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Review: Evolution
Our main characters are misfit scientists led by Duchovny who is as stone cold as ever playing Ira Kane. Along with the Make Seven Up Yours guy, they are teachers at the local community college. Ira has a cloudy history and Mr. 7-Up has no future (unless you count coaching the women's volleyball team). They don't quite fit in at the university, and they are busy hitting on the ladies (no, they don't administer shock therapy based psychic tests, but they might as well have).
So we've also got Stiffler's Mom's Son Seann William Scott playing the dummy wanna be firefighter who discovers the meteor that crashes out in a field in their desert town. The scientists go to the library and collect slime samples. Oh wait, no. They go to a cave and collect biological samples. Sorry, my bad. It's immediately apparent that the meteor contained some strange new life form (10 base pairs!) that evolves much faster then our pathetic (4 pairs!) earth life forms do.
Of course the government has to be called in led by a mean old general and the beautiful Julianne Moore who's slumming it playing Allison Reed, the military scientist who reveals that Duchovny and her go way back. She's probably the best actor but she doesn't really do much funny stuff except fall and bang into doors. I found it super strange watching her act this way. I hope she was paid very well for this part. Or at the very least, had tons of fun making it.
The plot progresses obviously with... Evolution! The alien life forms evolve from yellow mushrooms and worms into new exciting computer animated monsters. Our trio of heros continue to fight the authorities as well as these strange new monsters that wreak havoc on the small town. And despite the differences between Dana and Venkman, the sexual tension continues to grow. A great minor part by Dan Akroyd provides several good laughs- his delivery can still make a scene even when his lines aren't the best.
The computer animation and special effects is all reasonably good. But I didn't feel like it broke ground like it's stepbrother did. In Ghostbusters, the groundbreaking special effects advanced an entertaining plot and developed interesting characters. In Evolotion, effects no better then any film we've seen in the last few years advance a tedious plot and develop bland characters with obvious quirks taped onto them.
Allright, after all that cynicism, I have to say that I actually enjoyed a lot of the movie. Besides the obvious numerous parallels between this film and that "Other" movie, we've got a few pretty good action sequences, and a ton of jokes, and some of them are funny. Some of them don't involve asses, butts, colons, or farting! And the movie builds up to an exciting climax where the good guys must execute the biggest butt joke of all and destroy the stay puft marshmellow man, or their town is doomed.
But I laughed out loud many times. The movie has many awkward parts (random pauses for laughter which never came in the audience I was sitting in, characters explaining things like idiots which is supposed to be funny, but isn't) but check your brain at the door, forget you saw Ghostbusters, and have some fun. This film isn't going to innovate special effects. It's not going to have characters that we're going to remember in 15 years. It's not going to have scenes that you and a group of friends can quote verbatim after 3 beers. But you'll probably have fun for an hour or so. And the effects are good enough that it's worth seeing on the big screen.
In short, if you miss it, don't sweat it. But if you go, you'll probably have fun. And try to count the ghostbusters parallels while you go. Then make a mad lib and construct your own Ivan Reitman special effects blockbuster script and see if you can sell it to Dreamworks.
Oddball Offtopic Side Note For the first time ever in Holland, a total stranger noticed the Slashdot t-shirt I was wearing and asked for an autograph when I fessed up to who I was. Even tho he was the dude selling the tickets, it didn't get me in for free :)
You know, that stupid fake CNN page about Don Knots playing Emmanuel Goldtstien wasn't funny the first time, and it sure isn't any funnier now that it has been posted for the 9283749238472394th time. If you happen to think that it is funny, please do the world a favor by ingesting a large amount of Drain-O, or at least remove your testicles so you are unable to reproduce. This may sound harsh, but I assure you, it is for the good of humanity.
Ok - Ghostbusters had a ton of great quotes, but only one in this movie sticks out in my mind. Doctor 1: Ok, I'll get the lubricant. Doctor 2: No! There's no time for lubricant. Seven Up Yours Dude: There's always time for lubricant! --That last line kept popping into my head as one of my co-workers told me "Hey, Glen wants to see you in his office, now." my reply (she hadn't seen the movie yet): "There's always time for lubricant."
good evening sir, my name is steve, i come from a rough area, i use to be addicted to crack but now i am off and trying to stay clean, that is why i am selling magazine subscriptions. wait wait, you used to be addicted to crack? i am sorry, i dont know anything about any money laundering.
... and I also sorta remember, at the time, reviewers making moderately similar comments to yours.
Face it. You're getting old. Movies don't mean the same thing to 15 year olds now, as they did when you were 15.
Can't you tell?
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
LOTS of sci-fi references, though. 2001 and Ghostbusters have been pointed out, but I was seeing Andromeda Strain through the whole thing. A friend of mine said it reminded him of some radio program he heard as a kid.
One of the clips showed a weird multi-segmented bug with stilt-like legs, very similar to one of the weird fossils in the burgess shale.
I think I know the one you're referring to -- it has stiff spines on one side and little knobblies on the other. The story I heard about it is that scientists decided the spines were the legs and came up with all kinds of wacky theories about what kind of environment such legs would be advantageous in.
Until one day some guy came along and said "Fellas, that's the top half." And all kinds of theories went bye-bye as biologists scratched their collective beards and went "y'know..."
I have no idea if it's true or not, but That's What I Was Told (m*tt*!)
-- Old Man Kensey
Don't forget that this movie had the most blatant product placement that I can remember seeing in ages. I now keep a bottle of Head & Shoulders on me at all times to fight my two worst enemies: those damn dragon things in the mall, and my dandruff.
Just to go OT here... I thought it odd that in fifth element they decided that Freakishly Complex Genetic Structure automatically implied Artifically Engineered Organism...
In the recent film Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe, they examined a cell sample of a monster and found it only had a single pair of genes, and since our genetic code was largely evolutionary leftovers, this meant that this was an artificially engineered organism. I found that to be a more satisfying line of reasoning than Greater Complexity == Crazy Genius Science
Another damned comic
+++ NO CARRIER
I was hopping for a review of the mail client.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Even worse, the number of base pairs has nothing to do with the rate of evolution :-)
Was I the only one disturbed by the blatant product placement with the dandruff shampoo I'll fail to mention here at the end?
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK SUCK.
Oh my god what a horrible film. Yes, it has a few funny moments. So do my bowel movements. I'm serious, it's that kinda funny. Like this laugh of relief, of, "Oh god, thank you for bringing me a joke that wasn't as horrific as the last fifty I've had to listen to."
Avoid! Run away!
-- If we were in any other industry they would've shot us a long time ago.
Perhaps he was a very happy man who lived in the swamp?
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
with a minute off to check spelling!
Come on, give him a break. That's the most time Taco's ever given over to spell-checking what he's posting.
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"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
YES!!!! There it is. Completely forgot he had that small part is that classic movie. Snootch.
Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Taco, man, come on. The dude's name is Orlando Jones. Funny guy from The Replacements and not a bad actor. Next time, might want to do a little more research, as that type of thing makes it look like you wrote the review in 2 minutes, with a minute off to check spelling!
Bryan R.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
Here's the real movie news of the summer: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I'd coach women's volleyball anyday :D
In fact, if you want a CGI vehicle, watch a real one. For all of the critic's complaints about butt-jokes in Shrek, I thought the movie was great. The script wasn't up to Toy Story standards, but the rendering was the best I'd ever seen, the sound track is fantasitic, and the parody jokes were hysterical. So, for an anal-fetish CGI move, skip Evoloution and hit the kid's movie instead. -m
The only reason I can think 10 base pairs would be better is that each pair would encode more bits. If you stretch your disbelief slightly, you could say that a single base pair changing would be a greater change in terms of bits changed (ie greater Hamming distance)... but I doubt that could account for evolution quickening very much.
Re no of base pairs: it just has to be divisible by two. (If it follows the kind of pattern that life on earth provides.)
I don't know where you got the squares from...
I saw this last night. It was OK, but disappointing. I wouldn't bother wasting my time seeing at the theater, but it's a good renter. There were probably more laughs in the American Pie 2 trailer, which may have been the best thing about seeing it at the theater.
It amazes me how computer people like Taco always think they're smarter than Joe Average. It's ironic that they can't even follow the simplest plot elements:
It wasn't Julianne Moore's and David Duchovny's characters that went way back. They just met in the movie.
TED LEVINE's characer and David Duchovny's character went way back. They were at the Pentagon together.
(sigh)
http://www.bullnet.com
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It is still the dark of night.
I'd rather read Taco's reviews over Katz's. I try and avoid reading Katz's reviews if I haven't seen the movie yet, since they generally sour the experience for me - even if I enjoy the film. Bastard.
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CAIMLAS
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
The idea that we're supposed to think is that it hold more genes and information. Just like in The Fifth Element.
So you know something I don't? Please share.
Life on earth has four different nucleotide bases in DNA/RNA, meaning that we have _two_ different base pairs (C-G and T-A, or U-A in RNA). So I guess that the goofy movie aliens actually have twenty different bases and ten base pairs? Hmm, I kinda wanted to see this movie, but all the reviews have said that it's either so-so or incredibly awful. Guess I'll wait for the video...
Please, if they're trying to get it right, like Mission to Mars (ugh! the science in that gave me a headache!) we can have this discussion. But for films involving Sean Aston Williams Scott McBain, can we please dispense with them?
toeslikefingers.com - because
Yes, the complete absence of foreigners in a foreign-led and run war wasn't conspicuous, was it?
toeslikefingers.com - because
So true bro ... so true
Ghostbusters (sadly?) defined me as a person
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
That's where Jones made his big debut. And don't forget the other actors. There's that guy from Road Trip. And what's her name from Boogie Nigts.
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
Actualy there are still 4. C-G and G-C are unique. That's because only one side of the DNA ever codes for anything useful. The other side is the negative so copies can be made. (Note the 'useful' side can be different for different genes) so (A-T)(C-G)(A-T) and (A-T)(G-C)(A-T) code for two completely different amino acids. Each base pair still encodes for two bits of data, not one.
"You saved 1968." - Ms. Valerie Pringle to the crew of Apollo 8
Taco's from Holland, Michigan.
Check out "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" by Daniel C Dennett. I like Dennett's concept of who and who isn't looking for "skyhooks". Dennett really gets across the idea that you can't pick and choose which bits of evolutionary theory you apply, you have to ollow through all the way.
Hallucigenia sparsa. The Smithsonian seems to agree with you: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/shale/phallu.htm.
Slashdot's token middle-aged housewife
I swear I sat there looking at the for a while wondering what Taco was doing in the Netherlands (or rather, what he's not doing in the Netherlands).
I think you mean gorillas. At least I /hope/ you do. A guerilla is somebody who participates in guerilla warfare or the use of guerilla tactics and after evolution they probably don't look like the apes from 2001.
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Taco, man, come on. The dude's name is Orlando Jones. Funny guy from The Replacements and not a bad actor.
Yeah, and I recall seeing him referred to as the make seven up yours guy in reviews for that movie too. In mainstream media magazines, no less. So what's your beef?
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
"I don't care about the Constitution!" --Bill O'Reilly, November 17, 2009
Looks to me like he was talking about his pr0n pics not the meteor ones.
She's very pretty to
Can I get your autograph too? (It's for my kid!).
(upon double-checking my spelling I noticed that that was "Perl Harbor". heh.)
"// this is the most hacked, evil, bastardized thing I've ever seen. kjb"
To be fair, I am going to see this movie just for Julianne - she rules. Her role in Magnolia was a revelation. But it should be clarified, that she does a ton of comic work, and anyone who is interested should check out her biography on imdb.
is this.....is this for REAL?
great comedy company.
Hallucigenia sparsa - don't you love the name?
ikanakattara
Anybody want to explain to me why 10 bases would be better? And how, mathematically, can one end up with 10? Wouldn't a perfect square like 9 or 16 make more sense?
(I wonder what Dawkins thinks about the movie).
Ah, you mean like this little beasty? http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/nsf/fguide/arthropoda4"Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
Not to be rude, but the Taco ended my interest in both this movie and his review with this early sentence:
"Decent CGI and action sequences are available too. Nothing that will warrant awards in this day and age, but it might entertain you for a few minutes."
Sorry, life's too short for crap that "might" entertain me for a few minutes. There is so much good stuff and even great stuff out there, who has time for a half-baked Duchovny CGI vehicle?
what do expect?
Ducovny turns on his computer after finding his laboratory wrecked. After entering a password, his computer says "Searching for files..." "Files not found!" I believe after that he makes the remark about them stealing his "hard drive and JPEG files"
"No one's really gonna be free until nerd persecution ends" -- Gilbert, Revenge of the Nerds
(I wonder what Dawkins thinks about the movie).
I don't see why it is funny to say that someone has Dow's syndrome. I suppose it is easy to do though since you aren't logged in.
Some people in these threads need to realize that these are the comments that make the un-net saavy say "its all the internet's fault" in response to the social problems that are growing in america.
I saw this movie twice already, and I don't remember seeing anything having to do with Common Gateway Interfaces.
I loved this movie. You even get to see Mulder's ass.
Saw the movie last night with my 3 kids. Not particularly impressed but there were some funny moments here and there. The one thing I did notice was the obvious references to 2001. The way the meteor gets implanted into the ground makes it look like a monolith. The clean room suits look like the space suits that Dave wore. And the evolved guerillas look a lot like those apes near the beginning of 2001. Any other 2001 references that I missed?
See comment. Great book might as well credit correct auther. Dawkins writes some good stuff too. Dawkin's is more of a gradualist while Gould is more into punctuated equilibrium.