Oh my god, it's David Duchovny! His semi-deadpan style doesn't work as well here as it did in 'The X-Files', and this movie isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it's nice seeing him again. He is joined by Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, and that guy from 'American Pie' that always seems to be playing the same character (I saw 'Sex Drive' the other day). I hope 'Evolution' didn't actually teach anyone about evolution, as the science is extremely wonky. The whole thing is pretty dumb, but mostly on purpose. I just saw Randy from 'My Name is Earl' in 'Unstoppable', and in this he's fatter, and one of a dumb set of twins (This was pre-'Earl', I assume).
I have plenty of memories of this movie, and more from the cartoon series it was either based on or that was based on it. Basically there's a meteor with living alien cells inside, and they have extra base pairs, so evolve very quickly. This quickly turns from an interesting thing to a dangerous thing, as they threaten to take over the planet. In the cartoons I remember them shooting the aliens, and then inside each one was this pink starfish thing, which they then collected, I think. This isn't quite that dumb, but it definitely isn't serious.
I'm going to class it as a comedy, as well as other things. Partly (mostly) because it's listed as such, and partly because it isn't just funny because it's stupid, it's also funny because it has lots of jokes and funny scenes in it and stuff.
"There's always time for lubricant!"
The rectal surgery scene was hilarious, as were plenty of others, and we know not to take anything to seriously by the quirky upbeat music playing in the beginning of every scene and everybody's extreme incompetence. It's also poorly written and meh-ishly acted, though. The effects are heavily slathered on, and are alright for 2001, but not they haven't aged well. The plot is simple and many of the characters are very one note, and I can't help but try to poke holes in the science the whole time. That massive starfish at the end was obviously ridiculous, and why does it take them so long to adapt to our atmosphere, but just 24 hours to develop backbones? Also, if the army had scientists working on the aliens for days, why didn't they develope at least some of the same conclusions that Mulder did in seconds, and by accident?
It's a very fun movie though, and I like that Head and Shoulders and a lower temperature were basically the solution (I'm a fan of both - I live in Scotland, and haven't you noticed how clean, shiny and dandruff-free my hair is?) It heavily pays homage to 'Ghost Busters', as it shares a director, and came out on the 17th anniversary of it's release. A lot of the feeling of the earlier movie is in here too, but it doesn't work nearly as well, and 'Evolution' pales in comparison to the earlier classic.
Evolution: 36.1