Hey folks, Harry here with a pair of the first reviews anywhere of EVOLUTION, that new comedy-genre flick from Ivan Reitman! I read the script and enjoyed it, but had really wanted it to be serious... just cuz nobody does the END OF THE WORLD scientific doom genre the way the old classics like FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH and THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS or WAR OF THE WORLDS did.... and I just miss those types of films... Now if you had to do a 'funny version' of that type of film, I suppose getting Ivan Reitman onboard is a key step. Next getting David on board would be good... These two reviews are of a very rough and early print of EVOLUTION... many many many of the effects have not yet been finished, and this was a screening to see where the laughs were working and where they were not.... As well as testing to see how the action beats are working thus far.... and from these responses, it seems that other than a tidbit of tightening... EVOLUTION is well on the right path to success....
Hi Harry,
I just got out of a screening for EVOLUTION here in Albuquerque. We were told that it was the first showing of the film ever so I feel that I am obligated to write the first review (unless someone beat me).
Anyway my sister and I sat down in a crowd that was probably 90% college students and waited for the film to start when suddenly I saw Ivan Reitman standing toward the side of the theater!!!! I was star struck needless to say and I rose out of my seat to talk to him but he grabbed a mic and addressed the whole crowd before I got a chance.
Reitman mentioned that we were the first in the world to screen the film and he couldn’t stress enough that the special effects at the end were gonna be unfinished and “cheesy.” Ivan Reitman loves the word cheesy he must have said it 7 times in one sentence. Anyway the film begins after his short speech that by the way got this Albuquerque audience quite a thrill (not very many exciting things happen here very often).
I’m going to try to keep tis as spoiler free as possible. I’d say EVOLUTION is a cross between GHOSTBUSTERS and MEN IN BLACK. Reitman seemed to want to make a movie like GHOSTBUSTERS very badly after making such crap-fests as SIX DAYS SEVEN NIGHTS, FATHER’S DAY, and JUNIOR. I have to say this is his best film since DAVE. Personally I thought aliens invading Earth by instantly Evolving from little organisms on a meteor and then taking over was a pretty interesting concept. The only complaint I have is that I was hoping it would be a lot darker. The slogan “Have a nice end of the World” kind of promises a dark “Mars Attaksish” type of film. I know a lot of people hated Mars Attacks but I felt that it had the guts to destroy the world and still be funny, what other movie does that.....not EVOLUTION. But I guess I’m being biased since I am a huge Tim Burton fan. This is a classic Ivan Reitman movie and it is definitely a fun time.
Now as far as the actors go.....David Duchovny stars is Ira Spade (? I may have forgotten the name). I always loved the sarcastic humorous side of Mulder, throw in horny and you got Duchovny’s character in this film. Then there is the beloved 7 up guy, Orlando Jones. Jones in my opinion was the only thing funny in the REPLACEMENTS and he is pretty cool here too. He plays....well his last name was Block, he and Duchovny bounced jokes off each other pretty well. Seann William Scott (Stiffler) was also in it and had some good scenes too. Julianne Moore played the very clumsy Alison Somethin-or-other, she....well she falls down a lot which is always humorous.
My sister said she didn’t buy the romance part of it, but it didn’t bother me too much. Overall the cast is great and moved the story along nicely.
The special effects (the ones that were done) were nothing short of fantastic. I remember reading that Spielberg never put a flying dinosaur in any of the Jurassic Parks because it never looked real enough. Well EVOLUTION succeeded like no other. This flying dinosaur alien thing flew through a shopping mall jacking it up like it was a Blues Brother. The shopping mall scene is worth the ticket price alone. The aliens were kind of cartoony but not too bad.
The sound is sick and the score is really, really good. It set the tone very nicely. The movie did have a lot of Shaggy songs in it which was lame but I got the impression (for some reason) that they were temporary.
In all EVOLUTION is a really fun summer flick, if you love GHOSTBUSTERS (which you should) then you’ll like EVOLUTION. Not as dark as I hoped, but works as a upbeat action special effects movie thingy.
By the way, I did get to meet Ivan Reitman afterwards, but he seemed disinterested in having a nice long conversation with me....damn Hollywood director too good for me, oh well.
JediMonkey2
And here's our lovely lady's look at EVOLUTION...
Hey Harry,
So every now and then Albuquerque is a pretty Damn Cool Place. I just got home from a test screening of the new unfinished David Duchovny film, Evolution.
The movie is a blast. I wanted to see it because of the preview and I was not disappointed. It's much more of a comedy than a sci-fi movie. David Duchovny and Orlando Jones (that guy from the 7-UP commercials) play community college science teachers who want to study a meteor that crashes in their town. The meteor oozes slime when ever any one touches it, and the slime changes whatever it touches. within no time at all, new life forms are sprouting from the slime causing death and destruction, but in that funny death and destruction way.
The aliens get more varied and more populous and keeping them in line gets harder and harder. There's a really funny scene involving flying lizards in a shopping mall reeking havoc on the shoppers trapped inside. The guys have to resort to shotguns to stop the mess and it all gets very funny in that funny death and destruction sort of way. Eventually secret government agent Julianne Moore comes to town to clean up the ever evolving mess. And I must mention Seann William Scott who is a total babe and plays a fireman and is funny. And a Babe.
The coolest part of all was that the film is nowhere near finished. Ivan Reitman, who is a genius in my mind since he made Ghostbusters, was there with a bunch of other people who I guess were from dreamworks too. He introduced the film and explained that the effects were very rough. There were some scenes of people running from, driving away from, shooting at aliens that weren't yet there. The few special effects there were there involved the aliens which looked very cool, kinda what you would think would come from oozy slime. One guy in the group afterwards said the aliens reminded him of Independence Day, which I can kinda agree with.
I really liked it a lot, and want to see it when it is finished. It's a little slow at the beginning, and actually a bit long, but I suppose that's why they were screening it, huh? Orlando Jones is hilarious from start to finish, he steals the film every time he is on screen. Dan Aykroyd is great as the flabbergasted governor of Arizona. And Duchovny has a few in-jokes referencing his previous life as Mulder that had the audience howling. The audience loved it, even without the effects. Ivan was mobbed afterwards and I got his autograph. It's just really funny & silly like ghostbusters.
Sign me: Linda Eastman
