I want to believe... I enjoyed it

I used up my last Hot Cash movie coupon today, just days before it expired. I ambled down to the cinema complex just after lunch, with a small list of films I wouldn't mind seeing, mostly lightweight stuff (with usually-funny lead actors) that seemed good/wacky/silly from the trailers, and all having quite mixed reviews: "Get Smart", "Don't Mess With the Zohan" and "The Love Guru".

None of those films was on at a time that suited me, so I settled for the "X-Files" movie, which is subtitled for the poster Fox Mulder always used to have in his office: "I want to believe".

Now, I wasn't a huge fan of "The X-Files" when it was on TV, but it certainly did grow on me. The first motion picture (with the "Fight the Future" tagline, 1998), which ran in cinemas between two regular seasons of the TV show and managed to squeeze in such huge dramas as a city building being bombed, a giant flying saucer buried under ice, and Mulder almost kissing Scully at last, was also satisfying and cinematic. Ten years ago? Incredible!

Only this morning, it was announced on the radio that "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" had been officially pronounced a disappointment at the US box office, having earned only $4 million on its opening day. Maybe people were worried it was no more than an overblown episode? No matter. I gave it a go and thoroughly enjoyed it. David Duchovny, who's had a fairly prolific career since "The X-Files", and Gillian Anderson, who's had a much lower profile, slipped back into their old characters with professional ease. I particularly enjoyed Amanda Peet as new FBI Assistant Special-Agent-in-Charge, Dakota Whitney, and yes, Mitch Pileggi eventually makes his appearance was Skinner. Surprise casting was Billy Connolly as a convicted pedophile and former priest.

The story is told on a much smaller scale than the first film. I guess, unless lots of fans are missing their old (free-to-air) TV show and are feeling nostalgic for it, many will complain that this movie is more like a double TV episode on the big screen, which they'll have to pay to see.

I was rained on while walking to the cinemas today but, news has it, the "light hail" that fell on Sydney's northside was "almost snow". Sydney doesn't get snow, but this was pretty close to the real stuff, by all reports. It seemed right that today' movie was so... snowbound. By the way, stay for the icy, then watery, after-credits sequence of this new "X-Files" film. It's cute.

If you have a curiosity about this film, and what its characters have been up to since their investigative unit was closed down, then check it out!

Sunday's magic number: 95.4 - back on track again, I hope...