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 Director
: Ivan Reitman
Starring
: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William
Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Aykroyd.
Picture
1.85:1 Anamorphic, DD 5.1, Dual-Layer, Keep Case
Running
Time : 98 mins
The
story:
Have
a nice end of the world.
When
college teachers Ira Kane (David Duchovny) and Harry Black
(Orlando Jones) are inadvertently called to the site of
a meteorite crash, they discover a variety of single-celled
life forms. To their amazement, these life forms rapidly
begin evolving, multiplying into something far bigger and
dangerous. Government scientist Allison Reed (Julianne Moore)
gets involved and takes the duo off the case. Soon Ira and
Harry find themselves fighting to stay involved, but when
it becomes clear that the aliens are a threat to humanity,
Allison soon changes her mind..
The summary:
When
you think of 'comedy Sci-fi' and director Ivan Reitman,
you know the film we're referring to is Ghostbusters. It
had the perfect magic formula of humour, special effects
and a great script to boot. But some 17 years on, can Reitman
repeat his success with Evolution? The answer is disappointingly
no. This time around the spark just isn't there and we're
left with an interesting, but criminally underdeveloped
story. Evolution was apparently intended as a Sci-Fi thriller,
but Reitman, sensing a chance to create another Ghostbusters
turned it into a Sci-fi comedy.
Evolution
certainly looks the part and has some impressive special
effects (courtesy of Phil Tippet) which probably make this
one of the most expensive B-movies of all-time. It's a pity
the same effort wasn't put into developing any kind of personality
for the aliens. They evolve and attack in an almost mechanical
manner, without so much as ever revealing what their purpose
is. Compare this to Ghostbusters, where the ghosts were
used to great effect in both the story and the comedy. To
be fair, Evolution does have it's share of funny moments
and I did laugh out loud once or twice, but for the main
part this is mindless fun and nothing more. The story itself
isn't particularly engaging but it does mirror that of Ghostbusters
in many places.
If
Duchovny is trying to expand his repertoire of acting skills,
he should pick his roles more wisely. Far from the comedic
role I imagined this to be, he simply plays... Fox Mulder.
And to make matters worse, his sidekick Harry Black gets
the lions share of the jokes. They do make a pretty
good double-act though and really hold the whole plot together.
Dan Aykroyd makes a fleeting appearance as the governor
of state, but doesn't really have a juicy enough part to
make any real impact.
It
must be said that whilst the transfer of the film is of
high quality, the overall package seems lazily put together.
The bonus material on the disc is almost nonexistent, which
is a shame as the
film looks like it was good fun to make so there must have
been some great outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage.
Still, if you liked Ghostbusters you'll enjoy Evolution,
but you'll probably end up feeling like I do - that this
was a wasted opportunity.
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Extras:
*
HBO First Look - "The evolution of Evolution".
The usual HBO promotional feature - brief interviews, behind-the-scenes
footage and clips from the film. It's just like a trailer
with some quotes from the filmmakers and stars really. 15
mins.
*
Cast - Text biographies for Duchovny, Jones,
Moore and Scott.
*
Filmmakers - Text biogs for 16 of the filmmakers.
*
Production Notes - Text-based again, but quite
lengthy.
*
Trailers - The theatrical and teaser trailers
for Evolution plus the original Ghostbusters trailer.
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