Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1985


Morons from Outer Space

Buy Morons from Outer Space now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Morons from Outer Space' is a 1985 British comedy-science fiction film directed by Mike Hodges and starring Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, Joanne Pearce, Jimmy Nail and James B. Sikking.

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 aliens 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. 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



* Joanne Pearce as Sandra Brock the alien

* Jimmy Nail as Desmond Brock the alien

* Paul Bown as Julian Tope the alien

* James Sikking as Col. Raymond Laribee - CIA

* Dinsdale Landen as Commander Grenville Matteson

* Tristram Jellinek as Simpson

* George Innes as Stanley Benson

* Mel Smith as Bernard the left behind alien

* Griff Rhys Jones as Graham Sweetley

* Mark Lewis Jones as Godfrey

* Leonard Fenton as Commissionaire

* Andre Maranne as Prof. Trousseau

* Leslie Grantham as motorway policeman

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.EMI back with four feature films Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 16 November 1983: 2. 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.Cinema Verity: Peter Fiddick talks toEMI-Thorn 's new film production chief Fiddick, Peter. The Guardian 24 November 1983: 13.



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'.Producer splits cost of films The Guardian 10 January 1985: 4. '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 'Observer' called the film "so embarassingly unfunny I often felt like crawling under my seat."Heat and rust French, Philip. The Observer 24 March 1985: 25

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".

Box office

The film performed moderately at the box office in the UK and only earned $17,000 in the US.These Movies Flopped at the Box Office; Now You Get to See Them on Videotape

By Michael Cieply. Wall Street Journal27 Jan 1986: 1.


Home media



The film was released on VHS and Betamax in 1986 and re-released in 1989.

It was released on DVD by MGM in 2001.

References






Buy Morons from Outer Space now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 1985



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1108541264.