My Favorite Martian

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Disney circa 1999, where you can count on suggestive references to "balls," "nuts," "the finger," getting into someone's pants, contraception, virginity, flatulence, etc., ad nauseam. In My Favorite Martian, we learn that there is intelligent life in the solar system, and that absolutely none of it was involved in making this stupid, vulgar recycling of the 1960s television series about a man (Jeff Daniels) playing host to a crash-landed Martian (Christopher Lloyd). Not surprisingly, the film consists largely of scenes which exist only to show off special effects, leading to silliness like Uncle Martin's body parts falling off when he's anxious. With its PG-rating-stretching sexual double-entendres and scatological humor, the film proves to be less for kids than for idiots of all ages, wasting appealing comic performers like Lloyd and Wallace Shawn. Remember that list in the first sentence above next time you trust Disney to mean anything but mass-market infantilism. Not recommended. (S. Renshaw)