Impostor (2001)

If you like impressive-looking sci-fi with lots of running around, you might like this. On the other hand, if you like thoughtful, intelligent science fiction, you can safely give this one a pass. With a talented cast, good budget, and a terrific premise by Phil Dick (who also inspired the brilliant Blade Runner and Total Recall), this should have been a fine movie. I don't know whether to blame the director, the writer (adapter), or both. (Each has done things I've liked in the past.) There are lots of troublesome inconsistencies, but I want to keep spoilers to a minimum. I can suspend disbelief and I think I have a fair tolerance for implausible heroics and holes in plots. But in science fiction or in fantasy, realism by default must be grounded in the characters, and I couldn't make myself believe the two leads—one a supposedly brainy weapons scientist, the other a top intelligence official—could possibly be so much stupider than the viewing audience. Neither seems capable of self-reflection or insight into the motives of anyone else. An interrogation scene near the beginning of the movie is a brain-numbing disaster. Vincent D'Onofrio's bullet-headed intelligence officer is portrayed as impervious to critical thought and mindlessly cruel. If he believes the circumstances are as he says slightly later in the film, it's senseless for him to act and talk as he does during the interrogation. (Also, didn't anyone ever teach him about the concept of "misinformation"?) Meanwhile, Gary Sinise's rocket scientist, instead of trying to persuade onlookers by asking obvious logical questions, adopts an initial strategy for escape makes no sense whatsoever (and has no obvious point). Mekhi Phifer, good as always, plays the only role that seems remotely plausible. The film director does achieve the small miracle of making a character played by Madeleine Stowe uninteresting, but at least she is given the chance to ask, halfway through the film, the question every character should have been asking from the beginning: "How can you be sure?" That is the central theme of Dick's message, although it's message few of the characters in this film could have understood.

IMPOSTOR is an easy viewing science fiction action thriller starring the underrated Gary Sinise, one of my favourite "those guy" actors after his fine performances in the likes of RANSOM. It's another film based on a story by Philip K. Dick and like TOTAL RECALL and BLADE RUNNER it has an ambiguous central character whose identity will keep you guessing throughout.The plot is so straightforward that it can be condensed into a single sentence: the authorities think Gary Sinise is an alien android come to destroy Earth, he thinks he's innocent. As with those other two films mentioned, the whole film keeps you guessing as to Sinise's real identity right until the worthwhile climax, which doesn't disappoint. The rest follows the low budget action template with a lot of chases, some dodgy CGI effects, and a generally good sense of momentum.Sinise is supported by able actors even if they aren't given a great deal to do. Madeleine Stowe is his wife, Vinceint D'Onofrio the vengeful cop on his tail. Mekhi Phifer gives a good turn as the ally he teams up with to fight back against those oppressing him. The action scenes suffer from some average to poor camera-work, and there's some odd use of stock footage from earlier sci-fi movies like STARSHIP TROOPERS, but otherwise this is generally watchable stuff, although not in the same league as TOTAL RECALL or BLADE RUNNER.

IMPOSTOR is a good movie, a solid and effective adaptation of Philip Dick's short story. The screenplay is gripping and tightly written. It's a wild ride, troubling, involving. The story is simple but not simplistic. It has some surprises.All of the key characters' performances are good, and some are extraordinary. Gary Sinise is spot-on as the protagonist, Spencer Olham, running and fighting for his life and something more. Madeleine Stowe gives a genuinely moving performance in the role of Maya, Olham's wife. The chemistry and sense of love between them form the heart of the story.I saw the original on HBO years ago, and liked it enough that I recently bought the DVD with the director's cut. I'm not sure what the differences are, but this cut does feel leaner and tighter. The effects are uneven, which I expect is due to the movie's origin: it was originally conceived as a short, then the producers switched gears in midstream and retooled it into a full length feature. Some of the visuals are borderline, by today's standards, reminiscent of some bad moments on the Sci Fi channel. Others are excellent, so don't let that stop you from seeing the movie.Looking past the uneven SFX, the movie is well worth seeing. One caution: if you haven't seen IMPOSTOR, and see any reviews that warn of spoilers, don't read them. Much of the story's emotional impact has to do with specifics of the plot it's best not to know about when watching it the first time.

I now have the pleasure of having witnessed Gary Sinese's worst movie and worst acting job! I didn't think he could act this bad, given his incredible performances in other works.This tells the story of a distant future (set too close to our own date at 2075) where we are moving out to colonize other stars (having colonized most of our own solar system btw) and at the first stop (wouldn't ya know it!) we encounter a hostile alien race, that amazingly, is pretty much en par with us technologically other than their advanced biological engineering capabilities, leading to a brutal war with nasty alien battlecruisers dropping by every now and again to drop nukes on us, while we dogfight in space with the enemy in futuristic fighters (they blew about 3/4 of the special effects budget in the opening credits and first 5 minutes of the movie) So, obviously the planet Earth has gotten a bit paranoid and harsh through all this, especially when you throw in that the aliens can send 'biological robots' to impersonate us and conduct sabotage missions. To further stretch this plot device to spider silk thin believability, we are also led to believe that when they copy us, they get all of the person's memories, emotions, behaviors, forget they are even an assassin droid, and can morph into a deadly nuclear bomb in seconds when they are triggered, yet this is only detectable by very advanced medical testing.It takes the hard to believe Cylon human replicants to a whole new level, and your left not believing any of it.This of course, leads the ultra-fascist government to abduct and torture anyone who even hints of being an alien, (perhaps a simple "excuse me sir, would you please accompany us to the nearest lab where we can run some routine tests??" would be better than, "I heard you might be an alien! So we are going to drill out your chest to see! Hold still please!")and our poor Gary soon finds himself in this boat. He reacts with horrible acting, to counter the villain torturer's horrible acting. The fight and chase scenes are amateur and hilariously bad. The plot is easily figured out except for the silly second-twist at the very end that really doesn't leave you feeling any better about the movie overall.I would take a definite MISS on this, and if the idea of this intrigues you, I'd recommend re-watching Blade Runner and a few of the new Battlestar Galactica shows instead.