A wildly inventive absurdist farce from writer-director Marshall Brickman. An arrogant group of genius eggheads design a plot to see how the public will react to the news that an alien is living among them. They brainwash loony scientist Alan Arkin into believing he's from another planet. Once he escapes, all hell breaks loose. This is a wicked satire on massive consumption, television, fake science and a ton of other things. Brickman and co-writer Thomas Baum fill this movie with so many clever touches, it's a real comic feast. Arkin is brilliant in a performance that is, unfortunately, largely forgotten. The large cast also includes such great character actors as Austin Pendleton, William Finley, Max Wright and Wallace Shawn. Judy Graubart is excellent as Arkin's exasperated girlfriend. Fred Gwynne, Madeline Kahn and Adolph Green are in it too. Green's role has to be seen to be believed.

One of those comedies which are interesting rather than funny. Not that "Simon" is particularly interesting either, but it does have the benefit of being somewhat unusual, straying from the norm until the last third when it gets more formulaic: the wicked, wicked military chasing "the alien" (don't they always chase to kill?), media attention surrounding the title character (a mega-cliché in comedies), and a love interest that brings Simon back to Earth (I'm allowed a bad pun now and again, I believe).Lurking behind all the silliness is quite possibly the writer's social/political agenda, but it is so clumsily presented that it remains unclear where this guy stands politically. (And you can bet your pants that a Hollywood writer will NOT be wise enough to send a politically neutral message, i.e. mocking both sides of the fence for greater impact.) On one hand Simon quotes the Bible, but on the other he cites Sergey Eisenstein as the epitome of a great film-maker; those are contradictory signals, making it difficult to pin down the writer's political orientation. However, considering that he got a chance to write for Hollywood movies, and taking into account the extremely high percentage of left-wingers in U.S. cinema, I'd put my money on him being yet another liberal whining about "modern consumer-obsessed society" or some such childish nonsense. It's just that this one is probably a little confused, hence the way he went about it while writing the script.On the other hand, who could argue with the proposal to send all lawyers who lose a case to prison along with their defendant? Some of Simon's propositions are obviously goofy, included just for laughs, but some clearly reflect the writer's own frustrations with 70s America, so it's hard to figure him out. It's almost as if he used Simon both to mock him and as a jumping board for his own views - which is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Whatever the case, it's safe to say the writer is a bit of a malcontent who'd never personally experienced the Third World (or for that matter, the "Second World") in his whole life.I like Arkin, and he's generally well-suited to playing oddballs, but I had a feeling that perhaps someone like Steve Martin or even Bill Murray would have been funnier. Martin is funnier than Arkin when he shouts, and there is plenty of shouting, whereas Murray could have made the character more of a wise-ass hence funnier; Murray is better at playing those, and less suited to playing idealistic victims of circumstance so I guess Simon would have had to be toned down somewhat for Bill. This is not to say Arkin isn't interesting.

Alan Arkin does love mind-bender roles, doesn't he?, and this gem was a virtual playground for him!The players are all top-notch, and it's never dull for a moment.. but to explain it... hmm, wow.. well, it's really a film you have to judge for yourself.. It's very much like Woody Allen's "Sleeper", which I could watch all day long and still laugh as if I'd never experienced it before! And also herein are wisps of Arkin's most well known work, "Catch-22", in that it does deal with the mind and all its weird wacky wonders!It's a sort of surreal fun romp, that takes you on one velly intellesting ride.. the scenarios are all hilarious, and it's a must-see for anyone who loves Alan Arkin, Austin Pendleton, and especially (Woody)Allenesque films, that take you just a bit to the left of the center of reality~ ..Ah, but then, that's trying to describe it, and again I recommend that you find it if you can, (I believe it has been put to DVD now), and experience it for yourself, because I would be hard-pressed to whittle it down to a simple description myself!It's a screeeam, it's got a fabulous cast, and it's got a heck of a lot of phenomenal writers and creators behind it.. A highly underrated classic! . . . Do yourself a favor and see it! :)

This movie is a true classic. I would compare it with Dr. Strangelove or A Clockwork Orange.**POSSIBLE SPOILER** This is not a true spoiler, but may give away some parts of the plot. Simon is a college professor who wants to be special. He plays around with sensory deprevation in an attempt to find his "inner self". A bunch of think-tank scientists convince him that he is an alien with unexpected results.He soon goes beyond them, and releases a "stupid gas" on them and escapes. Fred Gwynn makes a great role as the General in charge of recapturing him.He then goes and contacts a cult that worships TV and uses their ability to take over satelite transmission to create his own "fourth network" (remember in 1980 there were only 3).This is a great movie if you want to relax. Alan Arkin and Madeline Kahn are excellent, along with the rest of the cast.