31 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
31 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
movie concepts are often pitched to producers with mathematical formulas involving successful films of the past .
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so , undoubtedly one day someone said , " 'evolution ? '
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it's 'ghostbusters' plus 'men in black' plus 'tremors . ' "
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and so it is .
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sum total none .
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the alienbusting begins when a meteor lands in glen canyon , arizona .
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community college science profs ira kane ( david duchovny ) and harry block ( orlando jones ) take some samples from the meteor and discover that one-celled organisms from inside it are evolving rapidly , doing in hours what took millions of years for life on earth .
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just about the time i was wondering , " hey , doesn't the government usually come in and take over the whole area in these movies , " the government came in and took over the whole area .
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the leader of the pack , gen . woodman ( ted levine ) , turns out to be an old nemesis of ira's , and ira and harry are blocked from doing further research .
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meanwhile , the organisms continue to grow until they are large enough to start attacking people .
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by this time , ira and harry have gained a friend in dr . allison reed ( julianne moore ) of the center for disease control .
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a country club poolboy , wayne green ( seann william scott ) , has also attached himself to the merry band .
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but can they find the means to stop the aliens in time ?
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director ivan reitman seems to be revisiting his biggest hit , 1984's " ghostbusters , " but " evolution " falls miserably short .
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one reason is readily apparent .
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" ghostbusters " had three really funny guys as its scientists ( bill murray , dan aykroyd , and harold ramis ) , but " evolution " has one really funny guy ( orlando jones ) who can adlib and milk the comic potential of lines that prove useless in anyone else's hands .
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for good measure , " ghostbusters " had the comic talents of rick moranis ; " evolution " offers seann william scott , who was much funnier in " american pie " and " road trip " than he is here .
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scott has one amusing scene where he sings " you are so beautiful to me " to a dragon-like alien to draw it into a trap .
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other than that , scott seems unable to make much of the thin material the writers gave him .
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an actor in search of a forte , david duchovny looked for his gritty action hero side in " playing god " and his romantic side in " return to me . "
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now he wants to find his wacky comedic talent ; what we all find is that he doesn't have any .
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look for him to be back on tv in five years or so .
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another sad case is julianne moore , who needs to be more selective about the offers she accepts .
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she's a talented actress with an impressive list of credits and award nominations , so why is she trying to do slapstick comedy ?
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her character has a tendency to trip over and bump into things , but the trait comes off as a pathetic plea for laughs .
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the sole saving grace of the film is jones .
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he's at the center of the movie's funniest scene -- where an alien bug invades harry's body and has to be pulled out through his ass .
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jones is the only cast member who can take the comedic ball and run with it , but he can't carry the whole movie by himself .
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he found himself in a similar situation in " the replacements , " where he was also the only comic talent in an ensemble cast .
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jones will eventually find the project that will make him a major comedy star , but this isn't it .
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