Susan Granger’s review of ‘IMPOSTOR’ (Dimension Films)
Is he a human being or is he an evil robotic replicant? That’s the pivotal question in Gary Fleder’s futuristic sci-fi thriller, adapted by Caroline Case, Ehren Kruger and David Twohy from a Philip K. Dick short story. It’s 2079, when Earth is engaged in a seemingly endless war with the aggressively ruthless extra-terrestrials of Centuri. Electromagnetic missile shields protect the cities and paranoid citizens are monitored through ID chips implanted in their spines. Gary Sinese plays Spencer Olham, a military weapons engineer who is happily married to a beautiful physician, Madeleine Stowe – until his identity is questioned by Vincent D’Onofrio, a world-government security officer who believes Olham’s body has been snatched and a replicant sent here on a mission of mass destruction with a nuclear bomb implanted in his chest. Olham rather easily escapes from authorities into an outer Zone, where he befriends a mercenary, Mekhi Phifer, who soon becomes his buddy. There’s lots of repetitive running around in dark tunnels and dim alleys – as they try to retrieve Olham’s DNA from the Veterans Hospital where records are kept – and it’s truly a credit to the acting talents of talented Gary Sinese (who’s also credited as producer) that he can actually elicit some empathy for his tortured, confused fugitive – but, as an adventure, it never matches up to “Blade Runner” or “Total Recall,” which were also based on Philip K. Dick stories. Maybe that’s why it sat on the shelf at Miramax for a couple of years. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Impostor” is a gloomy, grim 4. It’s a mindless action flick with a twist – far better suited to video-viewing than the multiplex.
