In July 1947 those whirly-twirly stars up in the sky sent something crashing down into a little New Mexico town called Roswell. The US military said it was an exploded weather balloon, but eyewitnesses swore it was an alien spaceship. After 40 years of supposed cover-ups and conspiracies, two Londoners found what they claimed was a film of the event, and started a worldwide media frenzy. A decade later, Johnny Campbell's Alien Autopsy tells the lads' story in the form of a disappointing and hackneyed comedy starring 'Ant and Dec' (Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly).
Ray (Donnelly) and Gary (McPartlin) find the mysterious film and its filmmaker, a retired military cameraman named Harvey (Harry Dean Stanton), in the US while buying old Elvis memorabilia. After paying Harvey thirty thousand dollars, Ray and Gary find that the film has 'eaten itself', a process that is quickly and confusingly explained. Gary, the quirkier of the two, decides to recreate the film in a friend's flat, using a mannequin, and with some help from his cliché friends. They then sell the film to news networks around the world and make oodles of cash.

The film itself is not without good parts: a laugh here and there, a quirky line, a bit of creative filmmaking. However, it ultimately fails to live up to the incredible story upon which it is based. One-sided characters like Melik, a Middle Eastern kebab store owner, make the screenplay drag on. The viewer is left hoping for their dialogue to stop so that they can find out more about the 'real' story. With no real tension or story arc, the characters hit barriers only to have deus-ex-machinas show up and knock them down.

In the end you'll hope there is intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe because you've lost all faith in the life down here.

Rated 12A (see IFCO website for details)
Alien Autopsy is released on 7th April 2006.
Alien Autopsy – Official website