During the years since the series, Mulder has been discredited and is living as a fugitive, whilst Scully has left the bureau to become a full time physician. Thankfully the two have no problems slipping back into their trademark roles of paranormal believer and cynical physician as they're faced with the ravings of Billy Connolly's wild-haired and woolly psychic, who's a creepy ex-priest and notorious paedophile.

The film is designed to be a standalone 'episode' which should give the writers a clean slate, allowing them to recreate some of the X-citement of the classic episodes. It's clear that they were still saddled with some of the baggage of the series' more elaborate plot twists and have been obliged to include throw-away references that disrupt the flow of the story. This must be deeply unsatisfying for die-hard fans but it's even more at odds with the film's attempts to make this accessible to the masses. From the lack of opening credits, through the bland snow-scape scenery to the tired re-tread of the faith vs. science discussions, the film feels flat. It's plain to see that creator Chris Carter is a made for TV director; his biggest mistake is to jettison the ingredients that made the show such a success.

The closest that the film gets to dabbling with the paranormal is the presence of the psychic – Connolly's humourless performance is sinister enough but a psychic's visions in a serial killer case is hardly an original premise and does nothing to challenge the boundaries of the audience's beliefs. The sense of mystery and intrigue is lost over the running time as there's barely enough meat on the bones to justify this being any longer than the old hour-length episodes. It feels dull and drawn out in comparison to the frenetic action that we've come to expect from contemporary series such as 24 and CSI, let alone a big summer blockbuster.

I wanted to believe that there was more to this than merely cashing in on the classic show - and call me a sceptic - but there's not a lot here to make me believe otherwise. Had this been condensed into an hour and aired on TV 10 years ago it would have been an average episode at best, but on the big screen this is an in-X-cusable waste of time, money and potential.

Rating *