[VIDEO REVIEWS]These Alien Replacements Finally Catch On

THE REPLACEMENTS (2000)

Directed by Howard Deutch. Starring Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman, Brooke Langton and Orlando Jones.

There are just four games left in the football season when the players of the Washington Sentinels go on strike. Inspired by the National Football League strike in 1987, "The Replacements" takes a comic look at what happens when the replacements are everyday people.

To complete the season, the owner of the team rehires coach Jimmy McGinty (Hackman) to put together a scab crew in one week. The team must win three games to make it to the playoffs.

On the top of McGinty's new lineup is Shane Falco (Reeves, who succeeds in playing yet another dumb, but quite likable guy). A former quarterback who blew his chance at going pro, Shane now scrapes barnacles off yachts for a living.

His new peers include Clifford Franklin (Jones), a lightening fast receiver who has trouble catching the ball; Daniel Bateman (Jon Favreau), a psychotic former cop; and Nigel Gruff (Rhys Ifans), a chain-smoking soccer player-turned kicker.

Predictably, the first game ends in disaster, but the team slowly starts to bond and set aside its differences.

Along the way, Shane falls in love with the head cheerleader, Annabelle (Langton), whose cheerleading squad went on strike with the rest of the football team.

WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM? (2000) ?"Neo Eoneu Byeoleseo Watni?" (Korean title)

Directed by Mike Nichols. Starring Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, John Goodman, Greg Kinnear and Ben Kingsley.

Four solar systems away, a planet of aliens plan to conquer Earth. Their fiendish plot involves sending an alien to impregnate an Earth woman.

The aliens, who are technologically superior to humans, but emotionally sterile, go through an extensive training program with instructions like, "Women enjoy hearing that they smell nice and their footwear is stylish."

Ah, if only it were that easy. Out of all the aliens, only one is chosen. H1449-6 (Shandling) is sent to Earth masquerading as one Harold Anderson in this comic movie about the all-too-confusing relationship between men and women.

Armed with lame one-liners and an artificial sexual organ, Harold is confident that he can impregnate a woman in just two days. After landing a job at a bank, fellow coworker (Kinnear) takes him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to pick up vulnerable women. There Harold meets Susan Hart (Bening), who tells him she will not have sex unless she is married.

Of course, Harold's primary objective overrides any qualms he has about marriage. Later, he finds out that real women are much more difficult than the ones in his field training.

by Joe Yong-hee