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"Evolution" evolves into one of this summer's most entertaining films to date. David Duchovny ("X-Files," "Return to Me") heads a cast perplexed with saving the world from certain doom. Duchovny plays Dr. Ira Kane, a community college biology professor who first discovers the alien evolutionary process. The origin of this species comes from an asteroid laced with a microscopic alien life form that

crashed into the Arizona desert. This alien life form begins to evolve at a superior rate of speed. Within months, the human race will be wiped out unless Kane and his buddies can save the day.

Orlando Jones ("Bedazzled," "The Replacements") plays Harry Block, a geology professor at the community college that initially helps Kane investigate the meteor. They take some samples back to the lab and make their shocking discoveries. This species evolves faster in one day than it took for us to evolve in 200 million years. Kane and Block see this as a major problem. As you may have figured, the U.S. government has to get involved and foul things up. Now, Kane and Block find themselves fighting the U.S. government and the rapidly changing alien species.

Seann William Scott ("Road Trip," "American Pie") plays Wayne, a wannabe firefighter who witnesses the meteor's impact. Julianne Moore ("Hannibal," "Boogie Nights") plays Allison, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control. She starts off working for the government, but then winds up helping Kane and Block. She is a klutz, and keeps tripping over her own two feet.

Ivan Reitman ("Six Days, Seven Nights," "Private Parts") directs this cast to make the movie fun and enjoyable. Reitman is one of the best comedy directors, and he shows off his abilities in this one. You can tell he let the cast show their true abilities by letting them do a few things that might not have been in the script, and he brought the sequences together to make this a fun family film.

The special effects are wonderful. From one scene, you get the feel of having creepy-crawling creatures on your toes to jumping out of your seat from an ugly, scary creature. The evolution

David Duchovny stars in Dreamworks' Evolution

goes as far as evolving from humanoids and giant reptiles, to a large blob-like creature with very bad gas.

Some criticisms of the film are that it resembles "Ghostbusters" and "Men in Black." I enjoyed those films as well as this one. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed "Evolution." Will "Evolution" be a heart-wrenching film that deserves "Best Picture"? The answer is no. "Evolution" is, however, an enjoyable film with a great cast and decent comedic story line. I give it 4 stars (out of 5). The film is rated PG-13 for adult humor, and some mild alien violence.

Review by David Fago

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