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My favourite Martian

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

The Martian has landed. There goes the neighbourhood.

In the Disney tradition of fun family comedies comes the hilarious live action film My favourite Martian - an out-of-this-world comedy about friendship, loyalty and aliens.

When a harmless Martian (Christopher Lloyd) crashes onto Earth and into the life of struggling TV reporter Tim (Jeff Daniels), he must use all his magical powers to keep his identity a secret and quickly find a way back to Mars. Tim initially wants to expose the friendly Martian, who he names Uncle Martin, and his crazy animated spacesuit, Zoot. Ultimately, Tim helps uncle Martin, but can he send him safely home before the world discovers their secret? Outrageous special effects bring zoot to life, and create uncle Martin's special powers - becoming invisible, shape shifting and levitation.

Also staring Daryl Hannah, Elizabeth Hurley and Ray Walston, Disney's My favourite Martian is a visual treat for viewers of all ages.

Cinematic intelligence sources

Studios and distributors:

Buena Vista International

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

My favourite moron.

Nah, not really, it was just too good an opening line to pass up! My favourite Martian is the latest in the series of USA TV shows being remade for the big screen. The observant among you will note that these are all films which Baby Boomers watched while growing up and now that Baby Boomers are running everything they're happily recreating their innocent past as they deal with 20th century blues, millennial angst and middle aged spread.

On to the film: it's interesting, humourous and occasionally zany, as you'd expect from this sort of story. There are some special effects and a lot of vaguely familiar faces floating around where you're not expecting them (such as Wallace Shawn - Grand Nagus Zek from Star trek - popping up as the alien hunter). Unfortunately, that's the only surprise. There's nothing here you haven't seen before, there's the inevitable happy ending, the just desserts, the true love and more.

My favourite Martian is the McDonald's of couch-bound entertainment: not as exciting as pizza but easier than cooking something for yourself.

Media intelligence (DVD)

Languages in Dolby Surround 5.1: English, German; in Dolby stereo 2.0: Hungarian
Picture: Widescreen: 1.85:1
Subtitles: German, Dutch, Polish, English captions