Home :: DVD :: Science Fiction & Fantasy :: Aliens  

Alien Invasion
Aliens

Animation
Classic Sci-Fi
Comedy
Cult Classics
Fantasy
Futuristic
General
Kids & Family
Monsters & Mutants
Robots & Androids
Sci-Fi Action
Series & Sequels
Space Adventure
Star Trek
Television
Evolution

Evolution

List Price: $9.99
Your Price: $9.99
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 .. 20 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay
Review: Despite the director's previous experience bringing alien slime and ectoplasm to the silver screen in his earlier hit, Ghostbusters, this movie, although it doesn't fall flat, isn't in the same league as Ghostbusters.

Still, it has its moments, and there are some very funny scenes. But although the movie gets off to a quick start, it sort of drags in the middle, but then it picks up toward the end again and the climax with the aliens' final destruction comes off pretty well. Okay for a video rental for a slow night.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I'm Being Generous..Giving it a Three
Review: For a movie stocked full of excellent makeup and special effects, it's a surprise and shame that the wrong blend of jokes and brought in. The acting is good and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the imagery or mood the film sets, but juggling between butt jokes and sexual innuendo hinders the characters and everything feels dumbed down until the whole team comes together.

A meteor crashes with fast evolving aliens. It's up to two community college science teachers, a fireman-in-training, and a government scientist to save the world.

This is typical Ivan Reitman work where sane, yet silly people live in a belligerent world. The direction is very elementary and the quick explanation for how the monsters get around was pretty lame to say the least. Ira's ex should have been left out completely, whereas the blatant product placement of the TJ should have wasted another minute or two of my time (No, it should not). So add some excellent special effects and superb acting. Mix it with toddler potty jokes and adult content and you have EVOLUTION: a movie with some dignity but too bland to have a lasting target audience.

2.5/5

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: lighten up people.....
Review: i found this to be the most fun i've had watching a movie in a long time. what were you people expecting... a serious movie about aliens? this movie was just plain old fun... and no, i'm not 13 and into gross humor. i find most new comedies revolting. i am in my 30!!! i didn't find this movie gross or boring. i enjoyed myself from the first scene right thru to the last. i haven't laughed that much in i don't know how long. what ever happened to just going to a movie and enjoying it for what it is..... a fun escape from life for a while - not a serious or error free biography! the actors were having fun, i was having fun and the audience i saw it with was having fun. my family enjoyed it... ages 6, 10, 19, 38, 39, and the friends we were with loved it... boys, girls, adults.... i went back and saw it three times... for someone that only goes to a theatre on the average of once a year.. this is a record! i coudn't wait for it to come out on dvd so i could watch it whenever i wanted a break from real life!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie, good actors
Review: Evolution is basically a comedy version of Alien, except it takes place on Earth, not in space. With an all star cast featuring that X-Files guy, Julianne Moore (Hannibal), Sean William Scott (American Pie 1 & 2, Road Trip), and Orlando Jones (The Time Machine, Double Take), good graphics, and a good...OK plot, this is a great Sc-fi movie. The alien designs and graphics are very good. The only problem is...it's not really THAT funny. I mean, some parts are, like when Sean "tookies" the bird-alien, but that's about it. It can get boring in some parts, too. I reccomend this movie to any one who likes any of Sean William Scott's movies or anyone who likes Sc-fi stuff.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A fun popcorn movie
Review: This movie is basically Ghosbusters with aliens. Written and directed by Ivan Reitman is has the same irreverent humor as his other films like Stripes and Ghostbusters have. David Duchovney seems to fit the Bill Murray role here. There is plenty of irreverent humor and some suprisingly good special effects.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Uninvolving 'Evolution'
Review: Evolution is one part Ghostbusters and one part Men in Black. This is an interesting recipe, but the resulting movie is not as tasty as one would like it to be. Its director, Ivan Reitman, actually was the man behind Ghostbusters. David Duchovny, of course, was one of the stars of TV's The X-Files. There are a lot of talented people involved in this project, both behind and in front of the camera, and they give it their best efforts. Once more, though, we have a script that is not strong enough to support all this talent.

The movie opens in the Arizona desert at night. Wayne [Seann William Scott] is out there with a mannequin and a can of gasoline practicing for his firefighter's exam. He sets an abandoned shack on fire and is about to 'rescue' the dummy when a meteor suddenly races from the sky, demolishes his car, and nearly kills him. The next day, Ira and Harry [Duchovny and Orlando Jones], professors at a nearby community college, go out to investigate. They discover a fluid leaking out of the cosmic object. Back at the college lab, they learn that there are organisms in the fluid, and they are reproducing rapidly. Before they know it, the army has taken over the site. Because this intrusion threatens Ira and Harry's chance at fame and fortune, they sneak into the cave the meteor wound up in. They find it filled with bizarre creatures who have quickly evolved from the liquid. These beasts may be cute and cuddly, but friendly they're not. Taking over the world seems to be the plan.

Duchovny is a great actor. It's unfortunate that he has not found a movie that mines his talents the way The X-Files did. Julianne Moore, who plays a doctor worjing with the army, is more or less wasted here, but at least she has some powerful films in her resume. Hopefully, Duchovny will have better luck in his future projects. The material is perfect for Orlando Jones and Seann William Scott, who have by far the best roles. They both have a chance to do some fine physical comedy. Dan Akroyd is fine as the governor of Arizona. His presence is also an inside joke. He starred in Ghostbusters.

On the whole, Evolution is harmless, likable fun, although its intended audience is a bit of a mystery. It veers abruptly between comedy and horror. It's a little too intense for kids and a little too silly for adults. I suspect this is the primary reason it failed in theaters. The creatures are marvelous to look at, but they don't really do anything in particular, except to grow very fast and eat each other. The movie would have been better if they had had more personality. Like the movie, they are essentially mindless.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Out of this world!
Review: Ivan Reitman has made an excellent film! You just don't know where this movie will take you. It has great actors such as David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann Willam Scott, and Julianne Moore! With such eye-popping special effects, this blockbuster is sure to catch your attention. There are some funny memorable moments betweent Moore and Jones, which will have you dying for laughter! The main reason I found this film enjoyable and fun to watch is because of the hilarious stunts these actors play out though the movie. It's up to these four characters to save the world from evil aliens that try to take over the world. *We're all gonna die!* But in the end, well...I'll let you predict what might happen in the end.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: They could have tried a little harder
Review: I guess this is what happens when you have a lot of money to make a movie, and the pressure to appeal to a mass audience is greater than a lower budget film. The special effects are really good. A lot of imagination went into the actual "Evolution" of the creatures, and this might make it worth one look. But forget about a shred of any original plot.

Everything else is the same Hollywood machinery grinding out the same plot lines you've seen over and over again. You've got the bad-guy scientific community that rejects the good-guy findings. You've got the bad-guy military community that rejects the good-guy findings, and of course takes the most dangerous turn. You've got to find time to get a romance going between the two most attractive people in the film, while everybody else might as well be eunuchs (I don't understand the appeal of Orlando Jones, but he in the role of Tonto is a good example).

And of course, Hollywood continues it's current trend of making up for years of not having bodily function jokes by laying them on you every chance they get. As the climax of this one involves bodily functions taken to new heights never seen before in cinema, it would be nice to hope this trend will start winding down. But don't hold your breath.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Big Bug Bomb!
Review: Maybe after 100,000,000 years this'll evolve into something resembling a watch-able movie. But this one-celled turkey would be much better if extinct. As the movie goes on it becomes more and more of an embarrassment. It's not even a funny Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of bad that you can laugh at. By the time Dan Aykroyd shows up it's like Evolution is teetering off some invisible cliff. Orlando Jones is not as funny as Chris Tucker. (I don't believe I said that!) Duchovny should get on his knees and beg the X-files producers to let him be in X-Movie 2. From actors to writers to directors and special effects guys to music and sound effects this is a waste of time for everyone. It's been a long time since Ghostbusters but I wish we could blow this one back to the afterlife with one of those proton rifles (or what ever they were called). I tried to justify watching the whole thing by trying to identify the movies it tries to emulate (rip off!!!): Ghostbusters, The Blob, Men In Black, others...? On second thought I feel that these movies shouldn't be mentioned in the same paragraph as EVOLUTION. I think BATTLEFIELD EARTH and it's ilk are closer to the asteroid-hitting-the-earth-and-killing-off-the-dinosaurs-badness that is EVOLUTION. To paraphrase THIS IS SPINAL TAP: Where was God the day he created EVOLUTION and couldn't he have rested on that day too?

Oh...the picture and sound quality on the DVD are quite good. There some extras like deleted scenes, commentary and whatnot. But its all a big bore! I watched the live action/animation hybrid OSMOSIS JONES earlier today and it is a far superior film. Check IT out instead!

Note: That fat kid (the smaller one) was on Nickelodeon's "Salute Your Shorts".

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: If Darwin was right, this movie wouldn't have survived.
Review: Evolution was probably the worst movie I have seen since Pearl Harbor. Most likely longer than that. What's worse is that I knew it was going to be bad. When you expect a movie to be bad, and it still makes you want to jam your fingers into your eye sockets to end the torture of having to finish watching, you know you have one bad movie. yet I watched it nonetheless, the entire time mercilessly biting my finger nails into sharper more jagged weapons that would most definitely pierce my eyes when that horrible moment finally came.

Throughout the entire movie, Dochovny delivers lines like Fox Mulder. Jones delivers lines like 7-Up man. S W Scott delivers lines like Stiffler... but was just not as funny as Stiffler. These one-dimensional, typecast buffoons were the perfect stars for this film, and I'm sure they were all in mind for the parts long before casting agents were ever considered. And Julianne Moore, who since all the way back to Assassins has been one of my favorite actresses, has some serious explaining to do. Once upon a time, someone saw her in The Big Lebowski and Magnolia and said "Hey, she'd make an excellent Clarice Starling." But then two years ago, just for a goof, she dresses up like a clown and has sex with Leon Phelps in a dressing room in 'The Ladies Man,' and this is where her career path has taken her since.

This movie was deplorable. It took everything I didn't like about Ghostbusters (and that's not a lot), and everything I didn't like about Men In Black (there was plenty I didn't like about Men In Black), added some bad special effects, threw in a modest Jay-and-Silent-Bob-sized collection of immature jokes, and finihed it off with some dialogue that was apparently written by junior high school remedials. ("Give me back my friend, you giant sphincter!"). The only line I found funny enough to laugh at was when Orlando Jones screamed "THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR LUBRICANT!" I could sympathize with that line because the producers of Evolution did not use any lubricant on the poor souls who actually paid money to see it. ....

What more can be said? In a world where Grand Theft Auto is the new standard, I give this movie 6 stars... as in send in the tanks and the national guard and destroy it before it harms any more innocent civilians. This movie was a waste of my life.


<< 1 .. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 .. 20 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates