Who's
In It: Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Bill Pullman, Harry Dean Stanton, Omid
Djalili, Jimmy Carr, Orson Bean Who Directed It: Jonny Campbell
Year
of release: 2006
Alien
Autopsy (2006) Movie Review Reviewed by: Paul Heath
Alien
Autopsy unites British television personalities Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly
on screen in their first big-screen adventure. For the benefit of our US reader,
I'll just go into just who these two guys are as many of you Yanks may not have
heard of the duo.
Ant
and Dec as they are known in the UK, started out on British television acting
on the hit BBC show Byker Grove alongside the likes of other talents like Donna
Air (The Big Breakfast) and Jill Halfpenny (Coronation Street). Ant played PJ
and DEC played the character of Duncan, and following their departure from the
show in 1993, they had a number of hits as the pop outfit PJ and Duncan (see what
they did there), with songs like 'Let's Get Ready To Rumble'. From there they
were given their own TV show 'The Ant and DEC Show', which only ran for a year,
but managed to land them their first BAFTA for 'Best Children's Show'. The duo
then presented the kids Saturday morning show from 1998 with Brummie Cat Deeley
and won over a new audience. Following the last SM:TV presented by the pair in
2001, Ant and DEC presented the very first Pop Idol, which featured a certain
Simon Cowell in his first outing as Mr. Nasty. A year later Ant and DEC took presenting
gigs on the hit reality TV show 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,' which is
still running, every year, to this day as is their foray into Saturday night primetime
TV, 'Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'. Alien Autopsy is actually their second
big-screen outing if you count Love Actually, where they had a cameo as themselves.
So,
now you know. But what's the movie like?
Well,
it's okay. A rather enjoyable, lighthearted adventure that's neither great nor
grating. The story is actually based on true events, and follows Ray Santilli
(DEC) and his best friend Gary Shoefield (Ant) who accidentally stumble on a piece
of film that shows a depiction of an actual alien autopsy, filmed in New Mexico
in the late 1940's. A bad-ass London gangster, agrees to pay $30,000 for the piece
of historic film, so the duo fly it back to the UK, only to discover that for
some reason, during the flight the film has is erased. So, what do they do? They
can't go back to the gangster to say that there is no film, so they re-create
said autopsy in Gary's sister's London pad. All to much hilarity.
And
it is funny. There are a few laugh out loud moments, and I love the interaction
with Ray's Nan and her dating eighty-year-old Maurice. The plot is however, sometimes
predicable and a little slow in places. Screenwriter William Davies is responsible
for films like Johnny English and the little known 2000 film The Guilty. It's
not a hilarious comedy by any means. You will not be rolling in the aisles, but
you’ll get a number of proper chuckles. That's not to say that it's not entertaining,
it's just somewhat forgettable stuff, but enjoyable forgettable stuff.
I
loved the cameos from the likes of comedian Jimmy Carr, Bill Pullman (who plays
a Michael Moore type filmmaker) and surprisingly, Harry Dean Stanton, who plays
the veteran cameraman who captured the original footage, and whom the funny pair
buy the footage from.
As
for Ant and Dec, well, it's not a bad first outing for them. I really do hope
that they venture more into cinema as they are a really likable duo, and no doubt
friends across the water will warm to them as well. They are extremely comfortable
in the comedy genre and the on-screen chemistry that made them such popular TV
personalities translates to the big-screen quite nicely.
