Evolution

***1/2

Reviewed by: Symon Parsons

Deep in the Arizona desert, something nasty is stirring. After a meteor (that Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck must have missed) crashes near a small town, nasty little creatures begin to quickly evolve out of the single-celled life-forms contained within.

Only David Duchovny, Orlando Jones and Julianne Moore (who play professors of biology, geology and disease control) and Seann William Scott (who plays a guy who took a couple of chemistry lessons) can Save The World...

Let me come right to the point. The biggest laughs in Evolution concern things going into or coming out of - uh - well - their back entrance, if you catch my drift.

But this is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm a great fan of the fart joke and seeing Orlando Jones getting farted all over by a giant amoeba is the sort of entertainment I am happy to pay for.

Comparisons to Ghostbusters are inevitable; it's another effects-laden comedy with an apocalyptic theme directed by Ivan Reitman.

But Evolution is good fun in its own right. The aliens are imaginative creations and are amusing to boot; David Duchovny sends up his X-Files persona with good humour and Seann William Scott always makes an excellent blithering idiot (it's a hell of a thing to have to put on your CV though).

It's not going to tax your brain, and the humour isn't exactly Wildean, but Evolution is good fun.

How many other films can boast lines like, "There's always time for lubricant"?

Reviewed on: 14 Jun 2001
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Lock up your biologists! Second rate comic sci-fi effort where the jokes fall as flat as the science... though the stars all have glossy kissable hair of course.
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Read more Evolution reviews:

Nicola Osborne **

Director: Ivan Reitman

Writer: David Diamond, David Weissman, Don Jakoby

Starring: David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore, Seann William Scott, Ty Burrell, Ted Levine

Year: 2001

Runtime: 101 minutes

BBFC: 12 - Age Restricted

Country: US,

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