Subject: Review: Impostor (2002)

From: Rose 'Bams' Cooper <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2002 22:45:32 -0000

'3BlackChicks Review...'

IMPOSTOR (2002)
Rated PG-13; running time 96 minutes
Studios: Dimension Films
Genre: Science Unreality
Seen at: Celebration Cinema (Lansing, Michigan)
Official site: http://www.dimensionfilms.com/
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0160399
Written by: Caroline Case, Ehren Kruger, Mark Protosevich
  (based on the short story by Phillip K. Dick)
Directed by: Gary Fleder
Cast: Gary Sinise, Vincent D'onofrio, Madeleine Stowe,
Mekhi Phifer, Tony Shalhoub

Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsimpostor.html

Four whole days.  It only took four days for a movie to become the Worst
Of 2002.  I wonder what the other 361 days has in store for us.

THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
In 2079, scientist Spence Olham (Gary Sinise) creates a weapon for the
war that Earth is fighting against Mean Aliens From Somewhere Else.
This action, of course, makes the Government suspect Olham of being an
Alien himself.  Well, more than suspect: without so much as a bit of
verifiable proof - none that the Government is sharing, anyway [sound
familiar?] - Major Hathaway (Vincent D'onofrio) takes Olham in for some
pretty intense debriefing, much to the shock of Gary's wife Maya
(Madeleine Stowe) and best friend Nelson Gittes (Tony Shalhoub).  But
Olham is having none of that: managing against all odds (and logic) to
get away from Hathaway, Olham enlists the help of the mostly unwilling
Kale (Mekhi Phifer) to help Olham clear his name and get his identity
back.

THE UPSHOT
IMPOSTOR was so bad, it hurt my feelings.  It looked ugly, the acting
was completely laughable, the editing looked like a hatchet job, the
writing was incredibly inane, and the directing was atrocious.  It'll be
quite awhile before I can forgive Vincent D'onofrio - a generally solid
actor - for his ham-handed acting here.  Not that Gary Sinese, also
normally a fairly good actor, was any better.  Tony "The Brotha"
Shalhoub should thank his lucky stars for being spared the humiliation
Sinese and D'onofrio suffered.

Ok, so the sound was great; Celebration Cinema's excellent speaker
system saved the day there.  But I rarely go to a movie to check out the
sound effects, no matter how sweet they are.

The fault, as I see it, belongs squarely on the shoulders of director
Gary Fleder.  Hard to believe that with IMPOSTOR, he could make movies
like TOTAL RECALL and THE 6TH DAY look Shakespearean by comparison.
Fleder managed to liberally take standard Us Against Them science
fiction concepts left and right from writers like Phillip K. Dick,
without making them the least bit interesting to sit through for those
96 painful minutes.  And no, overusing slow-motion effects does not make
your film look kewl, dag!  Fleder seemed to do everything within his
power to make the entire audience look eagerly for the nearest exit.  A
few in our audience, exercised that very option.  Oh, how I envied them.

I should probably say more here, but the effort to Bring Meaning to the
waste of celluloid that is IMPOSTOR, is far too great.  Do yourself a
favor: skip the fakers, and just check out Dick firsthand.

THE "BLACK FACTOR" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]:
Do I want to spend a few more reviewing seconds praising Mekhi Phifer
for not completely Sucking when all around him was going quickly
downhill?  Nah.

BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
I don't know much about the man, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that the
loud screeching sound you just heard, was the sound of Phillip K. Dick
rolling over in his grave.  Leave the man be, Hollywood; he earned his
rest.

IMPOSTOR (rating: redlight):

Somebody, call the cops: IMPOSTOR should be arrested for impersonating a
movie.

Rose "Bams" Cooper
Webchick and Editor,
3BlackChicks Review
Entertainment Reviews With Flava!
Copyright Rose Cooper, 2002
EMAIL: [email-masked]
http://www.3blackchicks.com/

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