DNA

* 1/2 out of ****

Off the top of my head, I cannot recall a movie that is so blatant in its bid to steal ideas and scenes from other motion pictures. With DNA, I see each of the three Indiana Jones films, Jurassic Park, Alien, and especially Predator during the climactic sequence, which is a virtual re-make of the John Mctiernan classic. Taking ideas from other films is harmless, but almost re-creating scenes entirely is usually unforgiveable.

Mark Dacascos stars as Ash, a doctor in Sarawak who's having trouble treating the sick with his understaffed and undersupplied clinic. Along comes Dr. Wessinger (Jurgen Prochnow), who claims to have the knowledge to cure millions of sick people, the source being a specific kind of beetle in the jungle. But once they head out, Wessinger steals the beetles, attempts to kill Ash, and uses the DNA from a fossil to create the "perfect killing machine." Unsurprisingly, it's up to Ash and a female CIA agent (Robin Mckee) to stop the beast.

DNA is a bad movie, but it's certainly not unbearable. The acting is actually quite decent, some of the special effects aren't half-bad, and the locations and sets are rather convincing. Dacascos makes for a dashing hero and Robin Mckee is a very attractive woman who looks alluring trudging through the jungle (she gets a frustratingly brief bra and panties shot).

But in the end, any quality emphasized in the film is for naught. DNA is pure schlock, ripping off a movie every five minutes to pass its running time. The Predator parallels at the end are hilarious: Dacascos sets up almost identical traps and even makes a huge leap into a river to escape the creature. DNA also features what has to be the worst helicopter crash I've seen on film, period, a scene so hilariously awful, you're guaranteed to rewind the scene and see it again.

Dacascos turns in one of his better performances in the total Predator rip off. I mean there was scenes that look like they were cut and pasted right from Predator. The special effects were generally good for a 'B' movie, but there was a few scenes where it looked like they just ran out of money (i.e. the holicopter crash). Not bad if you're in the mood for a little no thinking 'b' sci fi...

When you take three legendary, blockbuster hits Predator (1987), Alien (1979) and Jurassic Park (1993), and you put them in one big cooking pot and add some water. OK, next you put jungle, local Borneo tribes, fake Anaconda snakes, few helicopters and a few gore scenes. Now, Carefully chose actors... But, too late! Jurgen Prochnow with very neurotic performance and nervous eyes, stiff as a board... A fine actor, didn't expect him here... put some B actress just for cuteness, a little kid for more cuteness, Mark Dacascoss for martial arts action fans to see, but WRONG! no martial arts here! And finally add a creature which was created from the bug DNA (a local myth from Borneo tribes, you can see the cravings in the cave at the beginning of the movie, the craves were craved like in 1997... very ancient!) The creature looks like Alien very much, has those movements, but visually it reminds you more of Syl from "Species" (1996), but as a cheap halloween costume, creature has, to look more cool, a heat vision, or a negative vision, or perhaps a combo of sepia and negative... figure it out! It has a cloaking mechanism and it has very lame roars... Now, you spice this with few fake guns, grenade launcher toy and bad acting. And you get this piece of cr... I mean cake. And guess what... you ain't gonna like it.

Right imagine the movie Predator but take away the brilliant cast, the great visual and special effects and replace them with crap acting, pathetic special effects and a rip off plot and you have DNA.

How this movie was allowed to be made I do not know!

1/10

When I got about one hour into the film I noticed something. THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE PREDATOR! These people basicly lifted scenes right out of predator. i.e. the monster is invisible, the hero makes traps and then waits on a tree, the monster has heat seeking vision and the monster looks a lot like the predator. This film had a good creature costume and some good cgi for the it too. But near the end when the helicopter crashes, the effects are probably the worst you have ever seen. Rent it if you want a good laugh. But rent Predator first.

Rated 14A for some violence and some language (Canadian rating)

14A is like a PG-13 rating in the U.S.A.