In 1985, 'Jim'll Fix It' made one boy's dream come true by giving him the chance to review a movie Barry Norman-style. The movie he saw was the recently released 'Morons From Outer Space'. He loved it. When I went to see it at my local cinema, I found the place was packed with kids. 'Morons' was the big screen debut of Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, following their successes in both 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' and 'Alas Smith & Jones'. Lots of television comedians have made chumps of themselves making the transition to the big screen; the year before this came out, Kenny Everett starred in the vile 'Bloodbath At The House Of Death' and more recently, Horne and Corden's 'Lesbian Vampire Killers' failed to set the world on fire.Here Smith and Jones were unable to blame the writers - they were the writers. Smith plays 'Bernard', one of four aliens from the planet Blob enjoying a holiday in a spaceship that resembles a caravan, when an accident sees them crash on the M1. Bernard, who was in space at the time, finds his way to Earth, and tries to track down his friends. Usually in sci-fi movies, aliens are depicted as being super-intelligent, but here its the other way round. The Blob people are idiots, pure and simple. With the help of a manager named Graham Sweetley ( Jones ) they go on to become celebrities.Aside from penning a script lacking in humour, the other major mistake Mel and Griff made was keeping their characters apart for much of the movie. Anyone who saw 'Alas' will tell you they worked best when bouncing their humour off each other.'Aufpet''s Jimmy Nail raises a few chuckles as one of the aliens. When the military blows the door off the spaceship, Nail's road rage-style outrage is amusing.Mike Hodges, the director, was responsible for the Michael Caine classic 'Get Carter', so what he was doing here is anyone's guess. He is completely out of his depth. It is equally surprising to find the great Verity Lambert credited as 'Executive Producer'.There are a couple of bright spots - Bernard's encounter with a skeletal space-pilot and the 'Close Encounters' spoof where Andre Marianne's French scientist tries to communicate with the aliens by playing 'The Entertainer' on a Wurlitzer but overall the film has little to recommend it. It is basically a two-minute sketch stretched well beyond its limits. When Dinsdale Landen's character burst into song I nearly walked out. The kids I saw it with seemed to enjoy it though.For their next picture 'Wilt' ( 1989 ), Mel and Griff sensibly hired Andrew Marshall and David Renwick to adapt a Tom Sharpe novel. It corrected every fault critics found in 'Morons'.Viewed now one can draw parallels between the Blob people's celebrity status and that of reality show contestants. So yes Mel and Griff were ahead of their time in that respect.I do not hate 'Morons' but considering the talent involved in its making, it should have been far better.

Goodness knows here are many worse, and dumber, comedies out there, but its truly a shame that Smith and Jones didn't put this script through some more refinement, and hired a veteran comedy director (one who has a sense of timing), before blowing their chance at international fame. The main problem with the film is it tries to do to many things and use too many comedic styles at once. On one hand it tries to satirize our celebrity focused culture, while on another it tries to send up the conventions of science fiction films (and films in general)a la the Zuckers. At the same time that its trying to juggle those concepts, its also trying telling a story that could have been inherently funny on its own, without the distractions of the slapstick and the parodies. The idea that the first aliens to openly visit Earth are here by accident simply because they're too stupid to pilot, let alone understand the workings of, their rented spacecraft had great potential, but the movie is too distracted by everything else it tries to do for it to work. Despite its problems, there are some genuine laughs to be had here, and its well worth a watch.

You know, I usually have respect for British comedy such as Monty Python or for British comedy/sci-fi, such as Doctor Who, Red Dwarf or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.I list those because I want to establish a standard for good.This movie didn't have a single laugh in it. Essentially, a spaceship full of slackers crash lands their space ship (which oddly enough, resembles a trailer-home on the inside) in the UK, and an international team of British and bad American stereotypes proceeds to examine them. Hill Street Blues' James B. Sikking plays a CIA officer who delights in torturing the aliens. The aliens escape with the help of a friendly reporter, who turns them into rock stars.Meanwhile, their captain is stranded in space, and is dropped off in Arizona by a gender confused alien. He is confined to a mental institution (bad parody of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" ensue) before catching up with his rock-star comrades in NYC. A spaceship reminiscent of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" arrives and takes them home.The American scenes are poorly done because it is fairly obvious that the producers have never been to America. (The sign on the diner that reads "Chile" being the most glaring example. "Chili" is food, "Chile" is a country.) The Americans are nothing but bad stereotypes, and in many cases, are more alien than the British accented aliens.It's essentially a one-joke movie. The aliens are dumb. The Earth people are dumb. The problem is that they aren't funny.

It's tough to review this movie, isn't it? I thought I had done a write-up several months previously but, in retrospect, I remember now that I scrapped it due to lack of inspiration.Well, let's be honest...it's hard to critique because it's kind of a stinker, and in an aggravating way, too. My brother picked up the DVD, and within days he hid it amongst my collection just so he wouldn't have to face the indignity of owning it himself. It's a shame, really, because some excellent talent went into this. Verity Lambert is a classy producer, and Mike "Get Carter" Hodges is a magnificent director when his heart's in a project. Unfortunately, he agreed to do this movie as part of some package deal, so his heart was clearly elsewhere.I actually find the production values surprisingly good, by British standards; the spaceship zooming down the highway is an amusing and impressive image. And some of the acting is fine: Dinsdale Landen and James B. Sikking, two of my old sci-fi buddies, strike just the right OTT note. But the aliens themselves are played by a drippy bunch of third rate comedians with no charisma whatsoever. Their flatness sinks the whole project (the meandering story might also share the blame).Alas, sci-fi comedy is a pretty lousy genre, and this film is no exception to the rule. I can see where "Morons from Outer Space" inspired later--and similarly flawed--efforts such as "Red Dwarf," but for some reason the formula doesn't work in any of its forms. Sci-fi is dorky enough without turning it into a screwball comedy; once those genres are crossed, there really is nothing recognizable for an audience to latch on to, is there?