Earth Girls are Easy

Details

Valerie is just two weeks away from marrying successful doctor Ted, but their relationship has already begun to lose its sparkle. Hoping to reignite the romance, she heads to the wonderfully named "Curl Up and Die" beauty salon for a complete makeover rather than attending yet another dull nail polish convention.

Unfortunately for Valerie, Ted has already found excitement elsewhere and is caught bringing another woman home. Throwing him out seems like the worst thing that's going to happen, until three extremely hairy aliens crash-land in her swimming pool. Valerie takes the extraterrestrial visitors to the salon (as you would), where a little shampoo, a shave and a fashionable makeover transform them into surprisingly handsome young men.

As the aliens embrace life in the San Fernando Valley, romance, misunderstandings and plenty of musical mayhem follow. Meanwhile, Valerie finds herself torn between moving on from Ted and falling for the charming Mac, whilst the aliens do their best to blend into life on Earth before it's time to return home.

Picture & Sound

The picture quality is simply awful. Although the transfer is colourful and benefits from a respectable bit-rate, it is consistently noisy and grainy throughout. At times it really does look as though somebody mastered an ex-rental VHS cassette straight onto DVD with very little effort to clean it up.

The soundtrack fares little better. Limited to basic two-channel stereo, it lacks any real presence and some of the dubbing is decidedly ropey. The lively musical numbers still come across reasonably well, but this is hardly a disc you'll be reaching for to demonstrate your home cinema system.

Menu & Extras

The extras are something of a joke. The so-called photographic gallery looks more like a handful of poor frame grabs than a genuine collection of production stills, although the original theatrical trailer is also included. The static menu at least features the film's theme music, proving somebody made an effort-unlike some larger film companies you could mention.

Overall

Earth Girls are Easy is gloriously daft and never pretends to be anything else. Geena Davis throws herself enthusiastically into the role of Valerie, while Jeff Goldblum's laid-back alien makes an engaging romantic lead. The film's bright colours, catchy songs and relentless energy perfectly capture the excesses of late-eighties Hollywood.

Looking back, one of the biggest pleasures is seeing Jim Carrey before he became a global superstar. Alongside Damon Wayans, he steals plenty of scenes with his manic physical comedy, while the chemistry between Davis and Goldblum keeps the increasingly ridiculous story surprisingly likeable.

This film is only just worth the money, but if Geena Davis is your thing you'll probably enjoy the opportunity to see her singing (rather badly), wearing a skimpy bikini and generally having far more fun than most romantic comedy heroines. If you were too young to remember the eighties - or simply need reminding just how wonderfully awful some of the fashions and music really were - you couldn't do much better than this. An entertaining slice of gloriously over-the-top eighties escapism.

Special features

• Photographic Library
• Trailer