Well at least we know that it's not a compressed file. AVI (= Audio Video Interleave) is a standard video format, introduced by Microsoft (so most media players can normally handle it). If VLC can't handle the movie it suggests that the file you've downloaded is corrupt. (Try a fresh download). However itt might still be worth trying VLC's closest rival, GOM:
http://www.gomlab.com/eng/GMP_download.html
You could also try installing additional codecs, in the hope that the one used to encode your movie file is among them. See here:
http://download.cnet....-2140_4-10509745.html
(After installing the codec pack, try the media players which previously wouldn't recognise the file).
Chris