What Do The Critics Say?

"Seeing any movie after watching The Dark Knight is like dating another woman after you break up with Angelina Jolie, but Duchovny and Anderson find their rhythm quickly and still have a fun chemistry together. Writer Frank Spotnitz and writer/director Chris Carter wisely craft the movie to be a stand alone adventure that provides enough updates on what our favorite characters have been doing over the last few years to keep the hard core fans happy, while not demanding that the audience be steeped in X-Files lore to understand the plot." Willie Waffle WAFFLE MOVIES "Superbly made with an edge of the seat tension that lingers, X-Files fans will be more than satisfied as the credible and incredible sit side by side in an explosive melee." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE "The movie delivers the same bracing blend of intelligence and adrenaline that made The X-Files such an enjoyable TV series. Beyond the case, which Carter as director unfolds with well-paced tension and solid chase scenes, what really drives this movie is the intellectual fire between Mulder and Scully." Sean Means SALT LAKE TRIBUNE "The good news: I Want to Believe plays like a solid, albeit unexceptional stand-alone episode, broad enough to ensnare the uninitiated without alienating the show's loyal base." Rossiter Drake SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER "Superbly made with an edge of the seat tension that lingers, X-Files fans will be more than satisfied as the credible and incredible sit side by side in an explosive melee." Louise Keller URBANCINEFILE "Believe is not a feature that provides instant results; instead, even with a handful of faults, it gets under the skin, offering the faithful a rewarding odyssey with these unlikely knights of the unknown. I can write that “Believe” is a provocative picture that gives serious weight to critical medical and religious issues, using Scully’s role as a skeptical medical expert at a professional turning point to broaden the feature’s thematic search for faith and all its unbecoming perversions." Brian Orndorf THISISBRIANORNDORF

"One thing can be said here with certainty: Knowing nothing, zero, nulla, nada and bubkes about "X-Files" is no impediment to enjoying "X-Files: I Want to Believe" and appreciating it for the well-acted, adult piece of work that it is. It's difficult to take familiar characters, who have been developed and established over countless hours of series television, and put them over within minutes for an audience who doesn't know them. But director Chris Carter and actors David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson make it look easy." Mick LaSalle SAN FRACISCO CHRONICLE "David Duchovny's Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson's Dana Scully are still chastely in love, the world is as dark and doomy as ever, and Billy Connolly, as a scurvy priest who may or may not be a visionary, steals the acting honors." Peter Rainer CHRISTIAN SCINECE MONITOR "I make it sound a little silly. Well, it is a little silly, but it's also a skillful thriller, giving us just enough cutaways to a sinister laboratory to keep us fascinated." Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES "A compelling supernatural thriller with Scully and Mulder peering into the darkness and trying to fathom the inexplicable." Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat SPIRITUALITY AND PRACTICE "The ingredients are still there for what made people love the series in the first place. If you are a fan of the show, this is a must-see movie, simply because it touches on enough of the grace notes the show offered weekly to take you back to the days when Mulder and Scully were shining their flashlights into the darkness. If you're not, then I Want to Believe is a rather workaday thriller with some particularly creepy touches." Bill Goodykoontz ARIZONA REPUBLIC "The fans will lap up this thrilling new feature that has gestated in the belly of the hugely popular series for years. From its no holds barred start to its heartfelt finish, the film is compelling entertainment, thanks in part to a great script and in part to the top performances." Andrew L Urban URBANCINEFILE

The Inside Story "I Want to Believe" is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. "It’s a natural title," says director and co-writer Chris Carter. "It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith." And what about the grisly theme of the film? "Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience," he says. "The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It’s scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn’t show, and we use that device for the movie." "I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn’t tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies," says producer and co-writer Frank Spotnitz who worked on "The Lone Gunmen" (13 episodes), "The X Files" (48 episodes) and "Sunset After Dark". Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz’s story for "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" does not require audiences to understand the series’ complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. "The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" is a real, stand-alone movie," Carter explained. "If the show hadn’t existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen." It's been ten long years since the first film, six years since the close of the series, and Carter and Spotnitz felt the time was right for a new The X-Files movie, not only to provide the show’s legions of fans with a new case for Mulder and Scully, but to introduce a new generation to these characters already beloved by millions. "It has struck me over the last several years, talking to college-age kids, that many of them really don’t know the show," says Carter. "A twenty year old today would have been too young when the show debuted sixteen years ago. So there’s a whole new audience for The X-Files. And this film was made to satisfy them, as well as our longtime fans." Does that mean this film is a nostalgia trip? Not according to Spotnitz. "Writing and making this film was far more than an exercise in nostalgia. Chris and I took a long, careful and emotional look at Mulder and Scully and where they would be at this point in their lives. We would talk for hours and hours about the story and what it meant to us." The two filmmakers decided that the story, and the critical Mulder-Scully dynamic, would take place in what they call 'real time': it’s been six years since we last saw them in the series finale, and the film would reflect that progression. "They’re six years older and six years wiser, and their relationship has evolved quite a bit," says Carter. "Mulder and Scully have gone through a lot in that period, so there is much in the movie about the state of their relationship, and its future." David Duchovny says that presenting Mulder and Scully as they are today, was a critical decision. "It was important to allow time to go on in the world of The X-Files as it’s gone on in the world at large. I think one of the most interesting things we do as actors is to try and embody the same character as time goes by, working with the changes of life or consciousness that happen to us with time." On the set of "The X-Files: I Want To Believe", the electricity between the actors and between their respective characters was impressive even to those who had witnessed it up close for so many years. "The chemistry with David is completely easy," says Anderson. "It’s something we seem to be able to slip into with our eyes closed. From the second we started working together on this film, it was there." "The first day of shooting, when I saw David and Gillian working together, I got chills," Carter recalls. "David and Gillian have always had that chemistry. Seeing them working together was like having the family back together." The Mulder-Scully love story remains a very different kind of screen romance. "It’s always been a chaste kind of relationship," Duchovny (Golden Globe winner for "The X Files" & "Californication") said. "It’s an old-fashioned romance where all the physical intimacy is achieved through looks, or by holding hands, or by kisses on the forehead. Mulder and Scully are meant for each other. But there’s always an obstacle that threatens their relationship. This movie is very much about that obstacle." "For me, The X-Files has always been a romance, an intellectual romance of the mind that’s very rare and restrained. It is intimate but not physical. That is a big part of the chemistry. And from the beginning of the show, it was David and Gillian who created our success. Without them, the show would not have worked," Carter stated. Duchovny pointed out he had wanted to return to Fox Mulder and The X-Files since the show ended its long run in 2002. "I always felt that The X-Files as a movie franchise had real life in it." Duchovny thought he could slip back easily into the character. But when cameras started rolling he discovered that finding Mulder was Duchovny thought he could slip back easily into the character. But when cameras started rolling last winter, he discovered that finding Mulder was more elusive than he had expected. "I thought I would fall back into Mulder very naturally, but at first playing the character felt a little odd. I didn’t want to make any drastic changes in the way I played Mulder because the character is so well-known. But of course I’m older now, and so is Mulder; so some things had to change." Similarly, Anderson found returning to Dana Scully came not without significant effort. "On the first day of shooting I was pretty confident about returning to the role. I am usually terrified when I start a project, but that wasn’t the case with this one." But the challenges of slipping back into a character Anderson thought she had left behind years before quickly became apparent. "I had a really difficult first couple of days of shooting the film. I was having a really hard time finding Scully’s voice, and I think part of that is because since the show ended, I’ve been doing everything in my power to take on roles that were very different from Scully. The work I’ve been doing since the show ended has involved creating new characters from scratch." Amanda Peet joins The X-Files universe as ASAC Dakota Whitney. Like everything else connected to the film, details about Whitney have been shrouded in secrecy. "Whitney enlists Mulder’s help with a case," Peet revealed. "She is an FBI agent who may, or may not, begin to feel a connection with Mulder. It felt a bit odd to be a guest in this phenomenon. But it was enjoyable, too, becoming a part of this world that is so well-established. And to watch David and Gillian portray this iconic couple was extraordinary." Peet notes that the shoots physical rigors were perhaps her greatest challenge. "I should have suspected something, when, before production began, Chris Carter asked me if I was fit, could I run in the snow? Now, I had given birth eight months earlier, and I hadn’t exactly been running any marathons. But of course I told Chris, 'Yeah, I’m in shape!' And the first four days of filming had me running, running and running, and hoping I would look cool," Peet ("The Whole Nine Yards", "Melinda and Melinda" & "Syriana") recalls. Duchovny was quick to point out that "It’s impossible to look cool running in snow." Rapper and host of MTV's "Pimp My Ride", Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner was cast as Agent Mosley Drummy. Xzibit, a longtime fan of the series, says that "being part of the lineage of this great phenomenon is incredible." Billy Connolly ("The Man Who Sued God") was cast to play former Catholic Priest Father Joseph Crissman, a dark, complex character with a haunted past which includes being convicted of buggering Alter Boys. Connolly describes Crissman as "a character to which audiences will react strongly, which is one reason I was drawn to it. When Chris Carter told me about Father Joe, I knew I must do the part; and thus horrify my family and friends." But it seems it was Connolly who got the biggest shock when he found out that his long-time admirer Chris Carter "had me in mind when he wrote the character!" In keeping with tradition, filming an X-Files story can be an inherently strange experience, especially when it becomes fodder for Connolly’s brand of off-kilter humor. "When you’re doing an X-Files movie, you’re not going to be singing 'Kum Ba Yah' around a campfire," the father of five says. "You know that it’s just going to be a weird experience." One thing that cannot be overlooked is the massive security surrounding details of the films storyline, production and several of its characters. It seems the filmmakers wouldn’t have it any other way. "To me, this movie is like a Christmas present. I want it opened on Christmas morning and not before," says Carter. "I don’t want people shaking the box or sneaking a peek under the wrapping. I believe that audiences will appreciate and enjoy the moviegoing experience more, if they don’t know the story in advance. So we did everything we could to preserve the surprise." To that end, only the director and producers had a copy of the full script. All who read it were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. More than ninety percent of the shooting crew had little information about the story, including 2000 Leo Award winning Production Designer, Mark Freeborn. "I’ve never done a film before without having a script close at hand," he said. "If you were one of the anointed, you had one with your name watermarked on it. But even then, I could only refer to it in a secure room with three video monitors trained on me." He revealled that a running joke developed amongst some production crew members which came up when they had a question about something. How did it go? "Well, let me check my script. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have one!", he says. "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" was filmed where it all began in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which served as the TV series’ home base for its first five years. Cameras rolled for three months throughout the city and some of its surrounding municipalities, including Pemberton (where temperatures often dropped below 0 degrees Celsius) which doubles as Somerset, West Virginia for the opening scenes of the film. It was so cold shooting at night that Anderson had trouble moving her lips to deliver her lines. It was here Carter and his team staged some of the movie’s most dramatic exterior scenes and stunt sequences. Synopsis

One of their agents has gone missing. All signs point to a violent struggle. Is she dead or could she still be alive? With no body and no clues grave fears are held for her safety. Convicted paedophile Father Joseph Crissman believes his visions can provide the answers. Under the direction of ASAC Dakota Whitney a seach has begun of site the disgraced priest says holds a sign. It reveals a severed limb. But it doesn't belong to the missing agent. Scully, now pursuing a career as a physcian in a hospital, is approached to bring Mulder back into the fold, to rejoin the same people who have totally discredited him, and help them find their agent. For all intent and purpose, Mulder has disappeared off the face of the earth, but the Agency believes Scully knows where to find him. She convinces him to bury the past and assist in the search. Time is of the essence and Mulder puts his faith in Crissman. He thinks, that despite the former priests past sins and conviction, he is the real deal. Scully thinks Crissman is a fraud.

The Verdict "While many critics claim the "The X-Files" is way past its useby date, dedicated fans of the TV series will surely disagree. Let's be honest, as a fan, could can you ever get enough of Mulder and Scully? They will answer: never! What makes the film watchable is that their chemistry is still there. As soon as the films two iconic lead characters appear together on the screen, that old familiar feeling will washes over you. In a flash, X-Filiens will experience a rush of nostalgia. In true 'The X-Files" fashion, nothing in "I Want To Believe" is as simple as it appears. The vital ingredients which made "The X-Files" so watchable and sustainable during 201 episodes between 1993-2002: the mystery, intrigue, deception and yes, that obligatory 'shock revelation'at the end, are all here: just not with the old intensity. In fact this is a film that 'non-believers' can enjoy in its own right. There's really no need to be a fan, nor is there any need to have a prior knowlege of "The X-File" history. The storyline quickly fills in the gaps in this user-friendly, big screen edition which comes a decade after 1998's "The X Files". Well worth a look at for fans, "The X-Files I Want To Believe" (a.k.a "X-Files 2") should make a satisfying diversion for those cinemagoers who are ABBA'd out and aren't comic book fans. 3 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "X-FILES I WANT TO BELIEVE" was .......
directed by Chris Carter ["The X Files"]; set decoration by 1997 & '98 Emmy Award winner Shirley Inget ["Dudley Do-Right", "Prozac Nation" and "The Long Weekend"]; art direction by Tony Wohlgemuth ["Final Destination 3", "Black Christmas" and "Good Luck Chuck"]; costume design by Lisa Tomczeszyn ["The Punisher", "Elektra" and "Unaccompanied Minors"]; production design by 2000 Leo Award winner Mark Freeborn ["See Spot Run", "Final Destination 3" and "Good Luck Chuck"]; edited by 1998 Academy Award winner Richard Harris ["The Golden Child", "Last Action Hero", "True Lies" and "Titanic"]; cinematography by Bill Roe ["Where the Truth Lies" and "Elektra"]; music conducted by Pete Anthony ["Charlie Wilson's War", "Wanted", "Hancock" and "Space Chimps"]. Who's Who?

David Duchovny Gillian Anderson Amanda Peet Billy Connolly Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner Fagin Woodcock Callum Keith Rennie Adam Godley Alex Diakun Nicki Aycox Marco Niccoli Carrie Ruscheinsky Spencer Maybee Babz Chula Marci T House J.P. Finn Beth Siegler Stacee Copeland Tom Charron Mitch Pileggi

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Fox Mulder Dana Scully ASAC Dakota Whitney Father Joseph Crissman Agent Mosley Drummy 1st Abductor (Franz Tomczeszyn) 2nd Abductor (Janke Dacyshyn) Father Ybarra Gaunt Man 2nd Victim Christian Fearon Margaret Fearon Blair Fearon Surgeon Sheriff Whispering Priest Anesthesiologist Doctor Sheriff Horton Assistant Director Walter Skinner

Run Time 104 minutes Rated M [AUST] Copyright ©2008 - 20th Century Fox Films - All Rights Reserved ©2008 All Rights Reserved The Movie Pages - Protected by Australian, International, Copyright & Trademark Laws.