Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Well... here's someone who seems to have flipped their lid for EVOLUTION. AtomoPrime has reviewed films for us before, including JASON X, so I think we can safely assume he's not working for SKG. Sounds like someone had some crazy fun in Burbank tonight while I was sitting in a screening room in Hollywood watching very silly radical feminist French hardcore porn. Really. But enough about me. Let's hear if EVOLUTION's got what it takes to come out on top of the box-office version of natural selection this summer...
Hey there Harry,
Just got back from a test screening of EVOLUTION here in busy ol' Burbank, California, and thought you might like to hear about it!
First, the plot: A small meteor crashes on Earth...in Arizona, USA, to be more precise. Said meteor is carrying one celled life that quickly begin to evolve into more complex and dangerous life forms. Two local scientists (Duchovny, Jones) discover the rapidly evolving life forms and hope to profit from their find. Fortunately, these alien creatures cannot survive in the Earths atmosphere, but they are quickly adapting. Soon the military and their resident scientist (Moore) get involved and go head to head with the local scientific duo. Soon the alien life begins to get very aggressive with it's human neighbors and it's time for us homosapiens to fight back.
P.S. It's a comedy! (Most of you all ready knew that!)
I know that the above synopsis maybe a little vague for most, but I hate reviews that blow the ending of a movie! What I will tell you is (and I'll bet my Atomo-mobile on this) that this movie will make David Duchovny's film career! The boy is FUNNY! It feels like he and Orlando Jones must have been a comedy team in former lives. Both work off each other (most likely improvising off the script) like a couple of old friends who share a good deal of history. Jones, of course, is damn funny! He has a few nice scene stealing moments in the film and seems to really enjoy himself. Thankfully he is not relegated to the position of black sidekick, but shares nearly equal time with Duchovny and plays it smart. Think of them as a combination of the best aspects of all four Ghostbusters.
The surprise scene stealer of this movie is Seann William Scott (of 'Dude, You Stole Two-hours Of My Life' fame...God I hated that movie...). Scott plays a firefighter-in-training/pool-boy that is nearly hit by the meteor when it comes crashing down. I was REALLY ready to hate this movie when I saw this guy on screen. My wallet and eyes have never forgiven me for 'Dude' and I truly believe that Scott owes me half my admission. But I digress, he was very funny. He was as funny in a dumb way as Duchovny and Jones were funny being smart. Though, at first, you wonder why so much time is spent on him in the first half of the film, only to have it all pull together later. Hence time not wasted, but I'm sure his early scenes will be cut for time.
Julianne Moore plays the military sponsored scientist. A very clumsy one. AND MAN IS SHE CUTE!!! Sorry. She does her best to keep up with the boys, but she just doesn't get to have any really funny lines. At times it felt like she was simply there to be the 'love interest.' Though she had a few bright moments in the film, her character really did not forward the plot. AND MAN IS SHE CUTE!!!
Dan 'Raymond Stantz' Aykroyd shows up, apparently channeling the spirit of Richard Nixon, playing the governor of Arizona. This guy can still spit out lines that would trip up most thespians like bullets out a machinegun!
Director Ivan Rietman delivers (...dare I say it...) a GHOSTBUSTERS for the new millennium. PHTOOEY! Sorry, just had to get that out before it's used by 60 Second Preview. The movie is truly funny and smartly written. The special effects were about 90% finished by the looks of it and the various creatures that populated the spreading environment created by the meteor would make Tim Burton and Barry Sonnenfeld proud. Shades of GHOSTBUSTERS abound, but it's cool under that shade.
Sadly, I think the previews for EVOLUTION don't do the movie justice. They had me thinking that this was going to be another bland sci-fi/comedy. I was really happy to be proven wrong.
Give it a chance when it comes to a screen near you. To compare it to a movie in it's genre; I laughed harder and longer in EVOLUTION than I did with MEN IN BLACK. Not necessarily an accomplishment, but MIB is the closest science fiction film to compare it to.
In closing, I think that many years from now THE X-FILES will be a footnote in David Duchovny's long career. Those who thought him a one note, wooden actor will see that he has a few more chords he can hit. Rob Reiner once said that Duchovny was one of the funniest guys he ever met and that nobody will ever get to find that out. I think this Summer we'll be given an idea.
I also want to say a hearty hello to the other AICNers I think I spotted there. After all these sneak previews, I think I'm starting to put faces with aliases.
Hope y'all had fun in Cannes, Harry! Bring me back something nice...
-AtomoPrime
Finally, an Atomo you can trust...
