Alien Autopsy

Obviously now I have to blog about the film I saw last night while my card holder was falling out of my pocket. I'd said I'd go to the cinema with someone this week and the only thing on that looked interesting was (drum roll) Alien Autopsy. I probably would not have gone to see it off my own back.

I am aware that, as a disaffected youth, I am supposed to scorn all television, but I happen to quite like Ant and Dec. Even so, I was expecting this film to be pretty naff. I am glad I do not wear a hat. If I did, I would be eating it right now (although I would probably be choking and dying as well). The thing is, believe it or not, I really liked this film.

I'm no big fan of British films, I have to say. There are the dreary, depressing northern dramas, the crude and disgusting comedies, the comedy-dramas about people who shouldn't be taking their clothes off taking their clothes off, the Lock Stock knock-offs, and the self-consciously Americanised and over-seriously mawkish films (Richard Curtis please stand up and make your way towards the disintegration chamber where you may collect your latest award). Still, about once a year, there will be one British film which really makes me proud of my culture. 28 Days Later one year, Shaun of the Dead the next, the Constant Gardener after that… and this year, Alien Autopsy with Ant and Dec? Well, maybe not. But I did like it and it was fabulously British. Sometimes it is just nice to see a film that makes references to Basildon and has a guest appearance by Jimmy Carr.

The thing that grabbed my interest with this film is that what has been billed as just another cheeky cheery Brit-comedy actually turned out to be a quirky, visually competent little film, falling into that weird territory between comedy and light-hearted drama oft-despised by the mainstream. Most reviewers have reacted by complaining that it's not all-out funny and it's a bit odd. This BBC online review* tells us that, "All in all, it's a most peculiar vehicle for the Byker Grove duo that will probably lose them more fans than it gains." Oh my fuckness! A peculiar film! My head asplode!

Maybe I'm just too easy going. It doesn't bother me that this film is neither weighty nor all-out funny. It seems perfectly reasonable to me for Ant and Dec to want to make a film about the semi-surreal antics of a couple of losers. You know whether or not that's your sort of thing. This Empire review nicely captures the quantity of goodness in this film, even if I don't feel that it quite captures the nature of it.

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*Also, shoot me, but I can't help but think that I saw a different film to the Beeb. This "romantic subplot that predictably has Ant or Dec competing for the affections of the same woman" simply wasn't in there.