Subject: Review: Impostor (2002)

From: Steve Rhodes <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2002 23:00:41 -0000

IMPOSTOR
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Paranoia reigns supreme in IMPOSTOR, a sci-fi film based on a Philip K. Dick
short story.  The movie, by director Gary Fleder (DON'T SAY A WORD), has had a
half dozen releases scheduled and then pulled over the past couple of years. 
Recut from its original R-rating, the PG-13 movie finally released is a long
chase picture set in a BLADE RUNNER world in the year 2079.  The movie was
planned to be just one chapter in a three chapter movie.  Stuffed with more
filling than a Christmas turkey in order to make it stand alone, the movie
lumbers along when it should be sprinting.

The story concerns a scientist named Spencer John Olham (Gary Sinise) who has
invented a bomb that might prove to be the definitive weapon in the interminable
war against the aliens, but, like J. Robert Oppenheimer before him, Olham begins
to have doubts about the ethical use of his own creation.  Hathaway (Vincent
D'Onofrio), a leader of Earth's security forces, has no such doubts, telling
Olham, "This  weapon is a godsend.  It will ensure the preservation of our race
and our faith."  This is one of the few thoughts expressed in the film, which
most of the time doesn't have a lot on its mind, save running, hiding and
shooting.

Actually, Olham may or may not be Olham.  Hathaway believes that he is merely a
robot clone with a U-bomb planted in his heart as part of a plot to kill the
Chancellor (Lindsay Crouse).  Olham tries his best to reassure his wife
(Madeleine Stowe) and everyone else that he is still Olham.  The plot has a
heavily drugged Olham trying to get to the hospital to obtain the one and only
test that will prove his identity, while Hathaway and his soldiers try to hunt
him down and kill him.

The movie, which telegraphs that some big ending twist must be coming, doesn't
disappoint when the surprise finally occurs.  The movie isn't bad, but it isn't
particularly good either.  In the end, our sympathies lie less with Olham than
with the studio.  They tried recutting the picture, but it didn't help. 
Mediocre movies like the IMPOSTOR are too good to go direct-to-video but aren't
quite good enough to be released to theaters.  What's a studio to do?  

IMPOSTOR runs 1:36.   It is rated PG-13 for "intense sci-fi violence, some
sensuality and language" and would be acceptable for kids around 11 and up.

My son Jeffrey, age 12, gave it ***.  He liked the plot, the special effects,
Sinise's acting, and, most of all, the ending twist.

The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States.  In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC and the Century theaters.

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X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 277279
X-RT-TitleID: 1111378
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X-RT-AuthorID: 1271
X-RT-RatingText: 2.5/4