EVOLUTION

US, 2001, 95 minutes, Colour.
David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Shaunn William Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Akroyd.
Directed by Ivan Reitman.

The trailers make this film seem to be a dumb comedy spectacular. Well, there are some corny jokes and a couple of mildly 'gross-out' incidents. But, all in all, it was much more entertaining than I was expecting.

The press book mentions that the original writer, Don Jakoby, had come up with a serious science-fiction scenario: a meteor hits earth; the monocellular life forms it contains begin what we now call the evolutionary process and processes which took millennia in the past now require only a few days. How to control the increasingly dangerous creatures (from worms to mutations of dogs to pterodactyls and giant apes)? And, as the creatures become more aggressive, how to rid the earth of an evolution that could destroy it?

Enter veteran director, Ivan Reitman, responsible for some very broad comedies like Meatballs and Stripes, for the blockbuster Ghostbusters comedies and three very entertaining comedies capitalising on Arnold Schwarzenegger's comic flair, Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior. Reitman wanted a comedy, another summer blockbuster with laughs and special effects. Perhaps he had been watching Ghostbusters again as well as watching 1997's success Men in Black which it most resembles (and reading its box-office returns).

And that is what happened in the evolution of Evolution. The serious plot is actually still there and gives the film a certain scientific interest and respectability as well as some credibility. But the heroes (and Julianne Moore as a daffy heroine) are cousins of the Ghostbusters and their strategies and tactics are similar. It's the personalities which differ. David Duchovny is the leader, far mellower than his X Files equivalent (with some jokes about his role in the series). Shaunn William Scott has appeared in some really dumb teenage comedies recently and seemed irredeemably stuck there. However, he shows a comedy flair as a would-be fireman who, despite doing only a couple of chemistry courses in high school, helps overcome the evolutionary monster. It is Orlando Jones who has almost all the best lines. He portrays a Geology teacher and girls' basketball coach who sees his discovery as a Nobel prize-winner (he wants to know whether it comes in instalments!). Jones, in fact, was a television comedy writer before becoming an actor. His timing and intonations are just right and make the film enjoyable for those who may think the hijinks are a bit juvenile.

Dan Aykroyd, one of the Ghostbusters, is back in excellent comic form as the self-important governor of Arizona, playing him like a more aggressive George W. Bush.

There is also a serious subtext. The screenplay pokes fun at fussy bureaucracies and their petty jealousies as well as gung-ho military attitudes to solving every problem. The solutions, so Evolution suggests, are found by ordinary people who use their nous and act on it - and where anti-dandruff shampoo is more effective than napalm. To appreciate what that means, you will have to see Evolution.

1. The tradition of Reitman's The Ghost Busters? The influence of such science fiction as Men in Black? An entertaining combination?

2. The serious premise of the film: the meteor, life within the meteor, Earth's atmosphere, the evolutionary process, monocellular beings multiplying, the rapidity of the evolution? Plant life, animal life, mutants, monsters, pterodactyls, apes? The seriousness or plausibility of the underlying thesis?

3. The decision to make the film a comedy: the plausibility of the science fiction plot and the addition of humorous lines, farcical elements, evolutionary comedy, disaster and the end of the world conventions, gross‑out and sliming sequences? A satisfying combination?

4. The Arizona locations? The special effects for the creatures, the action sequences, the disasters? The explosions? The musical score and the range of songs and their comment on the action?

5. The prologue and the meteor landing, the effect on Wayne? His rehearsal for his fireman's exam? The destruction of his car? Interrogation by the police, going to his exam, falling asleep, failing? His second job in the hotel, the cantankerous client? His supporting the clients, the accident and the monster in the hotel? Going to the scientists? Collaborating with them, in all the adventures, his coming up with the solution, the fire truck, participation in the finale? Finding his self‑image and a career? The deadpan comedy, situations?

6. Ira and Harry, in their classroom work, the dumb students, the sexy students? Going to dinner, the geology background and going to the site? The discovery, hoping for the Nobel Prize and the jokes about it? The samples? Going back and being prevented by the military? Their going in unauthorised, collecting the samples, insulting the doctor? The confrontation with the General? The revelation of Ira's infecting the soldiers and the disastrous consequences, his being ousted from the military, going to Arizona? The court case and the judge's comments? The continuing research, discovering the creatures, chasing them in the mall? Shooting them? The pterodactyls, out in the desert? The students and the final solution, going in with the fire truck, the destruction of the creatures? And the finale with their commercial?

7. Alison, uptight, clumsy? Research, on the outer, clashing with the General? Going to the group and joining them in the finale, the romance?

8. The General, the satire on the harsh military types? The bureaucracies and their ignorance? The infighting, the jobs for the boys? The General and his decision about napalm? The irony of its utter failure?

9. The governor, Dan Aykroyd and his comedy, playing him like an aggressive George W. Bush? On the spot, demanding explanations, photo opportunities, on the run from the danger?

10. The fat students, their ignorance, commercials, their supplying the solution for the problem, helping ‑ and getting an A?

11. The comedy sequences, disaster films, animal menace? The sliming, the explosions, the creatures at the hotel, in the woman's cupboard? The worms?

12. The verbal humour ‑ especially by Orlando Jones ‑ and the wry comments on the action of the film and the characters?

13. The subtext and the critique of bureaucracy, the military, the ideological Right Wing? A piece of Americana?