Alien Autopsy (2006)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

5.8? Seriously? This deserves a 6.8 at the very least. In the UK Ant and Dec are national treasures. I am a fan of their show "saturday night takeaway" and think they are brilliant performers. I recently caught this movie on TV and the absurdly low score on IMDb made me want to write my own honest review. The film is incredibly fun and as always the stars have perfect chemistry and carry the film virtually by themselves. This isn't to say the supporting cast isn't also very good however.The plot, based on an absurd true story, follows Ray Santilli (Declan Donnelly) who is a dodgy dealer of Elvis memorabilia and his good friend Gary Shoefield (Ant McPartlin) as they travel to America in order to get some rare footage to sell,but the particular seller has some more footage that is even more valuable. Real-life alien autopsy footage. When the tape gets wiped the men recruit a crew to reenact a fake autopsy (with a scarily realistic alien) and become worldwide celebrities in the process.Whilst this film is marketed as Ant and Dec the movie, i felt Ant was sidelined to make room for more Dec, however this isn't such a bad thing as he is the man with the ideas and is the one you get to know most. Also, this is very different from anything the pair have previously done. It also isn't a laugh a minute comedy romp because this simply wouldn't work. A lot of the comedy is subtle (much like the highlighted "lie" in the title" and it works really well and some scenes had me laughing out loud. There are obviously minor flaws but the film makes up for this with the likability of its leads and entertaining plot. Towards the end after their tape goes out i felt a few scenes dragged a bit for example when the two board a plane Dec is recognised as a celebrity as the film was found by him etc. And ant is sent to lower class. This worked once but it was shown again once or twice which was a bit unnecessary. But the conclusion really satisfied me and fit with the theme of the overall theme perfectly.In the end i had fun with Alien Autopsy and it is a film i would watch again if it were on TV and i had nothing to do. Ant and Dec have proved they still have it in them to act and i wouldn't mind seeing them pair up for another film. A solid 7/10 and a fun experience. But for those squeamish the autopsy scenes themselves look very realistic (they are obviously not) and i was extremely surprised at how much detail was put into the "alien"One last thing, those who think the last scene uses real life footage, i'd love to agree but i highly doubt it is.

This was a review originally written in 2006. Someone flagged it on here for abuse, but I have no idea why. Let's try again! Welles asked in his documentary F for Fake "When the authority says fake is real, what is real and what is fake?" This question can equally apply to Alien Autopsy. It has been (more or less) well established by now that the autopsy footage presented to the world by Ray Santilli in 1995 was a fake. It was claimed to have been shot during the autopsy of one of the humanoids recovered from the Roswell crash in 1947. When it was shown on television stations across the globe millions tuned in, wanting to believe that we finally had proof that we are not alone in the universe. Fast-thinking entrepreneurs made small fortunes peddling any old rubbish with a picture of an alien on it, people wrote books about it and The X-Files became the 1990s most successful TV show. So you can hardly blame Santilli and his co-conspirators for not 'fessing up that they had filmed the whole thing themselves using a plastic alien and innards from a local butcher.That is, until now. Alien Autopsy opens with the title "Based on a true story". Santilli and his partner in crime Gary Shoefield are the executive producers of this film, and McPartlin and Donnelly play the pair in this, their feature debut. So is the production of this film the final confession that the footage wasn't real? Perhaps. More importantly, is the film any good? Again, perhaps.McPartlin and Donnelly, better known in the UK as Ant and Dec have been a popular double act on television for well over fifteen years. They began life presenting, moved into acting, had a brief flirtation with the music business and then went back to presenting. They proved to be something of a revolution in broadcasting, drawing adult viewers to what were essentially children's shows with such parent-angering games as Beat the Barber, where the losing child had their hair completely shaved off in front of a studio audience.The premise of the film is that whilst on a business trip in America collecting Elvis memorabilia Ray comes across the footage detailing an autopsy in Roswell, 1947. He buys this footage with plans to make money from it back in the UK. However once the film has been exposed to air it rapidly deteriorates rendering the film useless. And that should have been that, except Ray had borrowed the money from a psychopathic gangster with a sideline in standing naked in crop circles, who will kill him if he doesn't come back with the promised footage. And so all kinds of madcap shenanigans ensue as the pair recreate the film and fool both the gangster and the world. Along the way they try their best to shock the audience more used to watching their various television shows with a few firsts: They drink! They swear! They have sex! It is interesting to note that this film was part produced by Ealing Studios, and it does have the feel of a classic Ealing comedy: imagine The Lavender Hill Mob crossed with an episode of The X-Files. This also means that the tone shifts dramatically throughout, from thriller to science fiction to comedy to drama and back again, leaving what few laughs there are rather thinly spread out. Being a long-time fan of Ant and Dec (I even have some of their CDs) I didn't mind this, but those unfamiliar with the duo who are just looking for an enjoyable movie may find it difficult to settle into the film.Overall Alien Autopsy will probably not be a box office smash. It's currently in the UK top ten but may have a harder time in the US. It's worth catching however to see how one of the greatest scams of the 1990s was pulled off, and how it is still possible that there may be intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe.

Remember that big scandal about a video showing an alien autopsy? It was proved to be a hoax, although people still believe in it. This is the story of the making of the video, including the idea that the hoax actually started from a real movie.Anyway, who cares? The movie is marginally funny, really indie, and actors like Pullman and Stanton don't really belong in it, but it's OK. It's like a brit gangster movie with little humor and pathetic gangsters. And everything revolves around a video not guns or money. Oh, and it's based on true facts :)Who wants facts anymore? Give me fantasy or give me death!

ALIEN AUTOPSY Let me say first off that from frame one, the mentality of this movie is lost on non-UK residents! Americans will simply be agog by the acting, the dialogue and the venue (not to mention a 1000 other things British). Awe ight, mate? Gotnoo mowtuh? What's cute about this movie is that it is MORE believable than the actual current 'Roswell Scam' which is an alien craft that crashed in the New Mexico desert in 1947. Yeah, right. And I'm the Queen of Sheba. No, really I am! The acting is typical British, the pace and settings are well thought out and the script is also very well written (if you're a Brit!). The plot is cute, i.e. a guy buys a 'Roswell' film, supposedly of the Alien Autopsy, but the film is old and it disintegrates before he gets it home. Now he's in debt for $30,000 to a local London thug from whom he borrowed the cash to purchase the 'original' film! What to do? Make your OWN film of course .... and then the fun begins. All in all, a very watchable, well-presented movie that will keep you smiling at the antics of the main character (a London 'wide boy'). For foreigners (anyone NOT British), well, just try to keep up and follow along. This is not your typical US B-movie, pretending to be something it's not. It's just a lot of tongue-in-cheek fun for a Sunday afternoon.