Overview: He married a girl from out of town! Way out of town!

Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Kim Basinger (The Nice Guys) and Jon Lovitz (Southland Tales) star in a fish-out-of-water comedy with a sci-fi twist that questions whether a romance between two star-crossed lovers who are literally worlds apart can ever work.

When widowed astronomer Steve Mills (Aykroyd) inadvertently causes a gravitational disruption in deep space, a race of hyper-advanced alien lifeforms sends one of their own to investigate, disguised in the alluring human form of Celeste (Basinger).

Tasked with seducing the lovelorn Steve in a bid to gain access to his scientific research, Celeste finds herself falling for the man she’s been sent to swindle.

But they’ve not counted on Steve’s young daughter Jessie (Alyson Hannigan, TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who’s none too thrilled by the prospect of a new mother – especially not one from another planet.

Funny and touching in equal measure, My Stepmother is an Alien is an offbeat and at times surprisingly risqué comedy that confirms the adage that what unites us is far greater than what divides us ... even if what divides us happens to be an entire galaxy.

Blu-ray Verdict: The plot is ’80s simple: A low-paid widowed scientist (Dan Aykroyd) makes contact with aliens and they send an agent (Kim Basinger) to meet him.

Oh and she has a one-eyed serpentine counselor in her purse and ends up marrying the physicist, even though the counselor’s intention is to destroy the planet!

Alyson Hannigan plays the winsome daughter while Jon Lovitz is on hand as the researcher’s annoying brother.

My Stepmother Is an Alien is cut from the same cloth as the contemporaneous Earth Girls are Easy and although it’s not as good and has a strange off-kilter vibe, it’s vastly superior to future duds: 2001: A Space Travesty and What Planet Are You From? (both from 2000).

While I’m personally not a fan of Basinger in anything she does, she does do comedy surprisingly well, better than you would expect, in fact!

This was the feature film debut of future stars Alyson Hannigan and Juliette Lewis, as well as being one of Seth Green’s early movies. The roles of the latter two are almost unnoticeable, but what isn’t is that whoever wrote the script loves Jimmy Durante!

There’s a surprising scene involving porn that, while it doesn’t get outrageously out of hand (if you’ll pardon the pun!), it honestly seems out of place for a warm-hearted family flick like this.

Coming in at just under two hours (a tad bit too long, if you ask me), the film is overall funny and might well be Richard Benjamin’s best effort, and, of course, features a terrific cast too.

Ackroyd is wonderful but, then, so is Basinger in her comedic stance (for once, and ok, sure, she most likely never garnered any sensible praise for), and as for Lovitz, he could make a stone laugh and thus is on excellent form!

All of the other cast members, including Hannigan are fine and there is an abundance of terrific sight gags and special effects, which enable the script to be humorous, polished, and offbeat.

As for the costumes, they are impressive also, with Basinger looking like a dream in most everything she wears, in truth. In short, do not be an alien to this film for this one (now remastered and loaded chock full of lovely extras by Arrow Films) actually delivers the laughs that a winning ’80s comedy flick should. Highly recommended. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Brand new audio commentary by critic Bryan Reesman
Cosmetic Encounters: Directing My Stepmother is An Alien, a brand new interview with director Richard Benjamin
Original Trailer
Image Gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
+ FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Amanda Reyes

www.arrowfilms.com