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Evolution on DVD (2001)

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Average rating: 64%
1217520121327
3.0
from 1,423 members
 
Starring: David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Michael Bower, Dan Aykroyd
Director: Ivan Reitman
Studio: UCA
Run time: 102 mins
Certificate: PG
User collections: Eclectic or what?
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: English, Hindi
Released: 24/11/2004
Also Available on: Also Available on: DIGITAL

Brief synopsis of Evolution

Director Ivan Reitman (GHOSTBUSTERS, STRIPES, DAVE) turns from ghosts to aliens in this comedy starring David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Julianne Moore. When a meteor crashes into the Arizona desert, local community college professors Ira Kane (Duchovny) and Harry Block (Jones) are shocked to discover that it has introduced rapidly evolving aliens to Earth. Although the professors try to keep their discovery a secret, the U.S. military takes over the investigation, sealing off the fantastic creatures and the environment that the aliens have established. But when aliens start popping up on nearby golf courses and in the local mall, it's up to Kane and Block to save the world. With a little help from Allison Reed (Julianne Moore), a clumsy scientist with the Center for Disease Control, and Wayne Green (Seann William Scott), a dim-witted country club pool manager and fireman-wannabe, the two professors devise a plan using an unlikely weapon to kill the alien population before it wipes out the human race. Fittingly, former Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd appears as the governor of Arizona.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 3 stars out of 5 Radio Times

This lightweight but amiably daft science-fiction comedy was pitched as Ghostbusters (an earlier Ivan Reitman smash) meets Men in Black. Though it shares those films' laid-back performances, tongue-in-cheek approach and cute special-effects creations, it lacks some of their wit and sparkle. Fortunately, David Duchovny and Orlando Jones (as college professors), Seann William Scott (as an aspiring fireman) and Julianne Moore (as a government scientist) lay on the comic charm, while the loose Darwinian concept allows for an entertainingly mad menagerie of regenerated digital creatures. However, it says a lot about the evolution of sci-fi cinema since the 1950s that Reitman's return to the genre is so reliant on computer-generated visuals and obvious scatological humour.

Halliwell's Film Guide

Enjoyable enough romp with juvenile jokes, though it finally mutates into a advertisement for anti-dandruff shampoo; only Hollywood could regard that as progress.

Variety

"...A consistently amusing action romp....[With] exceedingly vivid and credible visual effects that blend seamlessly with the action..."

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 stars

Charlotte#9 from LONDON , 23/02/2004

Had been told it was a fabulous, brilliant, side-splittingly funny movie... so was a little disappointed. On the flip side if we hadn't been expecting so much maybe it wouldn't have been such a let down... In fairness there are a handful of very funny lines in it, but on the whole it's not a brilliant movie. Though it would probably be great to have on as something in the background and half watching whilst you're doing something else...

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 stars

A customer from NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE , 05/04/2004

<p>The film's premiss is interesting and Duchovny does well as the cynical scientist who makes the discovery. What let the film down was that, as the film makers were trying to make a comedy, it gets a little silly at times. Jones seems to have been put in the film purely for comic relief.

<p>That said, the interaction between Kane and Reed redeems the film through character-based humour. The ideas around the aliens would work well in a serious film.

<p>There are far worse films and I suspect the film would have been funnier had it tried to behave in a more serious fashion...

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Rated - 2 stars

mick#4 from ST LAWRENCE , 02/01/2004

Quite amusing sci-fi movie with some strange looking animals not in the league of the top sci-fi movies but worth a watch.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 stars

Mark#310 from YORK , 19/04/2004

Well worth a watch. The first hour was very good, the film had a tremors/independence day sort of feel to it and was good fun. The last half an hour however got a bit silly. The film is still worth a watch though and is enjoyable.

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 2 stars

mick#4 from ST LAWRENCE , 02/01/2004

Quite amusing sci-fi movie with some strange looking animals not in the league of the top sci-fi movies but worth a watch.

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Rated - 3 starsLoved it

Nicksaskiamaiajames from Somerset , 27/10/2005

Very funny film with some weird and funky special effects and laced with a knowing sense of irony. My ten-year-old daughter loved it.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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