An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Chris Carter.
Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet, Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner, Callum Rennie Keith, Adam Godley
Description: When Father Joseph Crissman experiences a series of alarming and horrific premonitions, he reports his outlandish fears to the authorities. The only person to take any notice is ASAC (Assistant Special Agent in Charge) Dakota Whitney, who defies her superiors to contact Fox Mulder and reunite him with former partner Dana Scully. While Mulder is fascinated by Crissman's claims that he channels visions from God, Scully remains sceptical, searching for a rational and scientific explanation. Together they uncover the shocking truth behind the Father's proclamations.
Country: US. 2008. 104mins
Back on the case: Mulder (David Duchonvy) and Scully (Gillian Anderson)
Out in the cold: the pair are losing their touch
Mind game: Billy Connolly plays a possibly psychic ex-priest brought in to help the FBI
Six long years ago the last of the 202 television episodes of the X Files was ground out. You wonder how many of today's cinema audience will even remember them - or the movie that was created from them in 1998.
This feature-length episode - which eschews all that convoluted alien invasion stuff with which we are familiar, except for a throwaway joke about the possibility of George W Bush being an alien - should just about satisfy the fans, however. Although others, having seen a good many better thrillers over the past couple of years, will wonder what the fuss is about.
The plot is complicated and so secret that critics are abjured not to give it away. But that is surely pure hype - there seems no adequate reason for it.
By now, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) appear to be living together, having had a child who has died. Mulder is no longer an FBI agent, having disgraced himself in some way, and Scully is working as a doctor in the local hospital, apparently run by reactionary Catholic priests.
She has a stricken young patient to look after and talks about stem cell treatment to prolong his life, thus gettingthe priests all hot under the collar. An ex-priest (Billy Connolly), who is both a pederast and a psychic, and possibly dotty, is brought in to help Mulder, Scully and the FBI solve the abduction of an agent who has mysteriously vanished from her home.
The film starts well with a long line of men, led by the disgraced priest, prodding a snowy landscape for clues. What they eventually find are bits and pieces of various bodies. There is a farmhouse nearby, we learn, guarded by vicious dogs, where renegade Ruskie doctors are doing some terrible things like transplanting the head of a dead dog onto a live one.
That's all I can tell you about the story without being instantly banned from seeing any further X Files movies. But I can say that Mulder and Scully get intimately involved in the case, though Scully has already said that she doesn't want to follow Mulder into the darkness again. Naturally, she finds herself up to the hilt in it.
While he wants to solve the case, and suspects all sorts of conspiracies, like he always did, she really wants to get on with her doctoring and to help her special patient whose parents have been persuaded by the priests not to continue her suspect treatment.
The two stars dovetail well enough, though Anderson, the superior actor, seems a little uncertain as to how the relationship should develop. Chris Carter, the director and writer, also seems unsure what to do with Mulder and Scully, who are not as fascinating as an odd, mutually attracted couple now that they have declared themselves to each other.
Suffice to say that otherwise the film is decently made, even if it fundamentally looks like a TV episode to be played over two nights. It's main problem is that it touches on the problems of medical science without much follow-through, and we never know how seriously it takes the renegade priest's psychic powers either.
The best thrillers dig deeper than this one does, as did the best of The X Files on TV before the series ran out of steam.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I love the movie and I felt the tension between Mulder and Scully like never before in the series. One could see this movie having never seen one of the episodes on TV and have trouble getting to the story. It was a refreshing new x-file with a new story line and approach. The special effects were great as were the easter eggs. My favorite scene was early who they were at the door at the FBI and the camera shot of Bush along side of Hoover.
Great analogy!
- Tace,Arkansas,Usa, USA
Many seem so intent on bagging The X-Files movie that few seem to have taken the time to really see it. Maybe people’s expectations have been so huge that they miss the quietly creepy, intelligently crafted film that it is. Its character driven plot entices you to explore the deepest themes of belief, faith and hope, such a refreshing change from the monstrously violent, over-the-top CGI blockbusters that litter the movie landscape this summer. I, for one, really liked it.
- Anita, East Acton, London
The movie was not as good as I had hoped and did not follow on from the last as hope either. As an avid X files fan I was deeply disappointed with the outcome and the weakness of the characters. The necessary tension between Mulder and Scully was missing and the need to give more to the other characters that were there did not come through. Felt a little out of it's depth as a movie and that would have been better on tv. Nice try!
- Caz, surrey
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