I’ve searched high and low for a movie that prominently features stupid aliens, and I finally struck the motherload with 1985’s Morons from Outer Space. Motherload might be overselling it, but the point is that I finally found something that riffs on the idea for 90 minutes. Everything I wanted to see happens here, conceptually speaking, but I can’t say I’m thrilled with its overall execution. A low-budget exercise in suggesting extraterrestrial life being a little more dim than we imagine, there are still plenty of fun moments in Morons from Outer Space that will make even the most serious sci-fi fans chuckle.
A low-budget comedy that isn’t afraid to lean into its limitations, Morons from Outer Space is a solid proof of concept, but it would have benefitted from embracing its absurd premise more confidently instead of circling around it.
The Morons From Outer Space
Morons from Outer Space introduces us to Bernard (Mel Smith), Sandra (Joanne Pearce), Desmond (Jimmy Nail), and Julian (Paul Bown), four space trucker types who are dumber than rocks. After accidentally disconnecting from their orbiting space station, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian crash-land in the UK while Bernard remains in orbit because he was outside playing spaceball when the incident occurred.
When the government hears about the presence of extraterrestrial life, they expect sophisticated humanoids with advanced tech and superior intelligence. Instead, they get a bunch of creatures who look exactly like humans, but are infinitely more stupid.
Subjected to a series of cognitive tests, the aliens quickly baffle every official assigned to assess them. Julian is the most aggressively stupid, openly wondering why they make him take tests with answers they already know. In Julian’s mind, if they already have the answer, then why ask him anything at all? Just tell him what they know and be done with it. Lack of intelligence aside, Sandra, Desmond, and Julian become overnight celebrities and are treated like royalty simply because they’re beings from another planet.
Bernard isn’t so lucky. He crash-lands in the US and is immediately institutionalized because nobody believes he’s an alien. Ironically, he’s the most intelligent member of the group, and still gets dismissed without being given a chance to explain his situation.
Can’t Keep Up With Its Own Shtick
As much as I wanted to enjoy Morons from Outer Space, it spends too much time meandering around its own absurd premise instead of fully embracing it. One of my favorite bits, which I wish the film explored more, was an obvious callback to Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where the UK government attempts to communicate with the morons’ ship using multi-tonal musical phrases, only to belt out a stunning rendition of Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.”
The problem is that moments like this are few and far between. Most of the film’s humor plays out as a steady loop of dimwitted Martians basically saying, “Oh wow, we’re really stupid.” The potential was there for the comedy to come from the incompetent government agencies scrambling to understand the situation, not from the aliens endlessly reminding us how dumb they are. Had Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith approached the screenplay from that angle, it would have made for a far more interesting and genuinely hilarious movie.
Dumb alien visitors is still a concept I’d love to see fully fleshed out in media, and Morons from Outer Space is at least a valiant attempt to prove the idea has legs. For that alone, you should appreciate it for what it is and stream it for free on Tubi.
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