Ant & Dec are actors. That’s how they met. In a story akin to how Charles and Eddie met (Ant – “I was a bit scared of him, he had been on it for a year”) how uber-steamrolling interchangeable double act (both straight men) became the light entertainment powerhouse they are today. And therefore so to Alien Autopsy, a film which is nowhere near as bad as it should be, or as good as it need to be.
It is primarily a nostalgia film aimed at fifteen year olds, who I supposed are just about allowed to be nostalgic for their memories of the nineties. It is a serious and simple retelling of a silly story, and wisely the comedy arises from character and situation rather than any obvious pratfalls. Unfortunately the story is not quite as amazing or important as the film thinks it is. Indeed it tends to hint that the screening of the Alien Autopsy hoax was the pinnacle of nineties television entertainment. I vaguely remember it (the Jonathan Frakes presentation brings some of it back).
And so to the leads, who coast pretty much on their usual goodwill and bonhomie. Their characters are more delineated than normal (Dec as wideboy, Ant as uptight one – in a very Likely Lads configuration). But as always in male double act films the unspoken gay subtext is what fascinates. Ant and Dec both have nude posters on their bedroom walls, but never really consider girlfriends. Indeed their relationship is very odd: what are these two Geordies doing in London and why are they still friends? The girl that almost comes between them is an afterthought. Perhaps it was just that a double act with two straight men would not be thought of as gay.
ITV Sunday night movie classic mind.