My Stepmother Is an Alien

My Stepmother is an Alien
File:My stepmother is an alien.jpg Original film poster
Directed by	Richard Benjamin
Produced by	Franklin R. Levy Ronald Parker Executive producers: Jerry Weintraub Art Levinson Laurence Mark
Written by	Jerico Stone Herschel Weingrod Timothy Harris Jonathan Reynolds Uncredited: Richard Benner Leslie Bricusse Debra Frank Susan Rice Paul Rudnick Carl Sautter
Starring	Dan Aykroyd Kim Basinger Jon Lovitz
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Richard H. Kline
Edited by	Jacqueline Cambas
Production company	Weintraub Entertainment Group
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	December 9, 1988 (1988-12-09)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$26,000,000
Box office	$13,854,000 (US)

My Stepmother is an Alien is a 1988 American comedy science fiction film produced by the Weintraub Entertainment Group for release through Columbia Pictures, directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger, with featured performances by Jon Lovitz and Alyson Hannigan.

Plot

Celeste (Kim Basinger) is an alien sent on a secret mission to Earth and Steven Mills (Dan Aykroyd) is a widowed scientist who is working on different ways to send radio waves into deep space. An accident causes a disruption of gravity on Celeste's home world (Cosine N to the 8th). She's sent to investigate who could affect gravity and how it was done, believing it was an attack. She's aided by an alien device resembling a tentacle with an eye, which hides in a designer purse to aid Celeste with her encounters on Earth. The Bag is able to create any object, such as diamonds and designer dresses almost instantaneously. Celeste crashes a party hosted by Steven's brother Ron (Jon Lovitz) where she immediately draws attention to herself by making dated references to old TV shows and political slogans under the mistaken belief that it was current (her superiors had just collected the information, which had taken 92 years to get from Earth to her home world).

Celeste's inexperience almost results in her exposing herself as alien when she struggles with simple tasks like trying to kiss for the first time or cooking. Jessie Mills (Alyson Hannigan), Steven's 13-year-old daughter, notices Celeste's strange habits, like eating car batteries and pulling hard boiled eggs out of boiling hot water with her bare hands and becomes suspicious of her. However, she can't convince her smitten father that there is something unusual about Celeste. Ron also has his doubts about Celeste, but more on the basis that he feels his brother is doing too much too soon by asking to marry Celeste only a few days after they first met. Ron tries to dissuade Steven from marrying Celeste on the idea she is an illegal immigrant or planning economic espionage, but then admits he is jealous his brother found his dream girl whereas he will never find a girl like Princess Stéphanie of Monaco.

Celeste encounters a lot of new experiences such as sneezing, sexual intercourse and love. When finally confronted about being an extraterrestrial by Jessie, Celeste admits her home world is without emotion. Celeste plans to depart once she discovers the truth, but is put in a quandary by Jessie, who says it will devastate her father, whom Celeste has now developed feelings for. After Jessie argues with her dad, she runs away and is nearly hit by a car, but is saved by Celeste's powers. This reveals to Steven that Celeste is indeed an alien and that she has fallen in love with him as well as accepting Jessie as her own daughter. When the leaders of Celeste's home world report in they ask her to destroy the planet Earth until she and Steven manage to convince them it was not an act of aggression, but an accident. They accept the explanation on the basis that gravity is returning to normal on their planet and give their blessing for Celeste to be with Steven. Initially, however, they demand that Celeste return to explain human culture to them but settle for a native of Earth to serve as ambassador to their world as a token of goodwill. The ambassadorship is accepted by Ron, who departs for Celeste's world in a spaceship served by several flight attendants, all of whom look like Princess Stéphanie.

Cast

• Dan Aykroyd as Steven Mills
• Kim Basinger as Celeste Martin
• Jon Lovitz as Ron Mills
• Alyson Hannigan as Jessie Mills
• Joseph Maher as Lucas Budlong
• Seth Green as Fred Glass
• Ann Prentiss as Voice of The Bag
• Wesley Mann as Grady
• Tony Jay as Council Chief
• Peter Bromilow as Second in Command
• Nina Henderson as Cashier
• Harry Shearer as Voice of Carl Sagan
• Adrian Sparks as Dr. Morosini
• Juliette Lewis as Lexie, Jessie's Friend #1
• Tanya Fenmore as Ellen, Jessie's Friend #2
• Peanut as Dave, the Dog

Production

• The original writer of My Stepmother Is an Alien, Jerico Stone, saw the story as a dark allegory about child abuse, which is how he pitched the film to Paramount Pictures in 1981.

• Shelley Long was originally cast as Celeste, but dropped out due to unknown circumstances.

• The film went into principal photography on 29 February 1988, as well as wrapped in May of that year. Some location shooting took place in Thousand Oaks, California. The film was released in the United States on 9 December 1988, and was marketed with the tagline: "A million lightyears from home, she's found a husband, a stepdaughter and a dog."

Reception

The film gained negative reviews, receiving a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes from a sample of 16 critics.

Box office

The film was not successful. The film was released on December 9, 1988 and opened at #7, grossing $2,066,980 in the opening weekend. It went on to gross $13,854,000 in the USA.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released by Polydor Records.

1. Room to Move - Animotion (4:12)
2. Not Just Another Girl - Ivan Neville (4:05)
3. Be the One - Jackie Jackson (4:15)
4. I Like the World - Cameo (6:11)
5. One Good Lover - Siren (3:51)
6. Hot Wives - Dan Aykroyd (2:53)
7. Pump Up the Volume - M.A.R.R.S. (4:06)
8. Enjoy - Alan Silvestri (2:54)
9. The Klystron - Alan Silvestri (5:33)
10. The Celeste - Alan Silvestri (4:56)
11. Kiss - Art of Noise feat. Tom Jones (3:30)

External links

• My Stepmother Is an Alien at IMDb
• My Stepmother Is an Alien at the TCM Movie Database
• My Stepmother Is an Alien at AllMovie
• My Stepmother Is an Alien at Rotten Tomatoes