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The premise is actually rather clever. It seems that in addition to faith-based creationism and rational evolution, there is another potential explanation for life on Earth: panspermia. This theory suggests that lifeless planets are seeded with microscopic life from extraterrestrial sources - not by sentient aliens, but from meteors. So what might happen if such a life-carrying meteor crashed on a planet that already had a fully developed ecosystem replete with a multitude of complex life? Imagine the comic and cosmic possibilities. That's just what screenwriters David Diamond, David Weissman, and Don Jakoby did.

As the film opens, Wayne Gray (Seann William Scott) is in the middle of an Arizona desert, practicing for his firefighter test. He places an inflatable woman - which could be either a CPR dummy or a sex toy - into a deserted shack that he then sets ablaze. As he rescues the helpless victim, a meteor, ablaze from atmospheric friction, crashes nearby, decimating the shack and his car. Harry Block (Orlando Jones), a professor of geology at nearby Glen Canyon Community College and the local representative of the U.S. Geological Survey, is assigned to investigate. He invites his friend, biology professor Ira Kane (David Duchovny) along for the ride. The meteor has punched through the Earth's surface to come to rest in a cavern, eighty feet underground. When they descend to the meteor, they find that it's bleeding a slimy substance that bears a striking resemblance to ectoplasm. Kane returns to his lab with a sample to discover that the fluid contains primitive extraterrestrial life that's evolving at an impossible rate. Everyone is soon up their asses in weird creatures big and small; most are rather nasty. (The writers and the director seem to have a posterior fixation. Rumps and probing orifices figure prominently. Even David Duchovny enters into the spirit with an ad-libbed moon.)

Such a notable discovery won't long escape the attention of the authorities and the Army soon arrives commanded by General Woodman (Ted Levine). It seems that Woodman had worked with Dr. Kane before. Kane helped develop an Anthrax vaccine for the Army that had a few unfortunate side effects when 140,000 soldiers were inoculated; these included debilitating stomach cramps, severe diarrhea, uncontrollable flatulence, drooling, and erectile dysfunction. The Army named this unpleasant disorder "the Kane Madness." And Dr. Kane was summarily fired. So it comes as no surprise when the Army cuts Kane and Block out of the investigation and blocks their bid for credit.

Kane, Block, and Gray join together to extend a collective finger at the authorities and to do battle against the alien threat. But wait, wasn't there a fourth ghostbuster? General Woodman's biotech on site is senior researcher Allison Reed (Julianne Moore), an epidemiologist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Initially, she's supportive of the Army's conservative approach, but eventually sees the wisdom of following the lead of a disgraced scientist, his geologist friend, and goof who has noble firefighting ambitions. With Reed on board, the team is complete. It's time to save the world and upstage the Army.

Duchovny and Jones work well together; their characters project a friendly wit that smacks of intelligence and a droll sense of irony. Ms. Moore is a delightful actress whose work I admire, but she's not used well here. Her character is so devoid of good lines, that she felt it necessary to add a severe case of clumsiness to enhance her comedic contribution. The chemical weapon that will become the magic bullet is silly but clever. The special effects - overwhelmingly CGI - are wonderfully imaginative, courtesy of creature-meister Phil Tippett. And to ensure that Ghostbusters pedigree, Dan Aykroyd assumes the small role of Governor Lewis.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is shown in anamorphic video. This is a very fine transfer, only flawed by a slight halo effect on edges of high contrast. I recall reviewing DreamWorks' first film and first DVD, The Peacemaker, released on December 8, 1998. At the time, I commented on the lack of edge halos saying that, "the folks at DreamWorks seem to have decided to offer video that is as true to film as possible." Alas, this may no longer be the case. Fortunately, the halos aren't very intrusive and the small object detail is retained. Chroma is splendid and noise free. The smaller aliens are a riot of color, vivid and well saturated. Brightness and contrast are great. Shadow detail during the night scenes is excellent, yet blacks are deep and rich. I noticed no compression artifacts.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

There are five audio soundtracks on this disc. English is available in Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0, and DTS 5.1; the French and Spanish tracks are presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The surround channels are mixed very aggressively, immersing the listener in directional sound cues. Despite this not being an official EX mix, 6.1 processing will enhance the audio experience. Deep, deep room-shaking bass added quite a punch to the numerous explosions. John Powell's orchestral score is a skillful blend of action/adventure and whimsy; it's presented with a pleasing accuracy and across a dynamic soundstage. The dialog is distortion-free and has a forward sounding presence. Comparing the Dolby Digital and the DTS after carefully ensuring amplitude parity revealed a subtle improvement in musical timbre and voices, and a slightly tighter bottom end. Either track will satisfy.

The audio is supported by optional subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. (One other nice touch has been included; the commentary track has its own subtitles.)

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

First up are six deleted scenes presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic video: "Denise leaves Ira," "Original Hotel scene in Allison's room," "Allison Orders Satellite Scans," "Chasing The Bird," "Woodman and Flemming," and an Alternate Ending. I rather liked two of these scenes enough to have thought that they deserved to be in the theatrical cut. The alternate ending is cute. It projects the story line eight months from the last scene in the theatrical version. We discover the fates of Kane and Reed and there's a tasteful gag that continues the anal subplot.

The Evolution of Evolution is a fifteen-minute fullframe featurette. Orlando Jones mock-interviews his fellow cast members and Ivan Reitman joins the group to offer a few observations of his own. Everyone touches on various plot points, but more importantly, we get brief glimpses of how the film was made. Ever so slightly better than the usual puff piece, it was entirely too short. We're compensated with a second, shorter featurette, The Visual Effects, which runs only 10:12. This short traces the evolution (no pun intended) of each creature from sketch to model to scanned image to fully synthesized CGI.

Storyboard Selections offers a choice of six sequences. You may view them as purely sketches or with the addition of a small, superimposed window in which the filmed sequence may be seen. Photo Gallery contains almost no photos; instead we have various drawings of ten of the creatures demonstrating their conceptual development. The Cast highlights our four Alienbusters: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, and Seann William Scott. Filmmakers features sixteen behind-the-camera artists. For each cast member and filmmaker, brief biographies and filmographies occupy several pages of text. Production Notes are spread over several text screens and cover material found elsewhere.

Finally, we have A Conversation With Ivan Reitman, David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Seann William Scott, which is actually a feature-length, scene specific commentary. Mr. Reitman struggles to maintain control and to describe how the film was made. His actors take things a bit more lightly, competing to see who can be the most amusing. Mr. Duchovny leads the pack. He's bright, witty, and droll; I greatly enjoyed his dry sense of humor. Before Mr. Reitman was to defend the repeated anal jokes in the film, Mr. Duchovny simply explained, "You do what you know."

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts