Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1993
Coneheads (film)
Buy Coneheads (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Coneheads' is a 1993 American science-fiction comedy film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Lorne Michaels, directed by Steve Barron, and starring Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Michelle Burke. The film is based on the NBC 'Saturday Night Live' comedy sketches about aliens stranded on Earth, who have Anglicized their Remulakian surname to "Conehead". Michelle Burke took over the role played by Laraine Newman on 'SNL'. The film also features roles and cameos by actors and comedians from 'SNL' and other television series of the time.
Three years after the release of 'Coneheads', screenwriters Bonnie & Terry Turner and star Jane Curtin revisited the premise of aliens arriving on Earth and assimilating into American society with the TV show '3rd Rock from the Sun', with Curtin instead playing a human character.
Plot
Upon discovering a UFO in American airspace, the National Guard sends fighter jets to investigate, who fire on the unresponsive craft and cause it to crash into the Atlantic Ocean, near Manhattan. The aliens from the planet Remulak aboard, Beldar Clorhone and his "genetomate" Prymaat, survive and quickly adapt to the human lifestyle, despite their conspicuous conical-shaped heads and metallic-sounding voices. Assigned by Highmaster Mintot to conquer Earth (a 'Protoid Re-fueling Station') as 'Fuel Survey Underlord of the Wilderness Planet at the end of the Noctolium Solar Chain', Beldar becomes an appliance repairman, and upon discovering his undocumented status, his boss Otto arranges for a false identity, which quickly alerts the INS. Meanwhile, after the couple discover from fellow Remulakian Marlax that a rescue vessel will not arrive for seven "Zurls" (many years), Prymaat informs Beldar she is pregnant. Ambitious INS agent Gorman Sneedling and his assistant Eli Turnbull unsuccessfully attempt to capture the couple.
Months later, Beldar has become a respected taxi driver, and the couple live in his boss, Khoudri's basement. After their daughter Connie's birth, they buy a home and move to suburban Paramus, New Jersey, adopting the surname Conehead, where Beldar begins another new career as a driving instructor. Meanwhile, Gorman gets a promotion and decides to leave the Coneheads' case to his replacement, but the case's extreme expense forces him to ensure its closure.
The now-teenaged Connie simply wants to fit in with her peers, though her father greatly objects, especially when she begins seeing auto mechanic Ronnie Bradford. This causes tension between Connie and Beldar, who strongly disapproves of Ronnie, even tearing the roof off of his car and threatening to kill him after he tries to make love with Connie, which irritates her. Despite this, Ronnie and Connie reconcile after talking. Meanwhile, Beldar is preoccupied with winning a golfing trophy at his country club, while Prymaat becomes concerned about his attractiveness to her due to one of his driving students, Gladys Johnson, flirting with him.
Gorman and Eli track the Coneheads to their home, posing as Jehovah's Witnesses to enter. During the conversation, Prymaat discovers their communication device to Remulak is beeping and notifies Beldar that 'the Big Phone' has contacted him, causing him to promptly eject the two. He is then told that their rescue vessel is approaching.
At a costume party that night, Beldar wins the golfing trophy. After Connie is told of their imminent rescue, she returns home with Ronnie, where she almost consummates their relationship using her parents' "senso-rings". Beldar and Prymaat discover them, just as the INS arrives to arrest the Coneheads. Ronnie helps stall the INS while the rescue vessel arrives just in time, and Gorman and Eli are taken aboard with the Coneheads.
On Remulak, Beldar is welcomed home, presenting the Highmaster with various Earthly 'gifts', including Gorman and Eli as slaves. Initially satisfied with Beldar's accomplishments, Mintot notices that Beldar's teeth are capped (something Otto had advised Beldar to do to blend in), accuses him of treason and sentences him to fight the ferocious Garthok ("knarfle the Garthok"), greatly distressing Prymaat.
After the Garthok easily and gruesomely kills other criminals sentenced to fight it, Beldar uses his Earthly golfing skills to save himself, killing the creature. Afterwards, he requests to return to Earth to oversee its conquest, taking Gorman back with him as a minion. Mintot agrees and hires Eli as his personal assistant, who quickly acclimates to his new role. Departing for Earth with Prymaat, Connie, and Gorman in tow, Beldar soon prioritizes Connie's feelings over planetary conquest by quickly faking an Earth attack, ordering his invasion force to retreat and proceed to their secondary target in another part of the galaxy, while making it look like a superior weapon has destroyed his spaceship. For rescuing him, Gorman agrees to give the Coneheads Green Cards due to Beldar's marketable talent.
Ronnie arrives to take Connie to the prom. Beldar gives him 55 words of advice, and then uses a massive flash bulb arrangement on his home-built Polaroid camera to document the happy event. As Connie and a now-sunburned Ronnie depart, he and Prymaat review the oversized photo, saying, "Ah, memories. We will enjoy them".
Cast
* Dan Aykroyd as Beldar Conehead / Donald R. DeCicco
* Jane Curtin as Prymaat Conehead / Mary Margaret Rowney
* Michelle Burke as Connie Conehead
* Michael McKean as INS Deputy Commissioner Gorman Sneedling, the main antagonist of the film
* David Spade as INS Agent Eli Turnbull
* Chris Farley as Ronnie Bradford
* Sinbad as Otto
* Michael Richards as Arnold
* Eddie Griffin as Raymond
* Phil Hartman as Marlaxx
* Adam Sandler as Carmine Weiner
* Mitchell Bobrow as Tanner
* Jason Alexander as Larry Farber
* Lisa Jane Persky as Lisa Farber
* Dave Thomas as Highmaster Mintot
* Laraine Newman as Laarta
* Garrett Morris as Captain Orecruiser
* Drew Carey as Manny Manson
* Kevin Nealon as Kevin
* Jan Hooks as Gladys Johnson
* Parker Posey as Stephanie
* Joey Lauren Adams as Christina
* Julia Sweeney as Principal Eva Sweeney
* Ellen DeGeneres as Coach Rosa Scott
* Tim Meadows as Manny Jones
* Peter Aykroyd as Highmaster Mentot
* Jonathan Penner as Air Traffic captain
* Whip Hubley as F-16 pilot
* Mark Fulton (uncredited) as Toni
* Jon Lovitz (uncredited) as Dr. Rudolph, dentist
* Tom Arnold (uncredited) as Tommy
In addition to Jane Curtin appearing as a regular cast member, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney and Laraine Newman all made appearances on '3rd Rock from the Sun', which was created by 'Coneheads' writers Bonnie & Terry Turner and featured a similar premise of aliens making efforts to assimilate into American society.
Production
Tom Davis, who created the characters on 'Saturday Night Live', wrote the first version of the screenplay. He was unhappy with choices made by the producers, including setting the Remulak scenes in a gladiators' arena, rather than the suburban environment that he envisioned.
While there are some differences, 'Coneheads' mostly follows the same plot as in the animated special that was created ten years earlier. Similarities include the Coneheads being stranded on Earth, Beldar working as an appliance repair man, and Connie dating an earthling named Ronnie.
The film mostly takes place in Paramus, New Jersey. Some scenes were filmed in New York City and the New Jersey towns of Jersey City and Wrightstown.
Reception
The film debuted at No. 6 on its opening weekend, while its domestic box office grossed $7,100,501. By the end of its domestic theatrical run, the film had grossed $21,274,717.
'Coneheads' received mostly negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a low score of 33%, based on 31 reviews with a consensus that reads, "Listless, crude, and overall uninspired, 'Coneheads' offers further evidence that stretching an 'SNL' sketch to feature length can be tougher than narfling a garthok." Roger Ebert gave the film stars out of 4, describing 'Coneheads' as "dismal, dreary and fairly desperate" and the actors as unable to overcome an uninspired screenplay. Janet Maslin of 'The New York Times' said the film "has its dopey charms", and that it is suitable for people who found 'Wayne's World' too demanding.
The 'Los Angeles Times' called it "an unusually companionable jape; in this world it makes perfect sense that the Coneheads' friends and neighbors never really register that there's anything terribly different about them. They're all-American eccentricseven if they happen to come from the planet Remulak".
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on scale of A+ to F.
The film received some critical re-evaluation during the 2010s, with multiple writers noting its satirical take on an immigrant family experience and immigration enforcement (meant as an exaggeration of Reagan-era politics) became eerily politically relevant following the September 11 attacks.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack for 'Coneheads' was released on July 20, 1993 by Warner Bros. Records. It features the songs "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell, "It's a Free World, Baby" by R.E.M. and "Soul to Squeeze" by the band Red Hot Chili Peppers which would go on to reach 22 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album itself would peak at 162 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
Track listing
None of David Newman's score was included on the above album, but it was issued on a 2015 Intrada album paired with his scores for 'Talent for the Game' and 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'.
References
Buy Coneheads (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1993