From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 10 09:07:47 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Robin Clifford Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 05:49:46 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RT-AuthorID: 1488 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-RatingText: C Summary: r.a.m.r. #28679 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 98 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26846 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2861 "Evolution" What if life on Earth did NOT come out of the primordial ooze hundreds of millions of years ago? What if the building blocks of life came from deep outer space instead? And, what if the first struggling cells needed only days to evolve into full-blown monsters? This is the premise for Ivan Reitman's latest goofball comedy starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones and two-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore in "Evolution." Just watching the first promotional bits, over the past couple of months, for "Evolution," I was taken by the obvious parallels to Reitman's 1984 smash hit, "Ghostbusters." What saved that mostly silly movie was a performance by Bill Murray that capitalized on the actor's comedic talent and sarcastic wit. Unfortunately, "Evolution" does not have Bill Murray, nor anyone approaching his one-man-show talent, to bear the burden of a mediocre comedy that has its requisite special F/X, but little humor in its routine sci-fi tale. A mysterious object crashes into the Earth. A team of scientists investigates. The object not only turns out to carry living organisms, they're hostile to humans and growing in number - fast. It's up to the intrepid team of boffins to stop the alien invasion before the Earth is lost. This formula has worked well for decades, since "The Thing" (1951) and "War of the Worlds" (1954), and screenwriters David Diamond, David Weissman and Don Jakoby, dust it off one more time for "Evolution." This time, though, the alien invasion is played for laughs. Well, some laughs, anyway. The problem with "Evolution" stems from trying to force the comedy into the original sci-fi drama developed by Don Jakoby. Unlike "Ghostbusters," which came from years of comic ghost stories like "The Ghost Breakers" (1940) and "Ghost Catchers" (1944), "Evolution" spawned from more serious fare. This is a problem as the film tries to force humor into scenes that borrow from flicks like "Alien" and "Tremors." The cast does its best to inject comedy into the scenes, but it is hard work and forced. David Duchovny and Orlando Jones do yeomen's work as a pair of junior college professors who see the discovery of the alien object - a meteor that seeps slime - as their ticket to the big times. When Ira Kane (Duchovny) and Harry Block (Jones) take the sample of ooze back to their lab, Ira discovers it contains single-celled organisms from outer space! Even more exciting is the fact that they reproduce at a fantastic rate! When they take some students on a field trip to the site - an underground cavern the rock crashed into - they discover that, in few hours, the single-celled creatures had evolved into mushrooms and mitosis-reproducing flatworms. Visions of Nobel prizes dance in the scientist's heads. That is, until the military, led by Ira's old boss, General Woodman (Ted Levine), takes over the operation. Little do they all know that the alien invader is developing at a rate where millions of years of evolution takes only hours. The flatworms eventually become dinosaur-like creatures and, soon, the first primates evolve. As the flora and fauna from another world adapt to Earth's atmosphere it becomes apparent that, at their rate of evolution, they will completely take over the world in a matter of months. Of course, the military blunders big when the general decides to burn the creatures to hell - the exact wrong thing to do. It's up to Ira and Harry, with a little help from CDC investigator Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) and firefighter wannabee Wayne (Seann William Scott), to stop the spread of alien varmints and save the world - with Head & Shoulders shampoo, no less. As I think about it, this really is a serious sci-fi story (except for the shampoo bit). It doesn't lend itself to comedy, which is why, I guess, there are so few laughs. Most of the humor is geared to the slapstick, with lots of set scenes of human confronting alien - much like "Ghostbusters." Duchovny plays it all tongue-in-cheek, with the required poke at his "The X-Files" past. Orlando Jones gets some mileage out of his oppressed (but not, really) black man. Julianne Moore - what was she thinking when she took this role - does numerous pratfalls and klutzy stuff, most of which is not funny and almost embarrassing for the twice-nominated Oscar contender. Seann William Scott ("Road Trip," "Dude, Where's My Car?") is locked into playing the doofus, yet again, adding nothing to the proceeds. Ted Levine plays the inept, overbearing general in a cookie cutter perf. F/X are adequate but not outstanding. The film seemed murky and audio was poor at times, but this may have been the product of the theater projector and not the film. "Evolution," I'm afraid, is the kind of comedy flick that exemplifies our summer movie entertainment. It's a popcorn flick that uses toilet humor, anus jokes and lots of slime that will entertain the younger audiences. It leaves me craving more intelligent fare - like "Shrek." I give it a C. For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com laura@reelingreviews.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28679 X-RT-AuthorID: 1488 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-RatingText: C From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jul 18 09:55:50 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!cyclone2.usenetserver.com!feed.textport.net!sn-xit-04!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Eugene Novikov Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 03:07:48 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28809 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 235705 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: B+ Summary: r.a.m.r. #28809 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 103 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:26968 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2873 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 ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28809 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 235705 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 610 X-RT-AuthorID: 1577 X-RT-RatingText: B+ From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 20 13:30:27 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!sunqbc.risq.qc.ca!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jon Popick Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 17:54:08 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28873 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 226580 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28873 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 69 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27046 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2891 Planet Sick-Boy: http://www.sick-boy.com "We Put the SIN in Cinema" © Copyright 2001 Planet Sick-Boy. All Rights Reserved. Director Ivan Reitman has a checkered filmography that contains some classics (Meatballs, Dave), some unwatchable flops (Junior, Father's Day) and some hits that I never really understood (Six Days Seven Nights, Twins). His latest - Evolution - looks like a cross between Men in Black and Ghostbusters, the latter being the film for which Reitman is best known. Evolution is a sci-fi comedy with good special effects, a fairly funny script and a really dopey ending. Evolution is set in Glen Canyon, Arizona and begins with a wannabe fireman named Wayne Green (Seann William Scott, Road Trip) practicing rescue techniques in an abandoned shack in the desert. A meteor the size of an NBA star falls out of the sky and demolishes his car, and the following day, the local police call the area's representative of the United States Geological Survey to the scene. He is Harry Block (Orlando Jones, Say It Isn't So), a geology professor at Glen Canyon Community College, and he brings along his friend and colleague, Ira Kane (David Duchovny, Return to Me), who teaches biology at the school. When they arrive at the crash site, Ira and Harry find an extremely well-lit meteor that has buried itself 80 feet underground. It's also teeming with one-cell organisms that, upon closer examination back in their lab, seem to be multiplying at an incredible rate via mitosis. Further tests reveal the little critters to contain alien DNA, and the two professors try to keep their find a secret as they giggle about winning fame, riches and prestigious science awards. Before long, the creatures start getting bigger and bigger, forming dozens of different mutations in an attempt to adapt to their new surroundings (or "evolving," if you will) and spreading faster than Haley Joel Osment's do-gooder plan in Pay it Forward. The government eventually gets involved and takes control of the project, giving Ira and Harry the boot in favor of a clueless General (Ted Levine) and Allison Reed (Julianne Moore, Hannibal), the assistant director of the Centers for Disease Control. While Evolution's ending is a bit of a disappointment (it offers the goofiest solution to ridding the Earth of aliens since the whole Slim Whitman thing in Mars Attacks!), the film is consistently funny, which comes as quite a surprise considering the writers involved. Don Jakoby penned the laughably bad John Carpenter's Vampires, while David Diamond and David Weissman were responsible for the ooey-gooey crapfest called The Family Man. They even manage to throw in a funny crack at the Feds, which, of course, was written for Duchovny. Evolution's two biggest gags involve the sphincter, but since Tom Green isn't involved with the film, and it isn't marketed specifically toward teenagers, look for most press to overlook this fact. Reitman isn't a flashy director. With his films, it's the little things that make them more entertaining. Every line is delivered with impeccable timing, every double-take is perfect, and some of the best zingers are barely audible gems said under the breath of his three male leads. And he even gets Oscar-nominee Moore to play a klutz who wears garter belts - a dangerous combination. 1:42 - PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and for sci-fi action ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28873 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 226580 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 595 X-RT-AuthorID: 1146 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Fri Jul 20 13:30:27 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Edward Johnson-Ott Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 03:26:29 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28888 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 227627 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 591 X-RT-AuthorID: 1099 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/5 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28888 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 107 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27063 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2895 Evolution (2001) David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore, Seann William Scott, Ty Burrell, Ted Levine, Dan Ackroyd, Michael Bower, Wendy Braun, Wayne Duvall, Sarah Silverman, Ethan Suplee. Screenplay by David Diamond, David Weissman and Don Jakoby. Directed by Ivan Reitman. 92 minutes. Rated PG-13, 2.5 stars (out of five stars) Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo.net Archive reviews at http://reviews.imdb.com/ReviewsBy?Edward+Johnson-Ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to ejohnsonott@prodigy.net or e-mail ejohnsonott-subscribe@onelist.com with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. I saw "Evolution" last night at a sneak preview sponsored by a radio station. The response from the capacity crowd was overwhelmingly positive. They howled at the jokes and sections of the audience broke into applause several times. As the closing credits rolled, I heard more than one person exclaim "That was the best comedy I've seen in a long time!" The general reaction left me mystified, because "Evolution" is pretty mediocre fare. Clearly patterned after "Ghostbusters," which was also directed by hit-and-miss filmmaker Ivan Reitman, the sci-fi comedy pits wisecracking academics against bizarre creatures and petty government officials, but the similarities between the films end there. "Ghostbusters" was a true original, while "Evolution" is, at best, a moderately entertaining variation on a theme. Set in Glen Canyon, Arizona, "Evolution" opens with would-be fire fighter Wayne Green (Seann "what's the deal with that extra 'n'?" William Scott) practicing rescue techniques in the desert when a meteor screams down from the sky, wrecking his car before it crash-lands in a cavern. Two local college professors come to study the rock: geologist/volleyball coach Harry Block (Orlando Jones) and biologist Ira Kane (David Duchovny). They discover that the meteor is teeming with one-celled alien organisms with the ability to reproduce and adapt at amazing speed. When Ira leads a field trip to the site, he learns that the evolution is happening even faster than he and Harry believed; the ground is covered with extraterrestrial flatworms. Soon, the government takes over the crash site, with a snide general (Ted Levine) banning the locals. Working alongside the general is Dr. Allison Reed (Julianne Moore) from the Centers for Disease Control. Ira and the comely doc initially butt heads, but quicker than you can say "formula flick" she hooks up with the good guys. Just in time, too, as the little alien critters are multiplying and mutating like crazy. One mosquito-like creature invades Harry's body, throwing the geologist into panic mode as an examining physician states "It's headed toward his testicles!" Note: In the trailers for the film, the destination is changed to "crotch," while "bottom" is used in the TV ads. Hmmm. Regardless, the whole thing builds to an anal rescue scene that had the audience in hysterics. Initially, the aliens die as soon as they are exposed to our atmosphere, but they quickly adapt and grow even more aggressive. A sad-eyed creature absurdly misidentified as a dog (wow – just like in "Ghostbusters." What a coincidence!) demonstrates its jaw power in front of a group of housewives. A winged lizard swoops through a mall with a shoplifter in its talons. Ira, Harry, Allison and Wayne team up to stop the invasion, leading to the obligatory battle royale. In this case, the insipid finale involves yet another anal procedure, coupled with one of the most blatant product placements in movie history. While "Evolution" is mildly entertaining, its lazy screenplay (which began as a drama) insures that the movie will never rise above tepid. There are a number of good one-liners (Duchovny gets off a nice joke based on his former "X-Files" persona), but for the most part, the filmmakers simply lean on the special effects, which are not all that special. Sorry, boys, but a parade of monsters isn't enough anymore. The cast is saddled with characters as unimaginative as the script. Seann William Scott, Stifler from "American Pie," says "Wow!" a lot, Orlando Jones, best known as the star of a dreadful series of 7-Up ads, makes black jokes, Julianne Moore stumbles over everything and David Duchovny does his usual deadpan shtick. Oh, and he moons the general. Speaking of the general, you might remember Ted Levine from "The Silence of the Lambs," where he played Buffalo Bill, the serial-killing lunatic. I kept hoping Levine would turn up in front of the aliens nude, with his genitals tucked behind his legs, saying "It doesn't come to Earth without an invitation." But that would have been nervy, and "Evolution" isn't about taking chances. About two-thirds of the way through the story, some of the aliens evolve into quasi-human form. What if they had evolved further? They could have developed language skills and negotiated with the government for citizenship. Or they could have done to us what we did to the Native Americans, dumping our heroes into low-income housing on a Human Reservation. At the very least, they should have developed their writing skills and turned out a better screenplay than this one. © 2001 Ed Johnson-Ott ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28888 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 227627 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 591 X-RT-AuthorID: 1099 X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/5 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Jul 24 01:28:08 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!luth.se!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-02!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Jerry Saravia Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 02:51:13 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 28926 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237111 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 Summary: r.a.m.r. #28926 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 72 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27104 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2896 EVOLUTION Reviewed by Jerry Saravia July 3rd, 2001 The beauty of comedy is that there are no rules and, quite simply, rules are made to be broken in the comedic arena. Director Ivan Reitman is often aware of this, as evidenced by his crude though subtly funny "Junior" and, his biggest hit, "Ghostbusters." Both films redefined the boundaries of good taste by imbuing crudeness with cleverness rather than cheap, desperate gags a'la "Austin Powers" that only serve to make the audience puke. Consider Arnold Schwarzeneger as a pregnant man in "Junior," a premise that is otherwise ripe for gross-out humor. Instead that film built its premise with wit and engaging repartee between Schwarzeneger and Danny DeVito. "Evolution" does the same thing, imbuing crudeness with cleverness. The premise deals with a community college science teacher (and former scientist), Ira Kane (David Duchovny), who partners with a sharp, jocose scientist, Harry Block (Orlando Jones), to investigate a flaming meteor that has burned a hole through the ground into an underground cavern. Kane's class goes on a field trip to discover and study this meteor only to find some strange atmosphere has developed at an accelerated rate, not to mention some expanding and evolving wormlike creatures. Kane and Block realize this is no ordinary meteor - it is a fertile ground for alien creatures. At first, the creatures seem harmless in the form of butterflies until they later evolve into flying dinosaurs, raging blue monkeys and some shapeless matter in the form of large intestines. The only way to approach "Evolution" is by checking your brain at the entrance door of the cinema before the first reel is projected. It is a one-note joke movie to be sure but it has moments of eye-opening special-effects, shrewd one-liners and moments where you will literally jump out of your seat. It mostly pokes fun at "Independence Day" right down to the climax involving those humongous intestines where a central digestive tract is the target for destruction - the expansive mass even looks like a spaceship. Mostly, the screenplay by David Diamond, David Weissman and Don Jakoby focuses on bodily functions and sexual entendres, as well as creepy monsters hiding inside harmless looking alien slugs and such. Many of the sexual entendres center around Julianne Moore as an assistant to a soldier-scientist (Ted Levine) - she is regarded at one point as an "icy goddess in desperate need of some humping." Speaking of the ravishing Moore, it is nice to see her as a clumsy woman who keeps tripping over objects every once in a while. "Evolution" is cutesy nonsense and often quite funny and engaging. It is actually a breath of fresh air as compared to the gross-out humor so reminiscent of most comedies nowadays - wit and some dry humor are this film's virtues. As for performances, Duchvony and Jones make a delightful pair and Moore is lots of fun to watch - nice to see her handle comedy for a change in contrast with her dramatic roles. Only Ted Levine seems a little out of his element as the straight-faced soldier scientist, Dr. Woodman, who doesn't want Kane anywhere near these aliens. "Evolution" is not as frantically funny or as visually inventive as Reitman's "Ghostbusters," but it will suffice in what has been a dry couple of years of laughless comedies. For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at Faust668@aol.com or at faustus_08520@yahoo.com ========== X-RAMR-ID: 28926 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 237111 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 875 X-RT-AuthorID: 1314 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Sep 11 11:20:13 2001 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.ida.liu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news.sics.se!uab.ericsson.se!erix.ericsson.se!luth.se!out.nntp.be!propagator-dallas!news-in-dallas.newsfeeds.com!local-out2.newsfeeds.com!propagator-SanJose!news-in!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!newsfeed.stanford.edu!sn-xit-01!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail From: Shannon Patrick Sullivan Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: Evolution (2001) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 18:54:58 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 29374 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247022 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 1.5/4 Summary: r.a.m.r. #29374 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 58 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:27555 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2933 EVOLUTION (2001) / * 1/2 Directed by Ivan Reitman. Screenplay by David Diamond, David Weissman and Don Jakoby, based on a story by Jakoby. Starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore. Running time: 104 minutes. Rated PG for frightening scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on August 27th, 2001. By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN Synopsis: When a meteorite crashlands in the Arizona desert, community college professors Ira Kane (Duchovny) and Harry Block (Jones) are first on the scene. They discover that an alien lifeform has arisen from the rock and is evolving at an amazing rate. Soon the army, advised by Dr Allison Reed (Moore), moves in and forces Kane and Block out. But when the aliens begin to menace society, it may take the scientists' combined efforts to stop them before they terminate the evolution of another lifeform: humanity. Review: "Evolution" certainly has the ingredients for a decent comedy. It's directed by Reitman, clearly trying to parlay his "Ghostbusters" success into a twenty-first-century counterpart. It stars Duchovny, and although one might question his judgment in lampooning his "X-Files" character so soon after leaving the TV series, it should certainly provide him with plenty of ammunition. And then there's Moore, who may not have much prior experience in comedy, but who has certainly proven her ability as an actress. A shame, then, that it all deteriorates into such a hopelessly unfunny morass. "Evolution" is a movie more concerned with its special effects (which are quite good) than anything resembling a consistently funny script. It has its moments (a scene in which Jones' body is invaded by an alien is particularly entertaining), but there are embarrassingly long stretches that are utterly devoid of humour. Moore is totally wasted, her clumsy shtick getting very old, very fast. Duchovny has stunningly little in the way of material to work with. And the story is so formulaic, it could have been written by monkeys. Part of what made "Ghostbusters" so wonderful was a combination of a great script and characters the audience could root for. "Evolution" is so mind-numbingly tedious that it's difficult not to start cheering for the aliens. Copyright © 2001 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | Shannon Patrick Sullivan | shannon@mun.ca | +---------------------------------+---------------------------------+ / Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) go.to/drwho-history \ \__ We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars __/ ========== X-RAMR-ID: 29374 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 247022 X-RT-TitleID: 1108206 X-RT-SourceID: 886 X-RT-AuthorID: 1699 X-RT-RatingText: 1.5/4