By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * )
Arnie Schwarzenegger's movie came out all of six months ago, and the headlines in the few weeks since have made its plot even more chilling.
Here's the setup: it's not far past the present. Every mall has a RePet store that will clone
your dead pet for you but human cloning has been outlawed.
Naturally there is a black market in human clones, like the football star lying brain-dead after being hurt in a match.
"We have a lifetime contract with a vegetable," says the manager as life-support is switched off. Surprise, in just a few days our boy is out there on the paddock again.
Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) and his pal Hank (Michael Rapaport) fly rich skiers to the mountains in their helicopters.
Adam is happy with his wife, Natalie (Wendy Crewson), and daughter but there's a cloud. Their dog just died. Should they have him cloned?
Adam is squeamish about the idea and Hank is not the guy to debate deeply ethical questions. He lives with a computer-generated holographic Perfect Virtual Woman .
Lurking behind this cloning business is a shadowy corporation run by Drucker (Tony Goldwyn), his brilliant scientist Dr Weir (Robert Duvall) and the seductive, ruthless Talia (Sara Wynter).
For various plot contrivance reasons they want to kill and clone Hank, but mistakenly they knock off Adam instead, leaving the rest of the movie populated by two Arnold Schwarzeneggers who both think they're the real thing, which leads to much confusion for wife, daughter, pal, the closely trailing nasties and each other.
Good entertainment value with quite some relevance to today's headlines, tomorrow's reality.
Running time: 124 mins
Rental: Today
