June 2001

Director Ivan Reitman has a checkered filmography that contains some classics (Meatballs, Dave), some unwatchable flops (Junior, Father's Day) and some hits that I never really understood (Six Days Seven Nights, Twins). His latest – Evolution – looks like a cross between Men in Black and Ghostbusters, the latter being the film for which Reitman is best known. Evolution is a sci-fi comedy with good special effects, a fairly funny script and a really dopey ending.

Evolution is set in Glen Canyon, Arizona and begins with a wannabe fireman named Wayne Green (Seann William Scott, Road Trip) practicing rescue techniques in an abandoned shack in the desert. A meteor the size of an NBA star falls out of the sky and demolishes his car, and the following day, the local police call the area's representative of the United States Geological Survey to the scene. He is Harry Block (Orlando Jones, Say It Isn't So), a geology professor at Glen Canyon Community College, and he brings along his friend and colleague, Ira Kane (David Duchovny, Return to Me), who teaches biology at the school.

When they arrive at the crash site, Ira and Harry find an extremely well-lit meteor that has buried itself 80 feet underground. It's also teeming with one-cell organisms that, upon closer examination back in their lab, seem to be multiplying at an incredible rate via mitosis. Further tests reveal the little critters to contain alien DNA, and the two professors try to keep their find a secret as they giggle about winning fame, riches and prestigious science awards.

Before long, the creatures start getting bigger and bigger, forming dozens of different mutations in an attempt to adapt to their new surroundings (or "evolving," if you will) and spreading faster than Haley Joel Osment's do-gooder plan in Pay it Forward. The government eventually gets involved and takes control of the project, giving Ira and Harry the boot in favor of a clueless General (Ted Levine) and Allison Reed (Julianne Moore, Hannibal), the assistant director of the Centers for Disease Control.

While Evolution's ending is a bit of a disappointment (it offers the goofiest solution to ridding the Earth of aliens since the whole Slim Whitman thing in Mars Attacks!), the film is consistently funny, which comes as quite a surprise considering the writers involved. Don Jakoby penned the laughably bad John Carpenter's Vampires, while David Diamond and David Weissman were responsible for the ooey-gooey crapfest called The Family Man. They even manage to throw in a funny crack at the Feds, which, of course, was written for Duchovny. Evolution's two biggest gags involve the sphincter, but since Tom Green isn't involved with the film, and it isn't marketed specifically toward teenagers, look for most press to overlook this fact.

Reitman isn't a flashy director. With his films, it's the little things that make them more entertaining. Every line is delivered with impeccable timing, every double-take is perfect, and some of the best zingers are barely audible gems said under the breath of his three male leads. And he even gets Oscar-nominee Moore to play a klutz who wears garter belts – a dangerous combination.

Reviewed at SickBoy.com.