By Gene Seymour
May 2001

DreamWorks, opens June 8
Stars: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones
Directed by: Ivan Reitman
The story: Meteor hits Earth, carrying seeds for slimy creatures bent on human annihilation. Naturally, only hip-talking scientists (Duchovny, Jones) can Save the Day.

The BUZZ: Soud familiar? LIke *really* familiar? It should. Seventeen summers ago, director Reitman struck gold with Ghostbusters, in which (you may recall) hip-talking scientist Bill Murray led the charge against slimy specters bent on destroying mankind. This time, it's aliens from Out There who catch civilization by surprise. And who better to head the front-line battle against their vicious assault than that Fox Mulder guy from The X-Files?

Except that it's not Mulder, but a wisecracking government biotechnician that Duchovny plays here. "Yeah, I get to interact with things in Latex again," Duchovny says with mock resignation during a quick phone call from his car somewhere in Los Angeles. "But the mood is a lot lighter here. It wasn't as if I was looking for an alien-invasion movie, believe me. Chances are I would have kept on walking if it hadn't been an Ivan Reitman movie."

Duchovny sounds as if the experience turned out to be as pleasant as he'd expected. In fact, it sounds as if he'd never had as much fun in his life as he had cavorting with Moore, who, after several strenous dramatic roles in movies such as Hannibal, looks as if she appreciates the break, and with Jones, who could use a different kind of break after his impressive turn in the less-than-impressive Double Take. From the trailers, you sense that chemistry wasn't much of a problem in this cast.

"Ivan had a lot to do with establishing a comfort level," Duchovny says. "He let us take the situations as far as we could." Not too far, though. "If we got a little too far out, he always pulled us back in."

From what some have seen of the movie, the verbal interplay between Duchovny and Jones, who plays his fellow scientist, is a - well - more highly evolved species of the jazzy banter exchanged between Bill Cosby and Robert Culp on the 1960s TV show I Spy. "Wouldn't know," Duchovny says. "I don't remember seeing 'I Spy.'

That "Ouch!" you heard was from the nearest baby boomer in earshot.

-- Gene Seymour

Article courtesy of Newsday.