While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Dan Aykroyd and fellow writers from TV's long-running "Saturday Night Live" wrote this Sci-Fi comedy. Aykroyd had a way with subtlety in his comedy, and would slip in sensitive matter at times. It wasn't in- your-face mockery or blatant poking, but gentle treatment that was amusing. It would usually dawn on the audience that there was a gentle, humorous poke or statement that would make one smile. It's often easy to miss the subtle with so much more of the obvious attacks of humor.I think we see a lot of that in Coneheads. Their outlandish appearance with those long, pointed heads, makes us laugh initially, and then chuckle a few more times in the film. Yet, the human beings on earth – in America where they land and take up residence, seem oblivious to their appearance. I think that's a jab at reality. The message is that we're supposed to be accepting of people who are different. OK, but here, it's as though no one notices the obvious differences in the Coneheads.I remember a charity program that my work establishment held each year in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We picked a single charity each year to benefit from a few events during one week – a dance, a lunch or dinner, a fair. At the outdoor picnic fund-raising fair one year, a table had T-shirts that read, "Love sees no color." I understood what they intended, but it struck me as wrong. It seemed to deny the reality of our nature – our vision. As such, it suggested indifference. Rather, love should notice differences and accept them, not deny them. Because denying differences, or turning a blind eye, denies the person. I talked with people at the table about it and after a short time, they had new T-shirts that read, "Love sees all colors." That was a more truthful and much better message about acceptance.Of course, the presence of the Coneheads is anything but subtle, and I think that's a big piece of the humor. It pokes fun at the societal mores of the time that deny natural senses. And, this film has more subtleties. The way the Coneheads speak with rearranged sentences and choice words is hilarious. We know what they are doing as writers and actors, and yet it's very funny. But it doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary with the people they encounter.Then, there's Beldar's skills that show his advanced knowledge. He drives a taxi and yet he has so much knowledge and inventive skills. Think about many immigrants over the decades. Skilled craftsmen, professionals, even doctors have come to the U.S. to flee persecution or oppression, and they wind up in everyday blue-collar jobs. I think this film had a lot of social messaging intertwined in the sci-fi humor. Or, maybe it was designed as a social commentary with the sci-fi and humor as the medium. Anyway, the comedy of this film is much better than many of the IMDb reviewers seem to think. Yet this was a highly successful box office film in 1993. When I first saw it in the theater back then, a sizable audience seemed to enjoy it no end. At least, judging from the comments and laughter I heard leaving the theater. Perhaps mankind is losing its sense of humor and cognitive abilities with our growing dependence on anti- social media.

There's a meaningful message buried inside the narrative of Steve Barron's Coneheads, the feature-length adaptation of the long-running Saturday Night Live skit from the 1990's, however, due to pervasive comic vignettes that look to exhaust the inane possibilities of the titular creatures, it's almost entirely lost. The obvious thematic significance this film could hold is one that looks at America's idea of illegal immigration and the immediate ostracizing, and even criminalization, take place by people when they see foreigners, but with a film like Coneheads, there's barely anything else on the mind (or large, distended cranium in this case) then to get to the next sight-gag or joke as soon as possible.This is precisely the kind of film that was meant to take up, at most, ten minutes out of Saturday Night Live's sixty minute timeslot rather than wheeze and exhaust itself past feature-film length. The story concerns a UFO that crashlands into an ocean on Earth, housing occupants Beldar and his lifemate Prymaat (Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin), two aliens with conical skulls. Beldar immediately starts work as a repairman and, upon his boss discovering his illegal alien status, is given a fake identity and Social Security Number to pass off as a citizen.Not long after their arrival, Beldar and Prymaat have a daughter named Connie (Michelle Burke), and try their best to live their lives without being a burden to others. Despite some weird lingo, explicitly detailed statements about their actions present and very-near-future, and their obnoxious and plentiful eating patterns, they are more or less normal human beings. However, to immigration agents Gorman Seedling and Eli (Michael McKean and David Spade) they are vermin who need be deported back to their home planet. Beldar and his family try to elude the immigration service whilst dealing with the "Americanization" of their values.One of these "Americanizing" instances comes at breakfast one morning when Beldar realizes his daughter has a temporary tattoo on his skull, in addition to layers of makeup and lipstick. Disgusted, he orders his daughter to change, for she looks like their planet's version of a prostitute (the quirky name slips my mind, but I'm confident I'll get an email from a Conehead enthusiast informing me of the name and my review's failure). This scene works because it adheres to the principles of what this film ultimately should've been; a decidedly quirky parable about immigration and the subsequent "Americanization" of one's values and heritage.However, the quartet of writers here, including Aykroyd himself, don't do anything they couldn't do late at night on a Saturday. Even other Saturday Night Live alumni fail to shine, such as Chris Farley, who is given a disappointingly tame role, and Adam Sandler, who, I really must say, I wouldn't have minded seeing more of in this film. The depressingly tame and repetitive nature of Coneheads grows maddening after a while, and what we're left with is an empty shell of a film that doesn't live up to thematic potential and just kind of flounders when it should be flooring its audience.Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Michelle Burke, Michael McKean, David Spade, Chris Farley, and Adam Sandler. Directed by: Steve Barron.

poor rendition of the original, but just a couple days ago for the first time i saw something, they get a motel, Kramer is the hotel clerk, OK there is hope for the movie; then in the room Jane Curtain reads a bible and laughs. it goes back to her laughing a few times to drill the point home: the point they make is the bible is fantasy such that she finds it very funny; the point is its a book of lies according to Jane and the movies producers. it was extremely offensive to have this in there. lot of ways they could have handled the motel bible concept. they chose the worst, to mock all of Christianity calling all Christians deluded fools following the bible, a book of lies according to Jane Curtain and this movies producers.It made me want to look at her and say Jane you ignorant slut...

A conundrum of a movie, in that it's not funny or endearing, but obviously made and billed to be both funny and endearing. The movie was born from ancient SNL sketches that were only ever sort of funny, nostalgia took care of the rest. A forgettable movie, like I know the Coneheads are in the movie but I don't remember what they do or why they do whatever it is being done, like well over a hour of film is spent on central characters who are aliens from outer space trying to live on Earth incognito and its an utterly forgettable movie, that's not on me, I didn't screw that up. That the aliens' perspective on Earthling culture could be used for devastating satire was in no way utilized or even realized, I mean would you go to a knife fight and fight with a pocket- knife when you have Glock .9 strapped to your hip? Some important life-or-death struggle and you don't use your best weapon?