Meet the Applegates

The Applegates are highly evolved giant insects forced out of their Brazilian rain forest home by greedy land developers. With only a Dick and Jane school reader as guide, they show up in Median, Ohio, posing as a typical American family. Their plan is to infiltrate and blow up a nuclear power plant, irradiating the planet and making it safe again for bugs. But life in small-town Ohio is fraught with dangers: sonic bug repellents, date rapists, lethal Grasshopper cocktails, roaches of the marijuana variety. So while Jane Applegate (Channing) discovers hedonistic consumerism, neglected husband Dick (Begley) succumbs to fleshier pleasures, and the kids (Jacoby and Cooper) do the teenage thing. Soon they're your average, screwed-up American family, their mission forgotten, until fearsome Aunt Bea (Coleman in drag) turns up determined to kick some homo sapiens butt. While it never quite matches the sardonic bite, visual stylishness and ear-catching language of Lehmann's earlier Heathers, this wacky eco-comedy delivers plenty of laughs.