Morons from Outer Space

A typical and very British low budget sci-fi comedy from 1985; don't expect much in the way of FX or satire here, as this is more of a quirky character-led work. It marks one of the few cinematic forays for Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones, and both are funny, although members of a much larger ensemble cast. The actors are fine here and the situations memorably offbeat, although perhaps not as laugh-out-loud funny as something like CLOCKWISE. I think my favourite moment is the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS spoof.

I remember when MORONS FROM OUTER SPACE it was criticised as being just about the worst British film ever made ! What you mean it`s worse than REMEMBER ME THIS WAY where Gary Glitter plays a tough macho sex god ? I don`t think so .

I will say this movie is very patchy mainly down to the small budget and a dual plot , something that`s not seen either very often or very successfully in film script structure . The scenes featuring Bernard are funny especially the " Are you male or female ? " scene but the ones set in England are slightly tedious and do lack a focus .

Yeah it`s hard to imagine that the director of this made both GET CARTER and FLASH GORDON but surely any self respecting IMDB addict can sit back and enjoy this movie due to the referrances . Let`s see now THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT , a line of dialogue snatched from BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI , oh what`s that movie with Jack Nicolson in a lunatic asylum ? ....

In some ways, Morons From outer Space can be seen as being way ahead of its time, an uncannily prophetic attack on the celebrity culture that has become so prevalent today, where unexceptional members of the public are catapulted to superstar status by the media; this doesn't change the fact that the film is utter garbage, the film's primary gag—that not all alien life-forms are intelligent—stretched incredibly thin over an hour and a half.

Unlike their fellow Not The Nine O'Clock News comedian, rubber-faced Rowan Atkinson, tubby Mel Smith and dour Griff Rhys Jones completely fail to make their particular brand of humour work on the big screen, the result being a disaster of galactic proportions. The problems with the film are numerous—poor choice of director, lame spoofery of other movies, Jimmy Nail—but perhaps the biggest mistake of all is that Smith and Jones, who worked so well together on the telly, remain separated for most of the running time, their unique chemistry sorely lacking.

Morons from Outer Space is ridiculous. The humour, at first glance, is very low-brow. Look beneath the surface, and the movie is rife with satire and irony. The characters are absurd, but believable in the context of their world. The real triumph of the film are the subtlety of much of the gags. It takes familiar themes of human life and extrapolates them to their most ridiculous conclusion. It is extremely silly, but I never tire of watching it.

British big-screen comedies have always lagged behind in quality when compared to British TV-series, and it's a bit of a mystery why that is. After all, a script is a script, right? To say that British films are weaker than British shows is a major understatement. UK comedies are usually terrible, even the rare successful ones like that mid-90s male-strip film or "Four Weddings & Hugh Grant's Bloody Funeral" are average at best.

MOFOS isn't that bad, but there is a sense that it could have been much better, in spite of the overly simplistic and cretinous premise. A decent budget and a cast of well-knowns indicate that a measure of optimism existed about this project. However, it's once again the script that is to blame. I have no idea why certain people got excited over this script. Nevertheless, MOFOS is watchable, rarely dull, and even provides one or two chuckle-worthy moments...

I'm sure that had Ron Howard or Peter Bogdanovich made the same exact product, MOFOS would have been praised and praised until our collective ears bled away.