We always get worried when two things show up in movies: The use of voice over narration to tell us character motivation and emotions, and TV stars trying to cross over onto the big screen. The first is often a lazy way of imparting information to the audience and usually gets quite annoying after a short while. Though it's not extremely overused here, it easily could and should have been left out. The second isn't always such a bad thing, although the lure of being a Hollywood movie star often clouds the minds of people who are successful and good at what they do on the small screen. They suddenly get too big for their britches and decide that TV's no longer good enough for them.
While some former TV actors have successfully migrated to the movies, their luck at doing so greatly depends on the vehicle in which they've decided to drive to stardom. Bruce Willis ("Moonlighting") used "Die Hard" to make it, while Tom Hanks jumped from TV's "Bosom Buddies" and made a big splash in "Splash." For every one of those successes, however, are the dismal failures. Just look at the cinematic track record of most of the cast of TV's "Friends," or at Shelley Long ("Cheers") and her movie career. One of the biggest recent failures occurred when David Caruso jumped ship from "N.Y.P.D. Blue" into some colossal flops, but learned his lesson, and has since returned to primetime TV.
All of which leads us to David Duchovny, the star of the successful and critically acclaimed "The X-Files." Sure he had small parts in forgettable films after his brief stint on "Twin Peaks," but it's the "X-Files" that's made him a big star. It's a great show, and Duchovny's dry sense of humor mixes well with the character he plays. So now it's time for him to test the silver screen's waters as the headline actor. With an "X-files" movie coming next year, his handlers probably figured before he's completely typecast as Fox Mulder, they should get him another role, something where he can prove that he can play a different kind of character. Thus, he becomes Dr. Eugene Sands, a drugged out former physician. That's enough of a difference and Duchovny does a decent job, but the movie -- his vehicle -- is an old Chrysler "K" car with nearly flat tires.
While it's passable entertainment, it's just a sluggish retread of so many movies before it and Duchovny is about the only thing that saves it from being a complete "B" type flick. He does an okay job playing a "damaged" man, and is given some of the better lines to say in the film, though they're delivered in his usual dry, expressionless way. His passenger in this vehicle, Timothy Hutton, gets his crack at playing the latest "hot" character in films these days, the crazed villain. Though it's kind of fun to see him ham it up -- when he screams out in song, "Whyyyy? Whyyyy? Whyyy? Delilah...." (ala Tom Jones) he's about as full of swine as one can get -- this type of character is getting old fast.
One would have hoped that his sort of movie would have lots of twists and turns and double crosses, but sadly that's missing. A few funny moments break up the monotony -- an impromptu surgical session on a pool table with some burly biker assistants is priceless -- but many other scenes, including a terribly boring car chase, are listless. Hopefully Duchovny will fare better with the movie version of his popular TV show, and maybe he'll get another crack at making it on the big screen with a better vehicle than this one. Destined for a quick trip to the video shelves, this movie will go down as yet another failed TV to film migration attempt. We give "Playing God" a 3 out of 10.