EVOLUTION (2001) ** It's difficult to say whether the actions depicted are more unusual than the typical week in Arizona, they probably are. The truths set forth are important: the government is in the hands of lunatics who feel threatened by anyone creative and that they therefore cannot understand; conformity and collegiality rather than human greatness rise to the top of the political, military, and academic professions (talk about evolution); the universe is full of threats against which even the incredibly developed science of the 21st century is woefully inadequate...but it all has a rather glued together formulaic feel to it. The monsters are cool, but aren't all that much different from the sorts of things that Ivan Reitman showed us in Ghostbusters. In fact there are enough corollary characters, scenes, and shots to catalyze a few hours worth of casual conversation. To complicate matters Julianne Moore is the only actor with any measure of the requisite charm needed to pull it all off, though David Duchovny throws away a few lines with a rakish wit that would probably work well enough in a middle-tier bar of the lonely and desperate. You have to appreciate the musical inclusion of Wild Cherry's "Play that Funky Music," but then you have to wish that it was in a better and more appropriate scene. Too many tired racial jokes, retread sexual innuendos, and reliance on boring archetypes. I'm hoping that we'll evolve beyond all that soon. When you've got something to say, and you say it right, you shouldn't have to try to manipulate people into looking at it.
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