Morons from Outer Space

Morons from Outer Space is a 1985 British comedy-science fiction film directed by Mike Hodges and written by and starring Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith. It also stars Jimmy Nail and James B. Sikking.

Morons from Outer Space
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMike Hodges
Written byGriff Rhys Jones
Mel Smith
StarringGriff Rhys Jones
Mel Smith
Joanne Pearce
Jimmy Nail
James B. Sikking
Edited byPeter Boyle
Music byPeter Brewis
Production
company
Distributed byThorn EMI Screen Entertainment
Release date
  • 29 March 1985 (1985-03-29)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£5 million[1][2]
Box office£1.5 million (in UK)[1] or £1,968,000 (UK)[2]

Plot

The story begins on a small spaceship docking with a refuelling station. On board are a group of four aliens called Bernard, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian. During a particularly tedious period of their stay at the station, the other three begin playing with the ship's controls while Bernard is outside playing spaceball. They accidentally disconnect his part of the ship, leaving him stranded while they crash into a large blue planet close by (Earth).

The three aliens find themselves in the United Kingdom and become instant celebrities on arrival, despite being able to bring no great revelation or technical ability to the people of Earth (as is central to the plot of many "aliens on Earth" films). They find a manager (Jones) and become wealthy more or less overnight, packing fans in auditoriums just to see them. Meanwhile, Bernard arrives on Earth via other means of transport and finds himself in the United States. Despite being by far the most intelligent of the group, Bernard is not afforded any celebrity, and is in fact condemned to vagrancy and a brief stint in a mental hospital before reuniting with his fellow travellers near the end of the film. The others, fearing that the introduction of Bernard would lessen their popularity and celebrity, fail to mention that they had originally been travelling with a fourth.

Cast

Production

The film was announced in November 1983. It was part of the initial slate of four films from Thorn EMI's new chairman, Verity Lambert, the others being Slayground, Dreamchild and Comfort and Joy. It was written by Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones and directed by Mike Hodges.[3] Lambert offered the film to Mike Hodges, who agreed if EMI would make a script of his, Mid-Atlantic, and signed a two-picture deal.[4][5]

In December 1984, Thorn EMI offered investors the chance to invest in several films by issuing £36 million worth of shares. The films were A Passage to India (1984), Illegal Aliens, Dreamchild, Wild Geese II and The Holcroft Covenant.[6] Illegal Aliens later became entitled Morons from Outer Space.

The release of the film caused Mel Brooks to re-title a film he was working on from Planet Moron to Spaceballs.

Reception

Critical

The film has received generally negative reviews, and holds a rating of 4.5 out of 10 on IMDb.[7]

The Observer called the film "so embarrassingly unfunny I often felt like crawling under my seat."[8]

Empire criticized its "loose script whose weaknesses are all the more glaring for the film's inability to exploit the power of absurdity."[9]

Mike Hodges disliked the film, regarding it as a "misfire". He clashed with Smith and Jones in post production, an article claiming "they did not trust, or perhaps understand his comedic judgement or cinematic visual satire and the film became far more broad than he had intended." However, he did enjoy satirising the sentimental "Spielbergian vision of the world".[10]

Box office

The film performed moderately at the box office in the UK and only earned $17,000 in the US.[11]

References
  1. Alexander Walker, Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984-2000, Orion Books, 2005 p. 35
  2. "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 26.
  3. EMI back with four feature films Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 16 November 1983: 2.
  4. Davies, Steven Paul (2014). Get Carter and Beyond: The Cinema of Mike Hodges. Pavilion Books. ISBN 9781849942478.
  5. Cinema Verity: Peter Fiddick talks toEMI-Thorn 's new film production chief Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 24 November 1983: 13.
  6. Producer splits cost of films The Guardian 10 January 1985: 4.
  7. "Morons from Outer Space". IMDb.
  8. Heat and rust French, Philip. The Observer 24 March 1985: 25
  9. "Morons From Outer Space Review". empireonline.com. 1 January 2000.
  10. Spira, Jon (23 December 2014). "Why I Love Morons from Outer Space". BFI.
  11. These Movies Flopped at the Box Office; Now You Get to See Them on Videotape By Michael Cieply. Wall Street Journal, 27 Jan 1986: 1.
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