Evolution (2001)
Ivan Reitman
USA
95 mins, color, English
Have to write before I forget, have to write before I forget, have to write before I forget, have to... damn! Let's shampoo some aliens!
EVOLUTION really is one of these flicks, where you laugh some, look embarrassed around, then laugh some more, and when it's over, have a hard time remembering what it was all about. Good thing the story was so cookie-cutter, that the general line isn't difficult to reconstruct. Get this, there are some teachers at a local community college in Glenn Canyon, AZ. Ira Kane (David Duchovny) looks like he knows what he's doing, and Harry Block (Orlando Jones), who looks like he thinks he knows. Some meteor crashes into the car of school dropout Wayne Green (Seann William Scott) and some alien life forms begin to evolve really fast. Big Bad Brother steps in, clumsily screwing everything and naturally the aliens turn bad and eat some guy at a Country Club. This would not have been that bad, but they also bite some nice lady's finger, so they MUST BE DESTROYED. Of course, the government screws up again (one wonders how this country ever managed to survive with such inept leadership) and the two science rejects, helped along by the klutzy CDC woman Allison (Julianne Moore) step in to save the day (not before the government screws up some more). If it wasn't for the elaborate method, which involved shampooing the butthole of a big alien blob, it would have been classic.
Nowhere near the phenomenon that GHOSTBUSTERS was, EVOLUTION is still an entertaining flick. The best, and what keeps the film rolling along without much resistance from me, was the undeniable chemistry between Duchovny and Jones, who are just sooo damn cute together. The bumbling Moore was also pretty good, but I preferred the other two. Anyway, the ILM-helmed CGI was ok, nothing too exceptional, but still a tad above all those other companies except the guys who did the work on BBC's dinosaur films. There were some funny one-liners, not so funny multi-liners, and generally too much innocent fun for one to keep track of.
Girlfriend-safe too.
June 10, 2001. BLS