Evolution

DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: June 8, 2001

6.3	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 92 Ratings

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CineAutoctonoDec 22, 2015

"Evolution" was a very regular movie and some interesting question though comedy and science fiction out of it regularly in the visual effects, but very reliable with the plot .

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MovieMasterEddyApr 6, 2016

In "Evolution," Ivan Reitman's scattershot sci-fi comedy, Orlando Jones and David Duchovny play community college science instructors who happen upon an alien life-form that threatens to take over the world. A meteor has crashed into theIn "Evolution," Ivan Reitman's scattershot sci-fi comedy, Orlando Jones and David Duchovny play community college science instructors who happen upon an alien life-form that threatens to take over the world. A meteor has crashed into the Arizona desert. Examining the blue- green slime that oozes from beneath its surface ("It's a rock that bleeds!"), Mr. Duchovny's character, a disgraced former Pentagon biologist named Ira Kane, discovers a colony of squirming star-shaped amoebas. These quickly mutate into more complex microorganisms, and then into computer-animated flatworms, insects, slimy lizards and angry primates.

The movie itself evolves in reverse, starting life as a moderately clever grab bag of high-concept noodling and half-witty badinage before descending into the primordial ooze of explosions and elaborate lower- intestinal gags. Mr. Duchovny and Mr. Jones make an amusing pair. Their interracial shtick is reminiscent of that of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in movies like "Silver Streak" and "Stir Crazy," but with the ragged anxiety of the late 70's smoothed over by the referential pop-culture cool of the present day.

Mr. Duchovny works hard to show some range beyond Agent Mulder's morbid intensity while still poking fun at his "X-Files" pedigree. "No government," Ira snaps when Harry suggests alerting the federal authorities about their discovery. "I know how those people operate." In his first scenes, Mr. Duchovny, who was a Ph.D. candidate in literature before becoming an alien tracker for the Fox network, captures the easygoing cynicism of the second-rate academic with frightening accuracy. Virtually everyone in his class gets an A, except for two obese brothers whose identical papers, titled "Cells Are Bad," earn them C-minuses.

But compared with Harry, Ira is Jonas Salk. Mr. Jones, best known as the demented pitchman for 7-Up, has quick timing and effortless improvisational flair, as well as an absolute, and in this case welcome, disregard for consistencies of character. Mr. Duchovny is constrained by a silly back story involving his mishandling of a Pentagon-sponsored anthrax vaccine (the laughs never stop!) and a love interest (played, for no good reason, by Julianne Moore); Mr. Jones is free to mug and gangle to his heart's content.

"I've seen this movie," he says as an alien bug crawls around inside his protective suit. "The black dude dies first." No, but he is subject to some fairly gross indignities: the bug must be extracted from his nether regions with forceps. Later, as payback, he administers a dandruff-shampoo enema to the shopping-mall-size mass of protoplasm that threatens civilization as we know it.

Unfortunately, civilization as we know it — that is, the highly evolved state of being that can find no better use for its biological advantages than the production of movies like this one — triumphs in the end. That dandruff shampoo appears to be a clever product placement, a moment that the rest of the movie, for all its ickily impressive digital flora and fauna and its cast of good sports, rarely lives up to.

Seann William Scott, in the designated-doofus (or David Arquette) role of a hapless aspiring firefighter, has some moments of slack-jawed charm. Ms. Moore falls down a lot and bumps into things. She's sexy, she's a scientist, she's clumsy; comic invention of this caliber makes you sorry the writers' strike never happened. From time to time an actor — usually Mr. Duchovny, Mr. Jones or Ted Levine, who plays a Pentagon heavy — will send up a tired action- movie or television-show commonplace: "Let's do this!" "It's payback time!" "Be careful out there!" But the spoofing of movie clichés has become a cliché in its own right, and beneath the hyperactivity of "Evolution" is an abiding laziness.

In a Darwinian universe, this is a dangerous thing. The biggest frustration in "Evolution" is that it squanders an interesting premise. The aliens evolve so quickly, compressing hundreds of millions of years into a few short days, that you can't help wondering what they will look like when they turn into us. But we never get past the angry apes.

Maybe in "Evolution II" the process of natural selection will be allowed to proceed further, and we can witness the full flowering of superior life-forms — or at least see whether they have it in them to make better movies than this one.… Expand

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Kai82Feb 6, 2021

A movie with a great premise and ideas but sadly not remarkable enough to be remembered. I have no one heard talking about the movie in years with the exception of the sentence „This was such a great idea for a movie but it did not live up toA movie with a great premise and ideas but sadly not remarkable enough to be remembered. I have no one heard talking about the movie in years with the exception of the sentence „This was such a great idea for a movie but it did not live up to it”. The movie itself is decent to good but not remarkable or anything to write home about. It is a science fiction comedy and the story starts when a meteorite hits in Arizona and ended in a cavern system. Two scientist discover microorganisms that rapidly evolve into new specimen (Practically the evolution is shorten from million of years to days or even hours). Of cause the military gets also involved and tries their own things. So far so good. As set up this is fascinating and kept me invested. Sadly the rest of the story cant keep up. It does not find the right balance between being serious or cheesy funny. More in either direction would have worked better. Also it uses a lot of tropes and stereotypes in an unimaginative way. Then there is the humor. While some parts work well other seem incoherent with the movie like the toilet humor. The better comedies or spoof movies have an own style and follow it. Here it takes you out of the immersion and I often taught “really” or “unfitting”. It is also the best commercial for Head & Shoulders shampoo (Don't know if it still exist as brand). The acting is decent / O.K. I see neither missteps nor true greatness. David Duchovny is the lead actor as Dr. Ira Kane and does his job well. Orlando Jones plays Prof. Harry block and while he delivers is to much used for tropes including the black guy character tropes. I think they go for satire or parody of stereotypes but it sits not well. Today it would create an outrage. The rest of the cast does also their job and I repeat that there are no missteps here. The special effect were good for its time. It was satisfying and some effects looked really good. Maybe the one in the final is not good enough as seen back then it was not that convincing. Overall it is fun to watch but fast forgotten. Only by coincidence I remembered this movie by submitting another on Metacritic. Sounds to harsh as it is also nowhere near a worst movie list.… Expand

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