June 19, 1998|By Gene Siskel.
Our Flick of the Week is "The X-Files," a feature film treatment of the five-year hit TV show, which, just for the record, I have never seen and thus cannot offer any comparative analysis.
But maybe this is relevant: Based on the movie, I am now seriously tempted to watch the TV show.
I'm intrigued by the main characters: earnest FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who stare deeply into each other's eyes and call each other by their last names. Their dynamic is that they are obviously made for each other but need to straighten out their own individual lives before they can relate to anyone else. They make a good team because in a lesser screenplay they would just constantly bicker.
Here they have work to do -- save mankind from a plot to destroy it through biological warfare prepared by an alien life form. The battle takes us through the bombing of a city building, an invasion of killer bees and a patch of cornstalks that is, if you will, a field not of dreams but of nightmares.
The story is challenging without depending on arbitrary plot twists, the staple of so much screenwriting these days. Mulder and Scully are in jeopardy here, and we buy it. Can anyone tell me when the TV show is on? Rated PG-13. (star) (star) (star)
- MULAN. The latest Disney animated feature is a big disappointment when compared with the studio's other recent films about a female hero searching for independence. Mulan is the name of a Chinese girl who will end up masquerading as a young male soldier in a ferocious battle for China's survival. But not only is her masquerade less tension-filled than Yentl's, but her physical exploits as a warrior also are less impressive than G.I. Jane's. As an individual, Mulan comes across as impassive compared with Ariel in "The Little Mermaid," a film that gets better as the years pass, or Belle in "Beauty and the Beast." The design of the film does not take advantage of the inspiration provided by classic Chinese artists, and the songs are not memorable. G. (star) (star)
- MR. JEALOUSY. Eric Stoltz stars as a jealous lover, but he isn't jealous enough to generate any laughs in this lifeless film. Maybe a comic actor should have been cast and let loose to get manic. R. (star)
- = New this week