The 6th Day (2000) Cert 15. Director - Roger Spottiswoode. Writer - Cormac & Marianne Wibberly. Starring - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Goldwyn, Robert Duvall & Michael Rapaport.

Premise - In the near future human cloning has been made illegal, but cloning is a part of life through cloned pets and organs. Adam (geddit?) Gibson comes home one day to find a clone has taken over his life, but why and for what purpose? Being a fan of Arnie is tough in the late 90's, early 00's. Of all his recent films, Batman & Robin (1/5), Eraser (3/5), End Of Days (2/5) & The 6th Day. None have lived up to the high standards set by his 80's movies, Predator (4/5), Total Recall (4/5), The Terminator (4/5). Maybe the Austrian Oak no longer holds the public attention the way he used to, or maybe he's been picking bad projects. I am of the opinion the latter is the case. The problems with The 6th Day are many, but let's deal with what's good first. The acting is of a generally good standard. Duvall is always reliable and doesn't let down here. Rapaport is a solid comedy foil for buddy movies and he does well, as does his hot virtual girlfriend. Even the walking lumberyard that is Arnie doesn't do too badly. Although this is possibly because you get two Arnies for the price of one. The effects are of a fairly good standard, but not good enough that you wonder to yourself, "Is that an effect or real?". Also good is the way the villains' lackeys just get re-cloned when they get killed. One poor guy gets killed twice in two hours! Now to the bad. Tony Goldwyn, whilst I'm sure a good actor, is woefully out of his depth in the role of the villain. Since Arnie has such a huge screen presence you really need a villain which can chew scenery with him. Unfortunately Goldwyn's Drucker is a whiny Bill Gates-a-like nerd. He has no charisma and the film suffers because of it. Director Spottiswoode's Bond film 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (3/5) also suffered from this, maybe it's the way he likes his villains, audiences it seems disagree. Spottiswoode is another problem. A blind monkey randomly pointing a camera could film action scenes better than he could. By the end of the film you are getting tired of yet ANOTHER shoot out and are itching for an action scene with some inovation. The script is also a problem. For me Arnie films NEED corny comedy one-liners. All his good films have had them and this film doesn't, you do the math! I also thought the cloning issue was skirted around slightly. If the film had been made by say, Verhoven or Crononberg we might have gotten a clever action/sci-fi film with a bitting satirical edge, like 'Robocop' (4/5) or 'Existenz' (4/5). As such what we get is a tired formulaic sci-fi/action flick. Although there is a lot wrong with this film I was suitably entertained throughout the running time. And at the end of the day that's all you can really ask for from a popcorn movie like this. It's just sad to see Arnie churn out one lacklustre flick after another. Ordinarily this film would only score 2, but Arnies presence boosts it by a point.

5/10 for The 6th Day. Poster quote - And on the 6th day God created an average movie.