A Face Oculta

Sorry to say, in this outing, Stephen Baldwin can't act his way out of a paper bag. To top it off, his haircut looks like it was done by a barber school drop-out. Here he has two roles, that of the family man writer of mysteries, and the other a "clone" raised to be a killer without a memory.

I get that his alter-ego would be pretty lame in the emotive expressions department due to his upbringing, but Baldwin does the same thing with his main writer character. Of the Baldwin brothers, he is pretty much the most limited in acting ability, yet can still do well if directed well. That didn't happen here. This is evidenced by other superb actors being allowed to put in rudimentary performances.

Stephen Baldwin looks as though he'd be super as a Western villain, as he has that sort of appearance, smallish darting eyes, a sneering sort of smile. Though I typically like him in films, and partly because he can't rely upon the Baldwin appearance, he's not really got the leading man looks. He can still be a fine character actor.

FYI, the US DVD release states on the back that it's the 132 min version, but in fact it is the full-length two-part 190+ min version as was originally broadcast. I think they just took the shorter version VHS liner notes and placed them on the DVD.

I rented this as a DVD, unaware that it was originally made for TV. The screenplay has obvious breaks in it where commercials are meant to go, and they were so emphatically built up that I kept reaching for the "mute" button on the remote!

The story itself works, and Baldwin does a good job of carrying off both the good guy and the bad guy role. The writer and director seem to have the good sense not to overdo things.

Take for example the kid characters. Two young girls, obviously hostage bait, and they end up in the bad-guy's hands more than once. They're cute, but they are neither too brainless or unreasonably savvy, and we've seen too much of both extremes in that role in similar films. The older one does some fairly clever thinking that adds to the story.

Less well convincing were the cops, who start out good when they doubting the hero's story, but actually become more passive as the show goes on.

Probably the best thing to watch is not the villain, but the villain's villain, Drew Oslett Jr. Thomas Church actually looks like he could be James Coburn's son. But it is character's internal pain that drives the whole story. Church does his best, but it would have been interesting to give him more screen time to do it in.

The "science" part of this movie is really skipped over; anyone not willing to suspend disbelief will be sorely unsatisfied.

All in all worth seeing for a weekend with nothing else to do.

Good Film. Decent Acting. Fine Plot (kinda like Soldier). Too Long !!!

The film starts well. It had me thinking that this kind of GM/Clone type stuff is possible and may well have been tried by governments as we speak. After a great opening 45 minutes the film descends into farce. Chase, evade, catch fight, chase, escape, fight, catch, chase, etc... At on point it feels like a superman flick. One leaves as the other enters, etc. Laughable. I did however enjoy the pathetic special effects when Baldwin was fighting with himself. Shocking!

Ok.. I was planning to give this one a bad review, and when I found out that I saw the 127 minute edited version and not the hour longer original version, it just came clear to me how lucky I was. In short, if you've ever seen a thriller before then you will know all the twists and turns and it's just boring and bad. As for the "effects" when Stephen Baldwin wrestles himself... we just fell over laughing. And if you've ever read more than one Dean R. Koontz book then you probably know it involves a government experiment gone wrong. Avoid. Please.

The actors chosen to play the characters were adequate at best. The premise of the story was changed, making much less sense. The only thing that remained the same was the fact that there was an author and a clone of him. After that the story deteriorates.

I don't know why a Dean Koontz book cannot be made into a movie without making ridiculous changes to the story line. The changes that were made took away the motivation from the characters, so there is no understanding why they do what they do. Drew Oslett actually has a significant reason in the book for pursuing the clone, but that is completely lost in the movie. Clocker's role was pretty insignificant in the movie, but was essential in the book. This movie was not worth the two nights of viewing. If you want a good story, read the book.