X-Files in New Zealand

Evolution

07.07.2001 By RUSSELL BAILLIE (Herald rating: * * * )

He might have a new haircut and be dressing smart-casual, but as soon as you see him flashing a torch around in the dark, David Duchovny starts looking mighty familiar in his first post-X-Files movie role.

Fortunately though, here the truth is out ... of the question in this sci-fi spoof by Ivan Reitman in a return to the sort of grandly gloopy special-effects comedy he made a franchise out of in the 80s with the Ghostbusters movies.

You could certainly run a Ghostbusters III-in-disguise argument about Evolution. Even if instead of spooks in the Big Apple it might be an alien life form which, having arrived via meteorite in Glen Canyon, Arizona, starts evolving overnight from single cell lifeform to creatures with teeth, claws and unhealthy appetites for members of the local golf club.

There's not much that's original about Evolution in any department. And it comes with a couple of annoying habits - like having Julianne Moore's scientist trip over in almost every scene to show what a klutz she is. More grating is the over-acting Jones as Duchovny's sidekick, and not just because he's the punchline in one of the frequent rectal gags - it's as if Reitman's idea of moving with the times is to get some Farrelly brothers-style grossness in there or the kids just won't buy it. Then again, he may have a point.

However, it's still likeable and gets by as guilty-pleasure cornball fun. Duchovny's droll performance certainly helps, and when upright, Moore is funny too. Both seem to be having fun not taking themselves seriously after their respective screen FBI stints (Moore is in Hannibal).

And in this environment you can even warm to the gormless dude charms of Seann William Scott (American Pie, Road Trip) whose wannabe fireman is the first witness to the meteorite, so tags along with science teachers-cum-geologists Duchovny and Jones until the authorities inevitably shut them out of their own discovery.

Along the way, flying aliens are chased through a shopping mall, Duchovny's Ira Kane has to reveal his shady pre-blackboard past, and there's gratuitous use of the song Play That Funky Music White Boy to fill in a bit of time.

It's stupid and for a movie called Evolution, peculiarly backward. But that doesn't stop it being goofy entertainment.

Cast: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott Director: Ivan Reitman Rating: PG (sexual references) Running time: 102 mins Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas from Thursday