Subject: Review: Evolution (2001)

From: Eugene Novikov <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 03:07:48 -0000

Evolution (2001)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/

"Oh no, I've seen this movie, the black dude dies
first. You snag one."

Starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne
Moore, Seann William Scott. Directed by Ivan Reitman.
Rated PG-13.

Evolution, the snarky new alien invasion comedy from
Ghostbusters' Ivan Reitman, resembles the ever-popular
Men in Black in plot and structure, but that's where
the similarities end. It won't make as much money as
the Will Smith blockbuster, but it's a much better
movie: less arrogant, less enamored with its special
effects, and infinitely more clever. The advertising
for the film announced that the aliens are coming to
"wipe that silly smile off [our] planet;" quite the
contrary, though I suspect that some critics are
giving Evolution negative reviews just so they can
oh-so-cleverly twist the tagline to apply to the
movie.

David Duchovny heads up the winning cast as science
Professor Ira Kane of the Glen Canyon community
college. He is called to investigate when local
aspiring firefighter (Seann William Scott) sees a
meteor crash down from the sky and make a big hole in
the ground. With him comes Harry Block (Orlando
Jones), a geology professor from Glend Canyon and a
member of the US Geological Survey. They make an
amazing discovery -- millions of single-celled
organisms that could only have come from another
world. They take a sample back, only to find that the
single-celled organisms have turned multicellular
without so much as a warning, and are continuing to
grow and divide.

When Ira and Harry return to the scene, they discover
that the US army has appropriated the meteor. Among
the men and women in uniform is Dr. Allison Reed
(Julianne Moore), a government scientist in charge of
the investigation. Ira and Harry get short-shrifted,
with a perfuctory promise to "keep them in the loop."
But when they see that the aliens are evolving into
bigger and more menacing creatures -- some of them
looking like dinosaurs, others like sad E.T.'s, but
all equally dangerous -- and that all the government
wants to do is wipe them out, they decide to take
matters into their own hands.

Duchovny, who bit the hand that fed him by making a
showy exit from the alien-themed tv show The X-Files,
is again dealing with extra-terrestrials and an
obsessively secretive government, though, of course,
in a very different context. He's the best thing about
this movie; his deadpan style humor fits perfectly
into the general tone of the proceedings, and there is
genuine chemistry between him and his co-stars. I'm
not convinced of Duchovny's range (though Return to Me
was an impressive start), but there's no question that
he and otherworldly beings always make a good
match-up.

The movie was directed by Ivan Reitman, the veteran
who has done nothing but comedies (with the possible
exception of Six Days, Seven Nights), and it has a
penchant for the gleefully weird as well as the
vulgar. There is no other way explain a scene in which
an alien worm implants itself in Orlando Jones's body
and the doctor, planning to take it out through the,
um, anal cavity, says offhandedly that "there's no
time for lubricant." The response by the beleaguered
patient? "There's always time for lubricant!"

Evolution is not terribly consistent: there are
cliches and failed gags, and the ending is
disappointing. But when it works, it works. It looks
like the movie has failed at the box-office -- not
terribly surprising considering the lack of
name-above-the-title stars and the bizarro marketing
campaign -- and it's a real shame. 

Grade: B+

Up Next: Swordfish

©2001 Eugene Novikov

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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 235705
X-RT-TitleID: 1108206
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X-RT-RatingText: B+