The X-Files - Articles - Zimbio

Russia: They Have X-Files FBI agents, Mulder and Scully Locked Up In Russia!

Tue, 3 Sep 2008 13:24:00 GMT

posted by kylekeeton
Hello,

Mulder and Scully from the X-Files have been thrown in cages in Russia. What are Mulder and Scully doing caged up in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg?

Ekaterinburg a town on the eastern slopes of the Urals mountains on the banks of the beautiful Iset river has a Zoo and it seems that employees of the city zoo have named a pair of skunks after the famous TV - FBI agents, the stars of the X-Files series.

Mulder and Scully are two striped skunks that were brought to the Ekaterinburg zoo from Moscow. They are currently in quarantine to ensure good health and will be on public view in mid-September. The normally pungent scented pair will now leave the air fresh since their scent glands, which release a distinctly revolting odor when skunks feel threatened, have been removed.

"The skunks are called Mulder and Scully. It was the employees who gave them their names, despite the fact that there's nothing mysterious about them." said a zoo representative in an interview.

This is the first time that the Ekaterinburg zoo has acquired skunks. (Link)

What good names for skunks! Gotta love it.

Kyle & Svet

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Tue, 6 Aug 2008 19:32:25 GMT

posted by ilozzoc

The X-Files: I Want to Believe...and I Do
Menacing Movies

Mulder:
Scully? Why would he say that? "Don't give up." Why would he say such a thing to you?

Scully:
I think that was clearly meant for you, Mulder.

Mulder:
He didn't say it to me. He said it to you. If Father Joe were the devil, why would he say the opposite of what the devil might say? Maybe that's the answer, the larger answer. Don't give up.

Can a summer movie containing no car chases, no explosions, no larger than life monsters still succeed? Yes, according to director Chris Carter and writer Frank Spotnitz, if the movie is The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Replacing the special effects-driven drumbeat of the summer blockbuster with the drama of people wanting to believe in something greater than themselves, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are brought together again to find the truth behind strange disappearances in snowbound, rural, West Virginia (though actually filmed in Canada). Along the way, they must come to a greater understanding of their own truths: the ones that drive both of them to never give up.

For Mulder, the truth is out there, waiting to be revealed if you keep searching for it. For Scully, the truth is deep inside, waiting for you to see it, even when those around you refuse to believe in its possibilities. For Father Joe, the truth is already known: he loathes it and desperately hopes for a greater one to take its place. For Janke and Franz, they want to believe in something the two of them can share, even if it is freaky enough to open an x-file-styled investigation; for them, the end justifies the means, and those means are gruesome. Who will be saved, damned, or remain indifferent? This is the essential quandary that every x-file poses for us as well as Mulder and Scully.

With qualities usually associated with an independent movie, the low budget X-Files: I Want to Believe flies under the frenetic, sound-blasting action radar to land with the hush of new-fallen snow. Will it be disappointing to X-Files fans looking for more chills and thrills? Probably. Should we castigate it for not delivering a larger-than-life story for a franchise that left us with a larger than average number of loose ends screaming to be tied up? Perhaps. But when you look back at the series, you notice each story, no matter how fantastic, remains focused on the ordinary people caught up in extraordinary and inexplicable circumstances. The action takes place through the characters, rather than simply to them. Carter and company stay true to this formula as they delve deep into the psyches of Mulder (David Ducovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they struggle to keep their faith in spite of the realities that would impede it.

When women go missing under circumstances bordering on the outré, Mulder is reluctantly forgiven for his bureaucratic transgressions and is brought into the cold case to heat up some leads. Scully is enlisted to bring the bearded Mulder out of seclusion, but he will only take the case if she joins him. Like Dr. Watson to Sherlock Holmes, she is the whetstone for his mind; and much more, but you will need to see the movie to find out.

Putting aside his tabloid clippings of three-headed alien babies and Loch Ness Yeti monsters flying UFO's, he is soon back to butting heads with the bureau's disbelief in Father Joe's (Billy Connolly) visions, and Scully's determination to save a young boy, who is terminally ill, at the expense of helping him with the case. With Father Joe a convicted pedophile, and Scully reluctant to return to "chasing monsters in the dark," Mulder has his work cut out for him, even if the agent in charge, Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet), believes in him.

Both Ducovny and Anderson once again generate the chemistry that made the television show an engrossing excursion into the unknown every week. The isolation inherent in the expansive, snow-covered countryside evokes a mood of unknown evil quietly afoot, ready to reach out at any moment. Much of the action emanates from the interactions between Mulder and Father Joe, Scully and Father Joe's confrontations, and the stubbornness of disgruntled FBI agents paying lip service to Mulder's unwanted involvement. There is a simplicity and directness to the way everyone talks to each other. Like the police-procedural Dragnet series with Jack Webb, the dialog is believable, always to the point, and carefully measured for its implications as well as its revelations. Each scene is also executed in a way that always seems to best fit its purpose. Look for the spiraling downward crane shot perspective often used in the television series.

In the opening montage we are shown an earlier abduction taking place, intertwined with flashforwarded scenes of a clearly discernible line of black-uniformed FBI agents searching through a pristine white field as Father Joe's vision leads them to an arm buried in the snow. It is clear who's arm it is from the earlier abduction; what is not clear is why and how it got there.

Why and how and belief are important themes in the X-Files series overall, of course, but they especially come to the forefront here to help us define everyone's motivations in this movie. Forcing us, along with them, to question how we would respond if faced with such events. Father Joe does not know why he "buggered thirty-seven altar boys," as Scully acidly puts it, and he wonders how God can forgive him when he cannot forgive himself. He desperately needs to believe his visions are sent by God as atonement for his sins. Scully does not understand why God would let a boy die, yet go out of his way for Father Joe. How fair is it that God gives a man like him priority over the life of her young patient? She desperately needs to believe she can save the boy, but not even his parents or anyone else believe she can. That's the challenge of faith: you must take it whole, in one big gulp; there are no taste samples for it and it is a meal for one. Mulder's faith is based on seeing how events really happened, but he can never really say why they happened. He keeps doggedly searching for that answer, even if Scully is the only one who realizes it.

Like Mulder and Scully, you will need to piece together the movie's events to explain the why and how of the abductions (at least the how). Unlike the series, loose ends are tied up to explain the connection between Father Joe's visions and the abductions. What Janke and his partner are up to is--while not the most intriguing x-file case out there--still bizarre and grotesque and worthy of your time, even if you decide to wait for the DVD. Should you see it in the theater, make sure to stay past the credits: there is a little scene hinting at further x-files to come. You just need to believe.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe - the case should have been left closed

Wed, 14 Aug 2008 21:16:42 GMT

posted by TheGeekFiles

YES, I really did want to believe. But in the end this movie was so disappointing that I nearly didn't bother to write a review.

The film hasn't done very well at the box office. And it has nothing to do with The Dark Knight's domination. This X-Files movie just isn't strong enough in its own right, never mind being of sufficient quality and power to stand a chance against blockbusters such as the Batman film.

The movie entered both the UK and US box office charts in a lacklustre fourth place. It's performed so poorly that it's been reported that although a third movie is being planned, it will go straight to DVD. It cost $30m to make and has made just $20m in the US and a further $8.5m overseas (updated figures as of August 21).

The end of the the X-Files TV series showed FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) on the run. In this film, Mulder is a bearded recluse in hiding among messy piles of papers and newspaper clippings, while Scully is (somehow) back working as a medical doctor - she is a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital. The pair are also romantically involved.

The FBI visit Scully and say they need to find Mulder as they want his help with a case involving an abducted agent and a paedophile priest, Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), who is claiming to have strange visions connected with the woman's disappearance. Mulder and Scully agree to help though Scully later wishes she hadn't become involved and, bizarrely, chastises Mulder for becoming involved when she was the one who encouraged it.

Joining them on the case are Amanda Preet as FBI agent Dakota Whitney and Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner who scowls a lot as Agent Mosley Drummy.

Duchovny and Anderson still know their parts well and are convincing on screen. Preet is reasonable in her short-lived part, Joiner is somewhat one-dimensional and Connolly is okay but sometimes lacks gravitas. In fact, none of the actors shine as much as they should, and this is probably down to the weak writing and directing not creating enough dramatic power.

The theme at the heart of this odd film is faith. Mulder must reaffirm his belief in his own instincts that there are forces that cannot be explained and he regains faith and confidence (we see him shave off his beard) in being needed by the FBI because his open-mindedness serves a purpose in solving crimes. Scully's own convictions are challenged by the priest and his claimed supernatural insight, and also by a subplot involving a child with a terminal brain condition she wants to try to save (and which hospital boss Father Ybarra does not).

Oddly, the child doesn't dovetail into the main story at all - I was waiting for some link between the youngster's brain disease (and the stem cell research featured heavily as a possible life-saver) and the central plot, but it never happened. It's merely an emotional arc for Scully's core beliefs to be tested.

I was also waiting for some evidence of what was in the trailers, which proclaimed 'they have haunted our cities' - well, nothing was haunting anything.

In fact, there are no monsters here, no conspiracies, nothing truly paranormal (apart from the priest's eyes crying blood in one scene and, later, a two-headed dog created by medical experimentation).

The story involves stolen body parts and Eastern European 'Frankenstein' experiments to save a dying man by putting his head on the body of an abducted woman. What exactly the Europeans are doing with all these body parts and just one man to save is not made clear. Why the dying man had a clawed hand was also not clear. Animal tranquillisers and earlier experiments on dogs were also involved - and I was left wondering if early reports of a lycanthropic storyline (denied by the studio) were true at one point until a script rewrite or heavy editing removed those elements. We do see a two-headed guard dog attack Mulder.

The contrast between Scully's attempts to save the sick boy and the European criminals and their attempts to save a life using bits of other people was never developed, almost as though purely coincidental.

The climax came quickly - when Scully decided she did believe and found her centre again - and was over just as quickly. "I've got work to do' said Scully upon finding a makeshift lab in the wilderness and a woman in a bath of ice, and that was that. Then back to trying to save the sick child. I suspect some serious editing was done here as so much of the movie seemed to be missing.

When it was all over, we were subjected to a dreadful and amateurish remix of The X-Files theme over the end credits, in which techno beats were layered over the eerie score. The result was a mess, with rhythm and melody sounding out of sync. Then an inexplicable random shot of a tropical ocean and a rowing boat with Mulder and Scully waving at the aerial camera (in a helicopter flying overhead). A total head-scratching, what-the-hell moment.

The cinematography was bleak and stark, all pallid panoramas of snow and ice and unflattering close-up shots, and that didn't help bring any richness, colour or warmth to the story.

This film will be yet another disappointment for Fox. It really should have been a TV special, not a purported summer blockbuster and, even on TV, it would still have seemed disconnected from the mythos of the earlier show. The grains of an interesting story were in there somewhere, the old magic wasn't. And nor was there any new magic to replace it.

X-Files: I Want To Believe Trailer

Fri, 9 Aug 2008 06:57:00 GMT

posted by Jean2008

"The Truth Is Out There", "Trust No One", "I Want to Believe"

The X-Files is an American science fiction television sequence and won in Peabody, Golden Globe, and Emmy Award. The display is glimpsed as a characterizing sequence of the 1990s, coinciding with the era's prevalent mistrust of authorities, interest in conspiracy ideas and spirituality, and the conviction in the reality of extraterrestrial life. In 2007, Time Magazine publication encompassed it on a register of the "100 Best television Shows of All Time." In 2008, Entertainment Weekly entitled it the fourth best part of research fiction newspapers and the fourth best television display in the last 25 years.

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Update: The show’s attractiveness was been made into movie in 1998 and pursue on this imminent of July in your very well liked movie theater. "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is a stand-alone article in the custom of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the perplexing connection between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unforeseen directions. Mulder extends his unshakable quest for the reality, and Scully, the fervent, fiercely smart doctor, continues inextricably joined to Mulder's pursuits. The upcoming movie was produced by 20^th Century Fox and directed by Chris Carter who’s also created the series in television. The film will starred by David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xzibit, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Callum Keith Rennie, Adam Godley.

Genre: Science Fiction Channel: FOX
Original Run: September 10, 1993 – May 19, 2002
No. of episodes: 202 (Seasons 9)
Created: Chris Carter

Main Cast:

David Duchovny – Special Agent Fox William Mulder
Gillian Anderson – Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D.
Mitch Pileggi – Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner
Robert Patrick – Special Agent John Doggett
Annabeth Gish – Special Agent Monica Reyes

Movie Review - 'The X-Files: I Want to Believe'

Thu, 25 Jul 2008 07:06:54 GMT

posted by bigpicture

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

Starring David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and Amanda Peet
Directed by Chris Carter
Rated PG-13

There's definitely wishful thinking in the title of the new X-Files movie. Ten years after the first film and nearly a decade after the finale of the landmark series we get The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Fans who have missed the show and even casual viewers who admired its constant risk taking and envelope pushing probably want to believe. So did I.

For the better part of an hour, The X-Files delivers on its promise, and not surprisingly, it tapers off a little after that. This feels like an extended episode, which is not meant to slight the film at all, because for many years, this show was among television's best written dramas. But because of the dramatic weight of the story - which I'll go to great lengths not to spoil - I Want to Believe engages is a couple of subplots, neither particularly compelling, with one feeling as if it's added to address fan questions and the other that may have some allegorical connection to the main thrust of the plot, but which is unmasked as hokey pretty early on.

Still, there are certain bonds that can't be broken, and for whatever the past few years have done to the careers of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson individually, they're an indispensable team. The chemistry, almost automatic at the beginning of the series and more palpable the longer the show aired on Fox, is back in a heartbeat here. These two actors are very at home in the world of creator-director Chris Carter, and should there be more films, I would expect I'd be equally excited to see them.

But many years have passed since we last saw the intrepid investigators of the paranormal. Fox Mulder is more or less off the grid, as they say, and Dana Scully is now a surgeon at a Catholic hospital. But the FBI needs Mulder's help. They have been relying on a priest-turned-psychic (Billy Connolly) to assist them in a search for a missing agent. At first, the Bureau doesn't take Father Joe seriously. After all, he has a very shady past. But when he correctly unearths a severed arm in the middle of a snowy field in West Virginia, some of the agents want to believe, too.

The FBI wants to use Mulder's experience to help determine whether or not Father Joe is a crackpot. Could he have intimate knowledge of the case, or is God really speaking through him?

What it all means - the severed arm, the pieces of the mystery they uncover - is very gruesome stuff, actually, but it's also right up the alley of The X-Files. Carter places clues carefully, and takes us on a pretty taut intellectual journey. Even when you see more, you almost have to be told what it all means. There are mysteries where you know more than the characters, and that, as Hitchcock said, is what creates tension. But this works pretty well, too.

Carter has always had an exceptional eye for casting, and Billy Connolly is a superb choice as father Joe. He gets some mileage out of Xzibit and Amanda Peet as FBI agents on opposite sides of the coin, and even the tiniest of roles never seems out of joint with its surroundings.

As for the troublesome subplots, it does fit the structure of The X-Files to have concurrent storylines. That's not the problem. The problem is the way they're massaged into place here. They don't feel the least bit organic, but instead, very deliberate, as if there's some ground Carter didn't cover in the series and felt compelled to now. These pesky dead ends hobble an otherwise absorbing little detective story with two detectives I wouldn't mind seeing a dozen more times.