IRREVERENT Magazine - Movie Reviews

As far as clone movies go, I suppose The Sixth Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest little vehicle, is as good as any.  It's like Michael Keaton's Multiplicity went cyberpunk and found a plausible background, but then decided it wanted to be an action movie after all and just started exploding electric squibs all over the place.  The overall effect was disappointing, especially since it had  a relatively credible beginning premise.

It's the future and cloning, while not legal for humans is becoming commonplace for pets.  See, people who lost their beloved cat Fluffy now have a way to make it immortal: a company called "RePet" will take Fluffy's hangnail and grow you a whole new kitty, complete with Fluffy's memories.  How exactly Fluffy's memories get back into the Fluffy-clone, well, you just have to accept it.  There's a thing called "simcording," and that's how they do it, whatever that is.  Ok, I'll suspend a certain amount of disbelief.

As the first act unfolds, we are introduced into this "near future" world in which corporate interests have exploited a new technology and found a niche market, a niche they hope to expand into a much more lucrative endeavor.  The technology and effects are credible, and makes sense against the backdrop of current issues.

That is until Adam Gibson (Arnie) comes home one day and sees himself inside kissing his wife.  Did you get that?   His name is "Adam."  Ha ha.

So Adam sees his wife kissing (and doing various other things) to his clone, and he begins to wonder what the hell happened between breakfast and dinner to make someone break the law and clone him. Some goons helpfully show up and kidnap him and the chase is on, transforming the normal joe helicopter pilot into a gunslinging maniac capable of liquefying ten thugs a minute.  It's a sight to behold.

There's an evil genius (played by Tony Goldwyn) at the head of it all, and Robert Duvall as Dr. Griffin Weir to add credibility.  Duvall gives a very capable and the most believable performance of the lot, as you'd expect, playing the widower scientist alone in his moral stance against the technology he himself has created.  Unfortunately, Duvall's lead is never followed up and the flick offers nothing but trite cliches and meaningless platitudes against the "evils of cloning."

It was apparent that the set designer and rest of the support staff really did their homework here.  The props were inventive and believable, and parts of the script were different and unpredictable.  Yet by the time the credits are rolling , you're left almost completely empty, and wondering why, if cloning is so bad, that they made so many copies of this film....