Can you inflate a gimmick-driven comedy skit into a full-fledged feature film? Up to a point, which in the case of this ''Saturday Night Live''-inspired film, is quickly reached. Then, in ''Conehead'' speak, the one-joke grid overloads with repetitious permutations of a prepubescent sensibility and borps dead in terminus.
While some of the younger bluntheads will delight in the broad humor, such as the sucking up of abundant quantities of junk food, ''Coneheads' '' word-of-mouth will be decidedly low-toned. Little tidy-torg boxoffice here.
The ''Man From Mars'' genre, where an uninitiated and innocent outsider tries to make sense of a new setting or civilization, is this skittish work's lineage. In this form, things the indigenous tribe takes for granted are often downright perplexing to the alien visitor. Namely, the locals can't see the forest for the trees and the Man From Mars can throw satirical insight on civilization's foibles.
In this case, the indigenous tribe is the U.S. suburbanite, specifically the good lawnkeepers of Paramus, N.J., who find in their midst a family of three forehead-challenged newcomers, Beldar (Dan Aykroyd), Prymaat (Jane Curtin), and Connie (Michelle Burke), their 16-year-old teen. Like most residents of the Jersey burbs, Beldar and Prymaat have come a long way: in this case, light years away from the planet Remulak and, most recently, landed smack dab in the big city to toil in immigrant servitude before cadging up to the delights of Paramus and New Jersey.
Like the great American epic family novels, ''Coneheads'' is divided into three parts: the immigrant phase, as Beldar and Prymaat struggle to cadge money to escape the grim city; the suburban phase, as the duo live the American dream; and the final phase, as they return to their homeland, where they're in a lot of hot water for landing on Earth in the first place.
While the quartet of scripters (Tom Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner) spin out a number of amusing sight gags involving the Coneheads' unique physical features and some sly one-liners hurled at U.S. immigration policy, the ''Coneheads'' screenplay is not so much a script as the same stream of gags stretched out over three different settings.
The writing is pretty much limited to their speech patterns, food ingestion proclivities and big heads. It wears thin. Those expecting some sort of subversive satirical broadside at modern-day culture will be particularly disappointed.
In short, the Coneheads are merely modern-day booboisie, aspiring to the George Babbitt lifestyle, which director Steve Barron records mechanically but without any sense of personality or even mischief.
Not surprisingly, the skit's, er, movie's novelty wears off: the Coneheads' programmed, metallic speech (like ''Rain Man'' with a head cold) annoys and their predictable patterns bore. One clamors to put a dunce cap over their entire pointy noggins.
CONEHEADS
Paramount
Producer Lorne Michaels
Director Steve Barron
Screenwriters Tom Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner
Executive producer Michael Rachmil
Director of photography Francis Kenny
Production designer Gregg Fonseca
Editor Paul Trejo
Costume designer Marie france
Music David Newman
Co-producers Dinah Minot, Barnaby Thompson, Bonnie Turner
Casting Lora Kennedy
Sound mixer Keith Wester
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Beldar Conehead Dan Aykroyd
Prymaat Conehead Jane Curtin
Connie Conehead Michelle Burke
Laarta Laraine Newman
Mazarlaw Phil Hartman
Highmaster Dave Thomas
Gorman Seedling Michael McKean
Larry Farber Jason Alexander
Lisa Farber Lisa Jane Persky
Ronnie Chris Farley
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
While some of the younger bluntheads will delight in the broad humor, such as the sucking up of abundant quantities of junk food, ''Coneheads' '' word-of-mouth will be decidedly low-toned. Little tidy-torg boxoffice here.
The ''Man From Mars'' genre, where an uninitiated and innocent outsider tries to make sense of a new setting or civilization, is this skittish work's lineage. In this form, things the indigenous tribe takes for granted are often downright perplexing to the alien visitor. Namely, the locals can't see the forest for the trees and the Man From Mars can throw satirical insight on civilization's foibles.
In this case, the indigenous tribe is the U.S. suburbanite, specifically the good lawnkeepers of Paramus, N.J., who find in their midst a family of three forehead-challenged newcomers, Beldar (Dan Aykroyd), Prymaat (Jane Curtin), and Connie (Michelle Burke), their 16-year-old teen. Like most residents of the Jersey burbs, Beldar and Prymaat have come a long way: in this case, light years away from the planet Remulak and, most recently, landed smack dab in the big city to toil in immigrant servitude before cadging up to the delights of Paramus and New Jersey.
Like the great American epic family novels, ''Coneheads'' is divided into three parts: the immigrant phase, as Beldar and Prymaat struggle to cadge money to escape the grim city; the suburban phase, as the duo live the American dream; and the final phase, as they return to their homeland, where they're in a lot of hot water for landing on Earth in the first place.
While the quartet of scripters (Tom Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner) spin out a number of amusing sight gags involving the Coneheads' unique physical features and some sly one-liners hurled at U.S. immigration policy, the ''Coneheads'' screenplay is not so much a script as the same stream of gags stretched out over three different settings.
The writing is pretty much limited to their speech patterns, food ingestion proclivities and big heads. It wears thin. Those expecting some sort of subversive satirical broadside at modern-day culture will be particularly disappointed.
In short, the Coneheads are merely modern-day booboisie, aspiring to the George Babbitt lifestyle, which director Steve Barron records mechanically but without any sense of personality or even mischief.
Not surprisingly, the skit's, er, movie's novelty wears off: the Coneheads' programmed, metallic speech (like ''Rain Man'' with a head cold) annoys and their predictable patterns bore. One clamors to put a dunce cap over their entire pointy noggins.
CONEHEADS
Paramount
Producer Lorne Michaels
Director Steve Barron
Screenwriters Tom Davis, Dan Aykroyd, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner
Executive producer Michael Rachmil
Director of photography Francis Kenny
Production designer Gregg Fonseca
Editor Paul Trejo
Costume designer Marie france
Music David Newman
Co-producers Dinah Minot, Barnaby Thompson, Bonnie Turner
Casting Lora Kennedy
Sound mixer Keith Wester
Color/Stereo
Cast:
Beldar Conehead Dan Aykroyd
Prymaat Conehead Jane Curtin
Connie Conehead Michelle Burke
Laarta Laraine Newman
Mazarlaw Phil Hartman
Highmaster Dave Thomas
Gorman Seedling Michael McKean
Larry Farber Jason Alexander
Lisa Farber Lisa Jane Persky
Ronnie Chris Farley
Running time -- 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 7/22/1993
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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