The Truth is in Here

In this very apartment.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Caution: Contains a Somewhat Inconsequential Spoiler

Tonight, Jess and I saw The X-Files: I Want to Believe. I'll start by saying that, despite my deep love of the series, I wasn't excited about the movie at all until we were sitting in the theatre and we heard the first few notes of the theme music, at which point, I grinned and experienced some anticipatory exhilaration.

The bad news is that the critics' consensus was pretty bleak and their complaints mirrored some of mine: the film had grossly trite and cheesy moments; Amanda Peet is annoyingly milquetoast; the film feels just like a slow, too-long tv episode. Oh, and, Chris Carter? A dick joke? Seriously? Chris, if that's what you want to do now, fine; but hook up with Judd Apatow or someone else who does dick joke movies. Sheesh.

The good news is that despite all those complaints, I took some serious pleasure in the nostalgia provided by my old friends, Scully and Mulder. Mulder (David Duchovny) is totally sexy with his full beard and Scully (Gillian Anderson) is more beautiful than I've seen her. The pair is cute-ish as a romantic couple (that's what we wanted all those years, right?); Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) makes an appearance and he and Scully get Mulder out of a pinch. Additionally, despite the slowness inherent in making what amounts to an hour-long episode of The X-Files long enough to be feature-film length, the story is relatively decent. I thing it deserves a strong B-.

Oh, and if you're not watching David Duchovny in Californication, what are you waiting for?


image via Rotten Tomatoes