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For a movie about cloning, it's only appropriate thatThe 6th Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is instilled with a strong sense of déjà vu, namely from Arnold's previous "Who am I?" outing,Total Recall. In that movie, Arnold is a normal Joe who discovers that his entire reality has been co-opted by an evil conspiracy, and has to take his life back by force. The same premise applies here for Roger Spottiswoode's clever if overlong sci-fi thriller--Arnold thinks he's a regular guy leading a regular life, until a twist of fate puts him on the lam from a vast conspiracy that's replaced him with a clone. While he's trying to evade the evil genetics corporation--and its trendy, deadly, clone-friendly assassins (who don't care how many times they're killed: there's more where that came from)--his double is snuggling at home with his wife and daughter. And new legislation outlaws the existence of human clones, so somebody's got to go. But who gets to be live and who gets to be the dead Memorex man?
Why does said genetics corporation want to clone people? How does the kindly scientist (Robert Duvall) fit in? What's the mystery behind the slick billionaire (Tony Goldwyn) who runs everything? It's all kind of irrelevant in the end, as long as it provides a chance for Arnold to indulge in some energetic mayhem and explosive action. What distinguishesThe 6th Dayis its sneaky, humorous--and chilling--look at the near future, taking everyday technological advances and turning them up just a couple notches, envisioning an era with cloned pets, virtual girlfriends, and computers running most everything, from the refrigerator to your car. Arnold is supposed to be a throwback to the "real" world--you can tell because he cherishes his vintage, navigation-system-free Cadillac--but as usual, he just brings his behemoth presence to the role and not much else. Still, he's a friendly enough hero, and he rolls with the punches (literally) all the way through to the end. Too bad the film overstays its welcome by about half an hour--a little shorter and it could have been a breezy sci-fi/action romp. With scene stealers Michael Rooker, Sarah Wynter, and Rod Rowland as the trio of cloned assassins who always come back--again and again.--Mark Englehart
My crap review I like Arnold movies. They are 99% of the time just straight up action with 'who cares much about the story and the plotholes'. This is one of those in my opinion. Sure, it's about cloning, which has been a huge debate for a quite awhile now. But I honestly didnt care much about the good or bad about the cloning. All I cared about was 'which arnold is the original' and 'when am I gonna get to see the clone assassins again and watch them screw up so they can get recloned once again'. I gave this movie 3 stars because:
The Good
1. Action was pretty good. 2. The assassins 3. The helicopters 4. Arnold
The Bad
1. Story was pretty lame 2. Robert Duvall played a crappy part (love the guy and hate seeing him in crap roles) 3. The uneasy feeling I got from Arnold and his wife leading into the sex scene.
That's about it. It's an action movie guys...not a drama.
Miscast lead in an otherwise enjoyable movie. This otherwise enjoyable futuristic action romp is cursed by the casting of a gratingly over-the-hill Arnold. And since it was released and Arnold has gone on to be an unsuccessful, ineffective, nastily prejudiced right-wing politician, it has become increasingly hard to watch his old movies and see him as anything but an unsympathetic person. The movie might have squeaked two stars from me back in the year it was released: now, it's like trying to watch Richard Nixon playing the terminator...Underrated I think that this is a much better film than box-office returns indicated. While this movie clearly demonstrates Schwarznegger's superior taste in science fiction movie scripts, the strong point in this movie is precicely what put off so many movie critics, it's ironic sense of humor.
