From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon May 29 15:30:36 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!portc03.blue.aol.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: skad13@my-deja.com (Steven Bailey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 May 2000 18:27:36 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 72 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <8groeo$jfv8$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer32.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 959538456 638952 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #24789 Keywords: author=bailey X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer32.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:23879 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2734 Entertainment Weekly asked, "Now that The X-Files is a major motion picture, will questions about the cover-ups, conspiracies, and Cigarette Smoking Man finally be answered? Will Mulder and Scully finally kiss? And will anyone besides the show's viewers care?" The answers are: somewhat; close, but no cigar; and (based on my own non-viewership of the show) definitely. As someone whose interest in the TV series extends only to Gillian Anderson's sultriness, let me state that I know I'm treading on sacred ground here. The show has such a cult following that major publications feel obliged to provide background info for understanding the characters. So the bottom line is: The more worshipful viewers will tolerate it but still be disappointed. And the non-informed moviegoer will find sufficient entertainment value to pay for a ticket. If nothing else, the movie--officially known as The X-Files: Fight the Future--wins a prize for the most attention-getting prologue in film history. It starts in the year 35,000 B.C., moves to modern-day Texas, and establishes the movie's ongoing motif: There are some pesky aliens on Earth, but they're under control as long as we can keep them underground and non-reproductive. As soon as they start to gestate, it's time to clamp the locks and burn rubber. Eventually we meet those irrepressible FBI agents Dana Scully (Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), whose beloved X-Files department has been scuttled. While investigating a bomb threat, they uncover--say it ain't so!--a conspiracy. I can't divulge much more without incurring the wrath of X-Filers everywhere. Suffice to say, they end up taking the rap when one of their superiors is sacrificed--needlessly so, in terms of plot, since I still couldn't tell you what role he played in the cover-up. But then, most of the movie is like that. X-Files creator Chris Carter would have you think that he has a grand, sprawling scenario of conspiracy that he's gradually unraveling in the course of the TV series. Personally, I think he's just making it all up as he goes along. That said, the movie provides enough genuine emotion, humor, and suspense to make it one of the year's more worthwhile films. In any other context, Duchovny and Anderson's Jack Webb-like declamations would probably get them laughed off the screen. But in a setting where bigger and smarmier aliens keep popping up, their low-key approach makes sense. And Mulder and Scully's concern for each other (more like siblings than potential lovers) provides some genuinely touching moments. A word of praise, also, for the rest of the cast, especially "guest star" Martin Landau (who, as a Mission: Impossible veteran, provides another nice layer of conspiracy irony). And after so many sci-fi films where the future looks as though it's lit with a ten-watt bulb (see the Alien series), it's a treat to see a movie where every frame looks downright sumptuous. The final tally: To the casual viewer, the movie at least makes me understand why the series has such a devoted following. To the X-Files devotee who hopes that a two-hour movie will answer all of the series' questions, the truth is still way out there. The X-Files: Fight the Future is rated PG-13 for some profanity, graphic violence, and, er, some unique dissection scenes. Submitted by: Steven Bailey http://pages.hotbot.com/movies/skad13 Steven Bailey, a movie reviewer for The Beaches Leader newspaper in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., has reviews posted in The Internet Movie Database at: http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Steven+Bailey Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.