I
"Recall" seeing this film before...
The general premise and the
first thirty minutes of the film set us up for
what could have been a fantastic Schwarzenegger
adventure. It doesn't quite pan out that way.
I admit that I had "Total
Recall" in the back of my mind as I sat to watch
this film... after all, both stories involve
identity confusion. "The 6th Day" deals with the
issue of illegal human cloning in the not so
distant future. Adam Gibson (Arnold) is an
everyman that gets caught up the dirty business
of a massive corporation that is cloning humans.
Arnold is cloned and we, the viewers, get to
watch both of them chase 'the truth' for two
rather tedious hours.
The first thirty minutes are
very entertaining, with inventive and ingenious
ways of demonstrating the various advances the
world has to offer. RePet is a company that
clones our furry little friends, cars all have
'auto-drive', shaving is a hell of a lot easier,
Sym-Pal is a doll that grows real hair and
interacts with the girl that owns it, and people
pay for things with their thumbprints. Some
witty dialogue, typical Arnold one-liners, and
interesting exposition really get us going...
but then the film starts to fall apart.
What follows the opening set-up is a succession
of dull chases, repetitive exposition, silly
transitions, laser-tag-esque shoot outs, and
poor special effects. The effects in "Total
Recall" (1990) were far superior. This film is
very lethargic for long stretches, and when it
finally does heat up it achieves nothing more
than a crawl. The execution of the plot
disappoints the plot itself... and for that we
need to blame the director. Spottiswoode has
made some very poor films in his career, his
best effort was the James Bond flick "Tomorrow
Never Dies".
The bad guys are cliché as
always in these films... but these bad guys seem
logical rather than maniacal. The ending is
incompetent and all too convenient. It tries to
be touching and emotional but fails to be
either... it is merely clean and bland. I wanted
this film to be fantastic, like the old Arnold
classics ("T2", "Recall", and "True Lies")... it
had the chance, but through no real fault of
Arnold's, "The 6th Day" struggles to deliver.
Close but no cigar for the man who made cigars
chic again. A film that very much resembles
another, as this one does to "Total Recall",
needs to at least be as good as, if not better
than the original. This one is neither.
©
Written by TC Candler
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How We Rated This Film
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TC Candler -
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C- |
| Richard Propes
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Jacob Hall
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Richard
Propes' Comment
N/A
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
