Director Ivan Reitman goes rummaging around in his Ghostbusters bag of tricks to give this alien infestation comedy all the trappings of a major laugh fest--unfortunately, the one thing he forgets is the major laughs. David Duchovny (tongue firmly in cheek) and Orlando Jones (Say It Isn't So), quack professors at an Arizona community college, discover quickly-evolving extraterrestrial microbes on a meteor that crashes to Earth near their campus. Within days, thousands of life-size and bigger alien reptiles have hatched and our heroes, along with CDC representative Julianne Moore, are battling both the creatures and the inept military that tries to take their discovery away. The movie's multiplying, overly-F/X-y CGI beasts show more signs of life than the script or the actors lumbering around this largely formulaic effort stuffed with flat humor ("great googa mooga!" Jones hollers when he's scared). Borrowing heavily from Men In Black and other similar but superior flicks right down to its "Busters"-inspired, goop-doused finale, Evolution is not a necessary purchase. (R. Blackwelder)
Evolution
DreamWorks, 101 min., PG-13, VHS: $107.99, DVD: $26.99, Dec. 26 Volume 16, Issue 6
Evolution
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