"He is synesthetic. He sees sounds and
hears pictures," Was said. "That is an
amazing sensitivity."
For the movie, Was was given a
script printed on red pages to discour-
age photocopying and faxing. A fan of
the show, Was didn't finish reading it
because he wanted to leave open the
possibility of feeling frightened and
surprised by the ending.
"Chris likes to scare the crap out of
people," he said. He is a very sweet,
nice guy with brightness in his eyes,
but if you scratch the surface there is a
darker being."
But working with such luminaries
as Carter, Sting and Dylan has not
tainted the boy who grew up in Oak
Park.
"Our neighborhood was kind of the
early version of the one that got
destroyed in Poltergeist," said Was.
"There were 17 kids in each house,
and the houses all looked the same."
Was grew up as one of five Weiss
children, the offspring of Rube and
Liz, local character actors on locally
recorded, nationally distributed radio
shows such as "The Green Hornet"
and "The Lone Ranger."
Rube also snagged the spotlight
annually when he played Santa Claus
in the Hudson's Thanksgiving Day
Parade. It was a job Was pleaded with
him to quit after a bomb threat target-
ed the big man's sleigh.
"Only in Detroit would there be a
bomb threat on Santa's sleigh," said
Was.
Was continues to associate strongly
with the area, in part because of his
good memories of growing up in a
strongly Jewish neighborhood in Oak
Park and also because he still has three
siblings and his mother in the area.
He returns as frequently as possible
to "become grounded."
"In Hollywood, there is this refor-
mulation of the Cartesian theorem 'I
think, therefore I am.' [In L.A.], it is 'I
am on television, therefore I am,'" he
said. "There is no sense of community.
Everyone is out for himself.
"I don't want to idealize Detroit
and make it a paradise. It is thorny,"
he said. "But you come back to
Detroit and you see it is a very black-
and-white existence. In Hollywood, it
is a very rubber town."
Was said he hopes to stop in
Detroit in the fall when he and his
bandmates hope to tour. Until then he
continues to work in L.A. — where he
lives with his wife and children — on
"new deals" that include his younger
brother, Jonathan Weiss. ❑

The big-screen version o
fiivortte
gets a mixed but mostly positive review.

he willingness to believe
is, and always has been,
the crux of the television
show "The X-Files."
In the very first episode in the
very first scene between FBI Special
Agents Dana Scully (Gillian
Anderson) and Fox Mulder (David
L)uchovny), a poster on the wall of
Mulder's office declare,s, "I Want To
Believe."
It is a theme that has been carried
;‘from episode to episode, through five
seasons and, yes, right up to the first
.c feature-length film, opening
hOter

Was it great? Unfortunately, no.
As a stand-alone movie, it falls short
of greatness, mainly due to plot holes
so big that an alien spacecraft could
fly right through them.
For example, in one scene Mulder
is told he has to be at certain longi-
tudinal and latitudinal degrees with-
in a matter of minutes. In the next
scene, Mulder impossibly appears
onscreen at those far-reaching coor-
dinates, at the wheel of a giant trac-
tor driving across the frozen tundra.
i is
No explanation
i offered as to how
he got there or how he is able to
maneuver the machine, a mode of

holes and accept the possibility of a
worldwide governmental conspiracy.
But plot holes and background
knowledge aside, the film on its own
is entertaining.
Scully and Mulder, two of the
greatest characters ever created for
television, are as commanding, enter-
taining, sexy, smart and hilarioms on
the big screen as they are every week.
Their repartee is fast and funny, and
their physical chemistry is pure
genius.
The supporting cast— including
Oscar winner Martin landau as the
darkly troubled Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil,
Armin Mueller-Stahl as the evil
Strughold. and Blythe Danner as

.ng'the show's
theme, deliver extra
ait
ood of every scene.
For a fan ,_ ow, the film is
definitely wo40* ing. For the
novice, it is a ride worth catching ---
if you're able to catch up on the
reruns and suspend disbelief for 90
minutes or so.
Rated PG-13.

g

event sets off a powerful but at timi
bewildering chain of events that
involves staples of the television
show: several chase scenes in the dark
with flashlights, Scully and Mulder
calling out each other's names and,
of course, aliens.
Is it good? Yes, very. As an action
thriller, it is a wonderful extension of
the award-winning show. Although
the creep factor delivered in such
episodes as "L,eonard Betts" or
"Home" is lessened in the movie,
there are far more edge-of-the-seat,
let-your-blood-run-cold moments
than in a week of "X-Files" reruns.

,

transportation woe
Washington, D.C.,
Die-hard fans w
pend belief, but X- Piles n„ ,
who may not be familiar •
television show will be hard:presse
to pick up on all that the show's
devout followers have been privy to
in the 125 episodes preceding the
film.
Those who are having their first
X-Files contact do not know the
characters' motivations, their history,
their shared experiences, and they
will be least willing to accept the plot

— Reviewed

****
***
**

Excellent
Worthy
Mixed
Poor
Forget It

No Stars

Jill David Sklar is a Huntington
Woods freelance writer and "X-
Files" fanatic.

•,‘

\"'‘'

""

'"‘"

6/19
1998

99