A Pleasant Suprise
I just grabbed this DVD used.
It was a place where if you bought 2 used DVDs it was just $15 so I grabbed Replicant to make up a set. I figured for $7 I couldnt go wrong... I never minded Van Damme and I think Ringo Lam is a competent director.
Well i was indeed pleasantly suprised !
It wasnt a bad movie at all ...
The budget was used wisely, Van Damme was incredibly good as a confused and frightened clone. Pretty menacing (if 1 dimentional) as the villian too.
Rooker was also excellent. The performances were given by people who obviously cared about the film. Rooker could have sleepwalked through this but he didnt .. he treated the roll like a lead in a major film.
Some high points i enjoyed :
The gymnastics routine he kept doing that he learned from TV .. always ending in the dismount arms up ... it was funny and not overused.
The ambulance chase and resulting crash was inspired
The 'i can read your mind' backfire at the end. (with the shovel)
The clone getting more and more anxious knowing the apartment was boobytrapped.
Van Dammes VERY gradual developement as the clone .. handled very well.
There were a lot of nice little bits like that in there ...
They far outweighed the couple of plot holes and made it a much better film that it had the right to be ...