The X-Files: I Want To Believe

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


Directed by: Chris Carter

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly

Other Actors of Note: Xzibit, Amanda Peet, Mitch Pileggi

Plot: When a group of women are abducted in the wintry hills of rural Virginia, the only clues to their disappearance are the grotesque human remains that begin to turn up in snow banks along the highway. With officials desperate for any lead, a disgraced priest's questionable visions send local police on a wild goose chase and straight to a bizarre secret medical experiment that may or may not be connected to the women's disappearance. Its a case right out of The X-Files. But the FBI closed down its investigations into the paranormal years ago. And the best team for the job is ex-agents Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully, who have no desire to revisit their dark past. Still, the truth of these horrific crimes is out there somewhere...and it will take Mulder and Scully to find it! Taken from www.imdb.com.

So do Mulder and Scully finally do it? Like hormone doped rabbits!

For those of you that didn't see the season finale of the "X-Files" you could go see if you can find it, or alternatively you can stare at a picture of David Duchovny whilst blasting Styx's "Renegade" and drinking knob creek whiskey straight from the bottle and that will tell you what you need to know and be a lot more fun.

But for those who just have to know basically Mulder gets framed for murder and hunted by the FBI. He goes into hiding and we no longer have to watch John Doggett (Robert Patrick) try to replace him.

"I Want to Believe" picks up six years after the events of the series finale. A woman is depicted getting out of her car and tearing at some would-be attacker with a garden claw before running away and being grabbed by attacker number two. During this scene we're treated to shots of FBI agents prodding at the snow with pointy sticks whilst Billy Connelly waddles ahead like a penguin with Asperger syndrome. Turns out Father Joseph (Connelly) has visions and quickly unearths a human arm with, get this, garden claw marks.

Switch over to Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who is working at a Catholic hospital where a young boy with a fatal disease is under her care. The hospital staff wants the boy to be allowed to die peacefully but Scully wants to try a radical (and painful) new treatment to give the boy a second chance at life.

Shortly after this Agent Dakota Whitney of the FBI (Amanda Peet) shows up asking about Fox Mulder (David Duchovny.) Apparently the kidnapped woman at the beginning was an FBI agent and with the father's visions, Whitney wants the expertise of someone familiar with paranormal cases and promises all of Mulder's "crimes" will be forgiven if he helps. Eventually Mulder reluctantly agrees and you can guess where things go from there.

"Sure I'm an a-list actor I did uh... 'Evolution' and um... that one soft-porn show."

First of all let me say how great it was to see the "X-Files" on a screen again. David Duchovny falls back perfectly into his role as the stoic, monotone, and dryly humorous Fox Mulder. It leads you to wonder why he hasn't been in more stuff since the show ended several years ago.

Gillian Anderson proves that some women really do age like wine as she's twice as sexy as she was in the 90s. Scully seems to be a bit more emotional and less reserved now, but this is a change for the better. Anderson and Fox get to explore the more emotional sides of their characters in this movie as well as the romantic aspect of their partnership which is a very welcome addition.

Billy Connelly and Amanda Peet are capable in their roles, but it's hardly the best that either of them have done with movies like "The Boondock Saints", "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", and "The Whole Nine Yards" under their belts respectively. No less they give good, if not very memorable, performances.

Xzibit does about as good as you would expect the star of a reality show called "Pimp My Ride" to do. He doesn't talk a lot though, which is good. Film makers are starting to learn.

A nice addition to the cast is the villian of the film in the form of Callum Keith Rennie, a particularly violent and volatile (not to mention creepy looking) character who seems to have quite the temper. He plays the part compassionately and never fails to be scary when needed.

"Don't look now Scully, but the 'Pimp My Ride' guy is pretending to be an actor now."

My biggest disappointment with this film was in the special effects department. Sure it showed that they had some new stuff, but some of the other bits look like they're on a tv-show budget.

For example the 2-headed dog that is glimpsed for just a split second in the trailer is never clearly shown with two heads until it's dead. Any time it's in motion it remains a cheaply done (and scary as shit) silhouette.

"The truth is out there." "Are we going to do it already, or not?"

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is one of the most maligned movies of this summer but it is not deserving of such. What it has going against it is false expectations. In early production Chris Carter said that this would be a monster-of-the-week episode if it were an episode of the show. This was a poor choice of words as the only monster present is aforementioned 2-headed dog who has roughly 4 minutes of screen-time.

It's not a monster movie, it's not a werewolf movie. It's a thriller with some religious overtones and viewed as such it is a very damn good one. Billy Connelly plays a disgraced priest (He's a pedophile accused of 37 different cases of abuse) who for reasons unbeknown to himself is receiving visions, he sees this as maybe some sort of sign of redemption.

The plot unfolds with talk of illegal organ harvesting, stem cell research, and surgical methods the likes of which only Dr. Herbert West are familiar with. But the underlying story of Mulder and Scully's relationship and Scully's fear of confronting the darkness they faced as partners serves to be the truly captivating story.

Father Joseph tells Scully at random to "Never give up." and she is confused, not knowing if he meant on the child in her care or in helping Mulder. Scully's inner-turmoil is the real story here while a disturbing and utterly sick tale weaves its way in and out of this plot thread.

The key thing to realize is that this movie was not made as a balls to the wall action movie like some of the monster-of-the-week episodes tended to be. This is a Mulder and Scully story tied together with some of the best filler I've ever seen.

It has it's flaws, it's a bit slow paced, and the story doesn't go to a lot of places leaving a lot of questions unanswered. But it's still far from the piece of shit that everyone else makes it out to be, if you want a shitty "X-Files" move more concerned with the paranormal than the characters go check out 1998 "X-Files" movie. But if you want a movie that's more concerned with characterization and weaving a good story than eliciting "oohs" and "aahs" then catch this one.

"Oh God, I just found the lost 'Lone Gunmen' scripts. Burn them before the internet sees them."

If you go in knowing what to expect, there's no reason you shouldn't enjoy this movie.

I give "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" a 4 out of 5. It's not a "must own" but you really should see it, particularly if you're a fan of the series.