Xchange - 48 Horas Para Morrer

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.

X Change is pretty standard B grade cable TV sci fi but the mostly gratuitous sex scenes make a point of showing bare breasts in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Oh and there are some thoughtful ideas in the story as well.

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.

Don't listen to the other comments here. This is one science fiction movie that works. It manages to get all the things it's got going against it, work *for* it.

Take the male lead, for instance. Stephen Baldwin is not the sharpest knife in the drawer (and indeed, hasn't exactly starred in a lot of quality movies). So in this movie he's got no mind of his own. He's an assembly line clone, used as a host or worker body for the corporate jetset. That's putting a man of Stephen Baldwin's caliber to the best possible use!

The movie is about mind transfers. That's the plot, and the writer takes the utmost consequence of what this means. A plot that would be an insufferably silly stunt-of-the-week on an episode of Star Trek, Stargate or Farscape, manages here to be described disturbingly realistically and in a near-present day setting. Every possible twist that could possibly be imagined if this technology existed is commented on in one way or the other. No stone is left unturned. The sexual possibilities alone remain an important on-going sub-plot. This is highly unusual for a run-of-the-mill sci fi/action flick.

The SFX are fairly few, and integrated seamlessly and perfectly into the story. The one-molecule-thick cutting wire is really cool.

Like I said, it works. All of it. It is engaging, coherent, tasteful (all the four female main characters have topless scenes, and no, they are *not* gratuitous, but enhance the characterization), well-written, and goes out of its way to avoid clichés. For commercial flicks of any kind, this doesn't happen often. It's too bad the guy who wrote it hasn't done anything else.

I'm amazed to see that most of the commentators here have such a low opinion of this movie. Don't listen to them. This movie succeeds in everything it sets out to do. For a B movie, it is good. Surprisingly good. It will hold up for several viewings, if you're the type of person who can appreciate it. This is going to be a cult favorite.

8 out of 10.

I thought Kyle McLachlin was a great bad guy. The atmosphere was wonderful and the music quite good. It was a world fully realized and the way the characters crept through the plot was well drawn. I'd see it again if it were replayed.