The X-Files: Fight the Future

To follow up with last nights whodunit? movie I decided to follow it up with a great sci-fi conspiracy thriller. I sat down and watched for the first time since I saw it in the theaters the X-Files. I will let everyone know that I have never been one to watch the X-Files television show, yet I really enjoyed the whole concept of this movie. Not having any previous conceptions about the TV series I think truly helped me go about this movie in the correct way to view the movie as its own stand alone film and not part of a television series. While this movie is nothing ground breaking it is definitely a fun movie to watch every year, especially as part of the whole Halloween season.

David Duchovny as Mulder he is surprisingly very at ease in his role as the out there FBI agent. It is really nice how he plays the outlandish FBI agent in such a way that nothing seems forced or even overacted. As a viewer I feel that it is played in such a way that you feel that the movie is not actually a movie but that you are in fact following this alien believing FBI agent. Gillian Anderson though on the other hand as Scully is played in the opposite way. While at the beginning the main struggle with Scully's role is that she is over acting her lines. Yet eventually, Anderson settles in and we truly see that she is the true opposite to Mulder with an uptight wants nothing but facts as an FBI agent.

While the story is a little slow at the start to get us up to speed, after the first fifteen minutes though the story moves quickly and keeps us guessing at not only where the story is going, but is interesting that I wanted to know what was going to happen. The part that made the story interesting to me as well though is that I not only wanted to get to know the ending, but I was also desirous to want to understand and learn all the small nuances within the plot.

The direction in this film is very serviceable. We are taken to many different locations and it is nice to not feel like we are on some created sets with these locations, but they seem to do a great job at inviting us even more into the whole atmosphere and belief in the story. The scene transitions were truly successful and very smooth, and they are done in a creative way so that we are not only informed but entertained as well.

The X-Files is a solid movie that delivers a great sci-fi conspiracy thriller. Duchovny was great in this movie and it was great that he played the role so easily. While the dialogue is not always the strongest, it is far from horrible. Personally, I loved the different locations and the smooth transitions between these locations. I really enjoyed this movie and because of that I am giving it three buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that is definitely worth renting and as another side note like in the previous, this movie is currently available on the instant queue on Netflix.

-The Movie Man-

Murder By Death

I thought I would start the month of October with a classic whodunit? movie. This movie centers around an eccentric billionaire who invites a group of the some of the most brilliant detectives of literature to his large estate to solve a murder that is yet to happen. This is a great comic murder mystery that plays solely on the lunacy of every situation that not only makes you laugh not only every now and then but it has you laughing throughout the entire film. Yet one of the most interesting parts about this movie is that it is different from other comedies because it keeps you trying to guess what happened that in actuality throughout the film I was confused from time to time.

Murder By Death had a great ability to put together such a great all star cast. With such a great cast though Peter Sellers steals the show with his Sidney Wang character, who is an impersonation of Charlie Chan. He had me laughing every time he is on screen, without even having to say things at times because of his great look. Truman Capote plays the eccentric millionaire, and while Capote was never one of the best actors out there, his personality that he brought to the movie was the perfect amount of eccentricity.  Everyone else does a great job in playing there roles and they all play off each other so well.

Everything in this film, from the plot to the lighting is over the top and overly exaggerated, which really helps make this movie so humorous. A great example of this is that mystery readers accept that Hercule Poirot and Charlie Chan are so observant as to spot the most obscure clue, which conveniently points to the solution of the puzzle. In Murder By Death writer Neil Simon exaggerates that gambit. A guest detective draws the most outlandish conclusion from the most irrelevant fact, which in turn is shot down by another guest detective who points out the flaws, and then proceeds to do exactly the same thing. Not too mention this movie gives es so many twists and turns particularly at the end that it makes our heads spin.

One of the great brilliant little parodies throughout the film is that of the butler and the cook. I love the fact that the butler is blind and the cook is deaf. This gives the audience some great interactions back and forth between the butler and cook. Also Alec Guiness who plays the butler is absolutely hilarious. This is different then what most would say for Alec because he is known to play very serious roles. It shows his great versatility to be able to play more then all the different dramatic roles he plays.

This is definitely a classic. This movie does a great job at poking fun at all the great detectives in a light manor. The fact this movie can not only make your brain run, but makes you laugh even more. The over the topness of this movie is the reason that I am giving Murder By Death three buckets of popcorn out of five. This is definitely one that is great for anyone to watch to start the month of October.

-The Movie Man-