Brillstein-Grey Entertainment
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Global Entertainment Productions GmbH & Company Medien KG
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $60,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $6,291,602
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $3,008,746
      • Mar 5, 2000
    • Gross worldwide
      • $14,145,677
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 45m(105 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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