Morons from Outer Space (1985, Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Joanne Pearce, Jimmy Nail, Dinsdale Landen, James B Sikking) – Classic Movie Review 8828

Eighties TV’s normally funny men Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones write and star in director Mike Hodges’s moronic 1985 big-screen comedy space adventure Morons from Outer Space, which combines lowbrow British humour and daffy sci-fi ideas and comes up with a tedious, unfunny mess.

Four aliens crash-land on the M1 motorway, get adopted by Graham Sweetley (Jones) and become chat-show personalities and pop stars.

This feeble premise is developed in a predictable plot, but it is the witless verbal and sight gags, and mugging, over-stressed performances that really sink it.

Also in the cast are Paul Bown, Joanne Pearce, Jimmy Nail, Dinsdale Landen, James B Sikking, George Innes, André Maranne, Mark Lewis Jones, Leonard Fenton, John Joyce, Joanna Dickens and R.J. Bell.

Morons from Outer Space is directed by Mike Hodges, runs 97 minutes, is made by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, distributed by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment (UK) and Universal Pictures (1985) (US), is written by Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, shot by Phil Meheux, produced by Barry Hanson and scored by Peter Brewis.

RIP Mel Smith (1952–2013): ‘A gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit’.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8828

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