Doin' Time on Planet Earth

Young Nicholas Strouse due to a combination of interesting circumstances learns he might be the leader of an alien race who while they might not have powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men certainly he and those like him feel they're just Doin' Time on Planet Earth. Is he the one to lead these misfits home?

Well not if it's going to interfere with his big brother Timothy Patrick Murphy's wedding this Saturday to Isabelle Walker, the daughter of Hugh O'Brian who once ran for president. But after Strouse starts getting e-mails from a pair of serious UFO fanatics like Adam West and Candace Azzara, he starts to think there might be something to him really being an alien.

Doin' Time on Planet Earth is a bit above the usual teenage coming of age party film and part of the reason is the incredibly hammy and overacted performance of Adam West who is just having one grand old time leading a band of misfits. The film is worth a look just to see him alone, burlesquing his Batman persona.

Martha Scott is in this, looking a bit lost as to how she got roped into this film. Matt Adler is fine as the perpetually hormonal best friend of Strouse and Andrea Thompson is miles from no-nonsense Detective Jill Kirkendall from NYPD Blue as the lounge entertainer and stripper who fulfills all of what Strouse really needs.

It is sad though that this was the farewell film of Timothy Patrick Murphy, best known for being Mickey Trotter on Dallas, who died way too young of AIDS. That young man had it all, looks, charisma, and a goodly share of thespian ability. He was a particular favorite of mine from the Eighties.

Doin' Time On Planet Earth is far from the worst film of this kind I've ever seen and you might get a few genuine laughs from it.

This film has charm. Charles Matthau's first feature film has quirky appeal to it, but looks and feels very much like a high budgeted afterschool special. I mean that in a good way, because the film itself is well crafted, and the characterizations of the supporting cast puts a smile on this viewer's face.

The intro was particularly interesting, and helps draw you into the characters and their world. Unfortunately this aspect of the film is not carried on throughout, leaving the viewer to wonder exactly what happened. Even so the intro does a good job setting the overall tone for the film; an offbeat "teenage outcast come of age" type of movie.

Two highlights of this film are Adam West and Andrea Thompson. Adam West does a bang up job of portraying a well meaning neo-UFO-conspiracy-theorist, whose sole aim is to bring about certain events he as thinks they should unfold. He thinks he knows it all because the things he's seen, to him, seem to be falling into place for a really big event that'll solve all his (and his follower's) problems. Andrea Thompson plays the local "bad girl" who comforts our protagonist Ryan Richmond, and plays her part almost too well; by this I mean that when I saw her performance, to me, it seemed as if the producer's were trying to cut down on costs because the character she portrayed seemed so vaccuous at times, and I thought that was because of the actress. I was wrong. I've seen Andrea Thompson in other stuff and now know that her performance in this film was just a notch or two above everyone else, as she gave us the loner-chick in a leather coat. If she had played the character a little more light hearted the film might've benefittted some.

The underlying theme of the story is the outcast phenomena that occurs with many teens, and the pitfalls they face when confronted with people who seemingly understand them (but only on a very superfical level), and the disastrous consequences of such interactions when their true aims are made manifest. It's a good morality play for adolescents, but even so the film lacks energy at points, and suffers some because of it.

There're a few laughs here and there, and if you're a film fan who likes interesting characters and quirky films, then this may prove to be a bonafide masterpiece for your collection. Otherwise, even though I enjoyed it, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, as the mixture of off-beat comedy with teen angst strives for a goal that's a bit too ambitious for another otherwise fairly good film. Overall the comedy rides a low sine wave; some of the laughs are good, others not as much.

It's fairly obvious that this was the director's first film, as it is a bit disorganized and not quite as smoothly put together as it could have been. But it is equally obvious that the director had good intentions, and helped by an imaginative premise (weird, misunderstood kid believes he's an alien), he did make a likably eccentric film after all. At least it's better that the usual Golan-Globus stuff. (**1/2)

This is a very obscure and old movie, but it has a good lesson behind it: You should always be yourself no matter what people think about you. Celebrate being different and weird! This is also a great movie to see if you're a huge fan of the B52s (like I am). Two of the movies coolest characters are dressed like Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of the B52s! Great cheezy, fun 80's movie!

~CosmicGirl

I was an extra in the scene when the aliens shoot up the revolving restaurant. All of us extras met a bus in Hollywood and rode up to Palmdale where the filming for that scene was done. It was a night shoot, cold as hell as I remember.

The scene as shot had paramedics hauling injured patrons out the front door of the hotel to a waiting ambulance. Hugh O'Brian's character came over to me, a uniformed cop, and asked for a ride downtown. We jumped in my police car and took off.

The aliens ran to an old bus and took off, but for some reason the front axle of the bus broke just as they were filming and had to be manually pulled back in place.

It was a fun gig, and all the actors were friendly and going along with it.

Almost all of that scene got cut except for a panning shot that shows me with my back to the camera looking up and talking on a hand-held radio. (!)