Old Stuff
Playing God (1997)
Directed by Andy Wilson
"Playing God" (AKA "The Bomb Starring the 'X Files' Guy That Came Out Last Summer") is a memorable first starring role sans "X Files" for D.D.. He plays a "license stripped" surgeon who saves the life of a big time customer of drug Czar Timothy Hutton (who's performance here is merely a continuation of his "City of Industry" character). Out of work and with a bad habit to support. Duchovny can't walk away from the "moolah" that Hutton keeps waving in front of his face and joins his entourage. He also can't walk away from Hutton's girlfriend, the scrumptious Angelina Jolie. She adds some needed triangle heat, but her talents go to waste in this potboiler (yeah, right!). The storyline is a 90's update of the teen drug use warning and low budget gangster melodramas of the late 30's to mid-50's, where all the drug/crime lords had their own hack M.D. in the closet; called upon to clean up messy situations when they arose. It's a tired telling of a familiar tale that D.D. must have appeared in to get some R & R while on "X Files" hiatus. A real snoozer, I saw "Playing God" on the afternoon of it's opening day. The projection system broke down at the midpoint of the show for at least twenty-five minutes. None of the half dozen of us paying patrons bothered to alert theater management! -- Rating: $1.25
Bobby G. -- copyright 1997