Xchange

This was another of those films you catch when channel hopping the movie channels, normally I just catch the start of many films and get very quickly bored and move on, not this time. It created a whole new (scary) world that was very clean and very techno. Our hero was very competently played by Kim Coates with whom I was not very familiar with, as the film moved on (without giving too much away it's about the transfer of conciousness from one body to another) the lead was played by a succession of characters, Kim Coates for the introduction part, Kyle MacLachlan for the 'what's happening to me' bit and finally Stephen Baldwin for the action role. Each one bringing just what was needed to pull off the role. I highly recommend this film. My congrats and thanks to all those involved.

This is a completely trivial lightweight action flick, yet it succeeded in entertaining (at least me). Its science fiction setting is almost entirely window dressing, although a few valiant efforts have been made to illustrate the futuristic setting. Most of the time these gadgets and technological wonders look and seem familiar from other, more innovative movies, but here they've been done convincingly enough.

The actors all do decent work, maybe with the exception of Janet Kidder, whose on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown persona is a bit grating for my tastes. Neither am I plagued by an allergy of the Baldwin brothers, that some of the other reviewers here seem to be suffering from. Stephen seems to be doing just fine on the acting front, maybe even better than his more famous brothers :)

The tension in the plot is constant, if totally predictable. Yes, you have probably seen this done before a dozen times (at least), so don't see it if you're always craving for something brand new and original. But... it's done quite well, so it's a safe bet. Science fiction, it's not, though. Good show. A 5 out of 10 from me.

actually - surprisingly good! xchange has an interesting story, very good in the details. it is overall well thought - as a set, story and 'futuristic society' elements. it does say 'made-for-tv' and 'low-budget' all over it, but it is un-deserved to treat it like a bad movie, in fact i'd say it overachieves, and this is mainly due to the story.

given better budget this could be a movie hit, alas all the sex scenes would've been cut then :)

it is a kind of surprising about these sex scenes, as they don't add anything to the story. actually they make this already low-budget movie seem like a high-budget erotic movie if you're really biased to look at things this way

anyway - as a sci-fi fan i enjoyed 'xchange', and thats all i have to say about that

XChange's jumping-off point involves an extremely clever way to travel - you switch into someone else's body, and they switch into yours; that way you can attend that all-important meeting in San Francisco without never actually leaving New York. Smart, huh. But with new technology comes new evil-doers - body terrorists, who 'float' from one body to another, wreaking havoc along the way. This is an endlessly creative flick that never gets boring, with another great performance from Kyle MacLachlan to boot. See it in any state of your choosing.

In the near future, corporate customers can save time on air travel by jumping into other bodies for short periods of time. Despite being unwilling, Toffler jumps into a body in order to attend a meeting in San Francisco. However, when it comes to returning to his old body he is told that his body has been stolen by the terrorist who had been in the body he jumped into. Toffler jumps into a clone in order to escape and, with a temporary body decomposing over 54 hours, he sets out to find Fisk and reclaim his body.

In the near future, body switching is possible for the rich, id badges tell everyone who you are, High Fidelity is playing at the cinema, but yet nobody has ever seen the film Face/Off. Yes - this is the future as seen in a low budget movie. Alarm bells rang for me when the credits revealed that this was, yes, a film who's main cast were Baldwin, MacLachlan and Coates! Happily though, it wasn't actually that bad, just rather unexciting and uninspiring. The plot has promise but it doesn't deliver it well enough. Face/Off had the same basic plot but it moved much quicker and slicker than this. The problem is that the plot feels too baggy and ill thought out with too much that isn't fully expanded on. This wouldn't be a major problem if the film moved slickly and with a lot of energy.

Sadly, it doesn't. The film has the odd exciting moment but generally it lacks tension and is a bit too slow and talky. Three times the film falls back on needless sex scenes in an attempt to give the audience what it came for. The conclusion of the film is obvious and, for that reason, lacks punch. It's a shame because, even with a low budget and less-than-perfect effects, the film could still have been exciting if the director had done a better job with the pacing of the film; as it is he delivers it too slowly.

The good ideas flicker up along the way - the best being near the end as Toffler's disregard for his cloned body becomes useful, but generally it is quite lacklustre. Even though the cast suggested worse, they were actually reasonably good. Coates is always watchable and, don't worry, after a brief spell as the good buy he soon changes to the bad guy role. MacLachlan seems to have taken the role just as a cameo and a chance to have a sex scene. Baldwin is slumming and it shows a bit too often. He is OK for the film but he didn't have that much in the way of charisma; sure he played more than one character, but he still wasn't all that hot.

Overall this is not as bad a film as I have maybe put across here. If you have rented it as a cheapy video or are watching it on a low rent cable station, then you probably know what's in store. As such, it works OK but it is still hard to overlook a plot that could have been tighter and a film that really needed a lot more in the way of tension and excitement to keep it going. Worth watching if you're in the mood.