Word: martianize
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...Jeff Daniels) is driving home in his beat-up, smoking car after sabotaging his news reporting career by unintentionally flirting with the boss's daughter (Elizabeth Hurley). Suddenly, a flash of light illuminates the sky, and he slams on the brakes. A spacecraft has landed on the nearby Enter Martian--a red, three-eyed creature who sees O'Hara recovering from the shock and, realizing he has landed on planet earth, chews on a piece of blue gum enabling him to transform into Christopher Lloyd. Grace, the spoiled boss's daughter whose glossy lipstick, tight apparel and wonder-bra breasts...
Lloyd would gladly leave the "savage" earthling at peace and return to his beloved Mars, but he must build an electron accelerator (which later on turns out to be a simple carburetor) to repair his damaged spacecraft. So the Martian, later dubbed "Uncle Martin," becomes O'Hara's roommate. Meanwhile, thinking that he has stumbled upon the story of the millennium, O'Hara schemes to film the Martian and broadcast on the evening news...
...plot moves forward as a sense of urgency is introduced: Martin must repair the spaceship soon or else the ship's Interstellar Safety System, designed to keep other races from acquiring the advanced Martian technology, will explode. Meanwhile, a government agency, SETI has been trying to find the Martian. Will Uncle Martin get off the planet before the greedy scientists get their hands...
Interspersed between the occasional defecation and perverted spying of a man taking a bath, My Favorite Martian lacks cohesiveness. Such a shortcoming can be seen in O'Hara's sudden deep sense of friendship with Uncle Martin. After one conversation with Martin in the bathroom about O'Hara's non-existent love life, they become best of friends and O'Hara no longer wants to gain fame by broadcasting his Martian footage. This contrived sense of friendship is highlighted by Daniels's poor performance in making the scene come alive and injecting emotional reality into his character. In another instance...
Director Donald Petrie's creation fails in other ways, especially when trying to convey any sense of substance. Throughout, My Favorite Martian highlights the shortcomings of humanity by contrasting Martian super-intelligence with human stupidity. Martians use 100 percent of their brain capacity while humans use 10 percent; humans are the "amoebas of the universe;" humans are "savages." Such a message in itself does not diminish the movie's appeal but rather the vehicle used to send the message. During one of the last scenes, when Martin is about to leave earth, he hops in his spacecraft and says...