By RUSSELL BAILLIE
Ben Affleck's apparent mission to make a bad movie in every genre continues.
This time it's sci-fi — another adaptation from the works of Philip K. Dick — and he has Uma Thurman as the love interest and Hong Kong director John Woo trying to give the supposedly
brainy story some action brawn.
In the near-future Affleck is a whiz-kid computer reverse-engineer — a hired gun for cyber-corporations who get him in to copy their competitors' latest developments, improve them, then pass them off as original.
Then in a harsh application of a restraint-of-trade contractual clause, he has his memory zapped so he can't do the same for the next company. Quite how he builds up on-the-job experience or gets any better at what he does isn't clear.
But such is his professional life where his only last memories are his frequent holidays. He gets an offer he can't refuse from a bigwig on a three-year project in a lock-down facility before getting those neurons scrubbed.
Three years later he's out, complete with induced amnesia and suddenly being chased by the FBI for reasons he has to figure out for himself.
Affleck is at his wooden best throughout, there's no detectable chemistry between him and Thurman and the action is disappointingly dull, despite Woo's reputation.
DVD features include director's and screenwriter's
commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes on production design and stunts, deleted and extended scenes and an alternate ending (which didn't improve things).
DVD, video release July 7
