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 . 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 , <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies . html</a> | shannon patrick sullivan | <a href= " mailto : shannon@mun . ca " >shannon@mun . ca</a> | + --------------------------------- + --------------------------------- + / 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 __/ 
