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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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X Files, The
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some intense violence and gore
Starring
David Duchovny,
Gillian Anderson,
John Neville,
William B. Davis,
Martin Landau,
Jeffrey DeMunn,
Blythe Danner,
and
Armin Mueller-Stahl
With the dubious assistance of a paranoid doctor, Mulder and Scully risk their careers and their lives to hunt down a deadly virus which may be extraterrestrial in origin - and could destroy all life on earth! (Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Mystery
|
Sci-fi
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Chris Carter (also story)
Frank Spotnitz (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Rob Bowman
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: June 3, 2003
Video: April 2, 2002
Theatrical: June 19, 1998
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
121 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Canada / USA |
Also known as "The X-Files: Fight the Future"
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
83
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
Dark, funny, paranoid, arbitrary, humming with tamped-down eroticism and in love with all things weird: That's the good news.
80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Like the TV show, The X-Files movie is stylish, scary, sardonically funny and at times just plain gross.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
As pure movie, The X-Files more or less works. As a story, it needs a sequel, a prequel, and Cliff Notes.
75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Offers two hours of solid entertainment.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Graham
Neither true believers nor newcomers to the phenomenon will be disappointed.
75
San Francisco Examiner
Tim Goodman
In the movie, the truth will (and does) out itself. Mulder and Scully have seen the future and it's a giant leap for each of them to comprehend.
75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This is more than enough material for two hours of summer-movie fun, and The X-Files delivers said fun reasonably well. The action scenes are bigger and bolder than their small-screen counterparts.
70
LA Weekly
Manohla Dargis
It's the brilliance of The X-Files to have turned Mulder's paranoid style into a function of cool. Mulder and Scully aren't just beautiful, smart, well-armed and seemingly impervious to the banalities of everyday life, such as cheap haircuts and ruinous love affairs--they're cool.
70
The New York Times
Elvis Mitchell
Though both stars are sometimes eclipsed when the film strains for big action episodes, Mr. Duchovny sustains enough cool, deadpan intellect and suppressed passion to give the story a center. Ms. Armstrong has the harsher, more restrictive role, but she plays it with familiar hardboiled glamour.
70
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
It's a smart, exciting, involving film that's true to its source, which is all it really needs to be.
67
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Solid, workmanlike stuff, and enough to keep the legions of X-philes sated until next September. And since I realize some of you are dying to know, no, Mulder's butt remains, as always, fully clothed.
60
Washington Post
Rita Kempley
The X-Files movie is really just a two-hour teaser for the series's sixth season. And little else. You will feel exactly like Mulder when he says, "How many times have we been right here before, Scully? So close to the truth?"
60
Slate
David Edelstein
The X-Files isn't so much a bad movie as it is a crackerjack piece of television. It's crisply made--not sodden like many of the "Star Trek" pictures. But it's as annoyingly open-ended as the rest of the series' episodes.
60
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
With its shrewd mixture of paranoia and the paranormal, the way its elaborate mythology combines enigmatic phenomena with potent cabals intent on running the world, The X-Files experience resembles "Twin Peaks" crossed with "The Twilight Zone."
60
Empire
Neil Jeffries
The X-Files can stand proud as a genuine movie with a beginning, a middle and an end, two charismatic leads and a franchise ahead of it.
60
Film Threat
Ron Wells
The problem is, the main conspiracy of the show is so vast, you have to walk around it a couple of times before you can see what it is.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
What we have here is a pretty good TV show huffed and puffed into a rather mediocre film.
50
The New Yorker
Bruce Diones
Ultimately disappointing--it's bigger budgeted, but somehow less engrossing when played outside the solitary intimacy of the tube. It'll be a great video flick.
50
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Falls somewhere in between standing on its own feet as a real movie worth the price of a ticket and merely being a glorified TV episode refitted for theaters.
50
Salon.com
Joyce Millman
It's a two-hour episode of the show, except with better production values and a nicer wardrobe for Scully.
50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Truth is, it' not very good.
50
USA Today
Dennis Moore
I entered the screening for The X-Files: Fight the Future with myriad questions... I left with disappointing answers. [19 June 1998, p. 7E]
40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Essentially a supersize episode that ignores a slew of fifth-season developments and adds yet another monster to the mix, one that owes a striking debt to "Alien."
 The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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