I sort of wish I lived in the 80s. If film is any indication, it was a simpler time filled with silliness, great fashion sense, and the epitome of the word awesome. This movie is one of those super 80s-y movies with such a fun and ridiculous concept, not to mention a great cast. Sure, it's dumb. It's really dumb, but there's an undeniable charm to it that I wish was more present in movies today.
Basically the concept is that three furry aliens, played by Jeff Goldblum, Jim Carrey (in one of his early roles), and Damon Wayans, decide to scope Earth out for hotties when they accidentally crash land in Geena Davis's pool. The casting is great; Geena Davis is very likable as the naive and ditzy lead protagonist, and Jim Carrey gives a good zany Jim Carrey performance. Michael McKean as the dumb stoner guy is pretty funny as well.
If anyone is underused, it's Jeff Goldblum, but he does a good job despite not having a lot to do. It's pretty easy to buy the romance between the two leads too. After Transylvania 6-5000 and The Fly, Geena and Jeff are bound to have good chemistry by now, and they're fairly believable, even given the silly story. Speaking of silly story, it's peppered throughout with a few song and dance numbers to really up the campiness factor, and it succeeds with flying colors. The few songs are both silly and catchy, really adding to the cheesy 80s atmosphere.
The movie isn't at all perfect; the ending feels a bit rushed, and the script does tend to rely on the "aliens aren't good with English" joke a little too much, but it's really about the tone of the movie more than anything. This movie encapsulates a time period: the end of the 80s right before the 90s took over. Now, I love 90s movies as well, and even the 00s has come up with some good ones, but 80s movies have such a distinct feel. I just sometimes wish that newer movies felt as fun as this.
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