This is certainly one cheery little pile of glop but, with its rainbow-dessert/Good n'Plenty visual design, it is hard to digest and rather nausea inducing. It's like a bad dream channeled through a nether world where the brains of Terry Gilliam and Steven Spielberg (in his Goonies phase) connect. Meet the Hollowheads? More like the Jetsons-meets-Brazil-meets-a-hamster-habitrail... well, it's certainly not the usual "meetings" I'll grant that. But it's all contrived weirdness and goopy effects, and worst of all not funny. There's no wit, just a lot of Sid & Marty Kroft-like ('Lidsville/H.R. Pufnstuf', etc.) goings on that might appeal to kids. There's even a section with Anne Ramsey that is so badly acted and recorded that it required post-production sub-titles in order to figure out what was being said (granted Miss Ramsey died, presumably before she could loop her dialogue). There's also a cheesy 80's-cliche guitar & synth music score that ironically dates this futuristic film. Or maybe it's not futuristic, but an alternate universe... being the same place where this film came from, like some of the actors listed: Shnutz Burman, Lightfield Lewis, Shotgun Britton and Jack Cheese (yes, these are the actors names not their characters). Yet it was probably a blast to make, at least for the Burman clan: from the credits it appears the entire Burman family tree worked on this. Then again, Tom Burman is a make-up artist, so this may be the finest directorial achievement of any make-up artist in Hollywood history. Bravo... now let's put a Key Grip in the directorial chair and see what one of THEM can do.

This strange little gem combines the biomorphic machinery of Giger with the surreal dadaism of Terry Gilliam and the sugary family life of "Leave it To Beaver". The Hollowheads live in a future world after overpopulation and economic collapse has forced everyone to live in inside giant tubes over vast factories, where pre-processed food is pumped in through pipes, and normal animals and plants have disappeared, replaced by selectively bred genetically-engineered mutants. Biomorphic machines are used as medical equipment, food sources, and even musical instruments. Yet the family lives in a 50's style nuclear family with touches of 80's extravagance (gotta love the bubble dress!). The household machinery and factory equipment is very reminiscent of the industrial scenes in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil". The Hollowhead family have striven to maintain civilization, while the managers of the ruling factory, United Umbilical (with a Staley-eqsue swastika-like logo), ruthlessly manages its employees with animalistic lust. "Meet the Hollowheads" is one of those films you will recognize more and more as its predictions start coming true.

This is sort of like a lite version of BRAZIL; which takes a standard 60s sit-com plot of a middle-class working father who has to impress his boss with a dinner at the family home; and sets it in some futuristic/alien world.It has quite impressive production values, great set design, and a fairy tight little script.All the child actors especially show a lot of enthusiasm and great personality.Very enjoyable if you like escapist storytelling. It would probably make an enjoyable rainy-day video for the family during holidays.

If you're expecting a serious, normal movie, than this movie is definitively not for you.This is a very colorfull movie with a real twist of humor, basically anyone who spent his or her childhood poring thru sci-fi publications and who is a fan of people like Monty Python will like this movie. Although the sci-fi backdrop of this move is very enticing it is just that, a backdrop, on the front you have a simple minded story of a simple guy who is tryign to escalate the corporate ladder in a very imaginative alternative-society world (think of THX1138 in LSD) and the misfortune that hits him and his family when he brings his new boss home for dinner.... this movie has no teaching at all, and it will only be worth a laught, still the humor is not toughtfull but rather on the sillyness, clownsy side. After all this moviebeign worth only a laugh has a "something", so it's already on my permanent collection list along with "tank girl" and "the little shop of horrors".