Ah, it was PG-13, that explains it

I remember seeing this movie and being disappointed as both a science fiction and Arnold fan. It's not that the movie is bad, it's because it shows so many signs of greatness yet falls short mostly because of two odd decisions: Arnold and the PG-13 rating. The story was surprisingly compelling for an Arnold film, but this movie should have never cast Arnold if they wanted to focus on story and character. Since they did cast Arnold, it was mind boggling to me that the action was so toned down and lame, especially when compared to his past sci-fi flicks like Total Recall and The Running Man.

So after nearly 13 years since I first saw it in the theaters I decided to watch it again, and have the same problems I did the first time through. Whose bright idea was it to cast Arnold? Whose bright idea was it to make it PG-13? These decisions kill the movie.

I never paid much attention to ratings and their effects on movies, particular the action genre, until 4 years ago when I watched Taken and felt something was missing from the action scenes. While Taken was still a great action flick with cleverly edited fights to avoid the R rating, the action in The 6th Day is watered down as hell. The action scenes are drawn out and boring as if they were never supposed to be there in the first place, just added in because Arnold was the lead.

The nags I have with this film:

- An uncensored Michael Rooker could have been just as awesome as Michael Ironside in Total Recall.

- Arnold's character was a combat seasoned war veteran, yet we didn't see him in any meaningful fights and only saw him break one guy's neck in the tamest way possible. He also spent most of his time fighting the woman, which was odd. There should have been one hell of a bloody battle between him and Terry Crews, but we got nothing.

- The guns are plasma based and while they look cool at first, ballistic based weapons would have been far more satisfying. The plasma gun allowed them to keep in line with the rating and avoid bloody bullet holes and traditional gun violence. Yes Michael Rooker got his foot burned off, but it was done cleanly and in a comedic way. These gun battles were very boring and dragged on, particularly towards the end.

- The main antagonist's death at the end was woefully unsatisfying for an action film featuring Arnold, but they couldn't show him getting chopped up by the helicopter rotors or going splat once he hit the ground because of the rating.

- The "go clone yourself so you can go *beep* yourself" line was a misfire because it wasn't worded as I wrote it. The line was still funny, but should have been straight to the point as classic Arnold would have said it. The next time he says it, he uses the word "screw" because his one time use of the F word was up thanks to the rating.

- Arnold can't act, his appeal comes from his screen presence and facial expressions while kicking ass on screen. This script demanded an actual actor, not an action star.

So Arnold held this back from being a better thriller and the rating held this back from being a great Arnold film. It was a major missed opportunity which is a damn shame.