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July 28, 2008

Hard to believe in this lame trip down memory lane

“The X Files: I Want to Believe”

20th Century Fox Films

Directed by Chris Carter

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly and Xzibit.

Rated PG-13

1 1/2 Stars



I enjoyed “The X-Files” as much as anybody during its TV heyday, but the show has been off the air since 2002, and I’ve forgotten many of the arcane details that made the series into such a monster hit. I still have a generally warm recollection of the show and characters, so for nostalgia’s sake, I suppose it’s nice to tag along on one last case with FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, just as long as the case is intriguing enough to justify this trip down memory lane.

Spoiler alert: It’s not.

A FBI agent vanishes. There are no clues until a defrocked priest (Billy Connolly) offers his psychic services. Of course, the FBI has never been very good with kooky supernatural stuff, so they convince Mulder and Scully to return and help them out. Notice that I haven’t said a word about extraterrestrials. This “X-Files” movie has nothing to do with alien abductions, government conspiracies or chip implants. It has nothing to do with the stuff that made the show so popular back in the 90s, a fact that will leave a lot of fans very disappointed.

My biggest disappointment, other than the lame story, is the complete lack of chemistry between the two leads. They both turn in fine individual performances, but there’s no longer any sparks to their relationship. The lack of chemistry makes for a sadly dispassionate investigation and turns the film into one bleak and dour cinematic experience.

This could just be my nostalgia talking, but it’s hard to get excited about “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” when the TV show consistently offered better stories. Why reunite the cast if you’re only going to give us a mediocre case? Why make the film if you’re not going to use the elements that made the show so spooky-special? I wanted to believe, but I suppose that I’ll settle for just remembering “The X-Files” better days.

Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in “The Port Arthur News.” Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.

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