Oct 052001
 
one reel

To test a secret government anti-terrorist cloning program, scientists make a “replicant” of The Torch (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a serial killer.  Recently retired police detective, Jack Riley (Michael Rooker), who worked on The Torch case, is hired to try out the clone and hunt down the killer.

Some movies would benefit from never pretending to have a rational basis.  Forget the fake science and just cry, “It’s magic!”  It would have been much easier to accept Replicant’s story if it had started with a wizard popping in, claiming he’s a part of a secret organization of underground wizards, and that he has conjured a doppelganger of a killer that is magically connected to the real one.  Yes, that’s an easier concept to believe than the one suggested by the film.

Instead, we have our world, as it is now, except the government can make a perfect clone, speed grow him, and increase “his telepathic skills.”  Yup, those wacky government scientists are clever folks.  If they are increasing telepathic skills, I guess we must all have some level of psychic ability.  Cool.  Maybe they should have just made a legion of telepathic soldiers and forgotten about the whole cloning thing.

Anyway, these scientists have vast knowledge when it comes to making a spare person and giving him enhanced comic book powers, but they can’t figure out how to make their clone remember the original’s evil deeds.  So, they take the obvious step of hiring an obsessive and abusive cop to beat on the clone and drag him around town.  I think maybe they should have hired a psychologist or two.

Now the cop does eventually take the obvious step of using the police database to find anyone who looks like the clone, but only after taking him to crime scenes, and poking him while saying, “So, do you remember that?”  He also gropes him in the bathroom claiming he’s looking for homing devices.  Sure he is.

Looking beyond the plot for something of value?  Well, that leads you to acting, and there you’ve found another gaping pit.  Jean-Claude Van Damme plays two characters (wow, twice as much Van Dammage…wait a second, wasn’t that the tag line for an earlier Van Damme film?  Hmmmm).  As The Torch, he has an unchanging smirk and greasy hair.  That’s about it.  As the Replicant, he attempts something between a frightened monkey (he jumps on tables a lot in a squatting posture; no reason, he just does) and an innocent child.  What he achieves is a guy on Prozac walking around with his mouth hanging open.  But Van Damme is a master thespian compared to Michael Rooker who portrays Jake Riley as a man who’s recently eaten some bad fish.  He’s trying to play the tough, do-it-his-own-way, antihero (because we haven’t seen that fifty times before), but manages only bitchy and uncomfortable.  I suppose I’d be pretty uncomfortable after reading that script and realizing people might see me in the role, but that’s no excuse when there is Pepcid Complete in the world.  All other characters are so underdeveloped that it doesn’t matter if the actors knew what they were doing or not.
Character development is treated in a new and exciting way that forgoes gradual alterations based on events in favor of random personality shifts.  The Replicant is a feral moron for most of the film, but then is suddenly intelligent and calm.  Riley is vicious to the clone, and then buys him ice cream.

The fight scenes are reasonable for a low-budget flick, looking more realistic than the average Van Damme melee.  Plus the production values are surprisingly high for a direct to video release.  So, if you love films with decent, if unmemorable, brawls, plus sets, lighting, and camera-work that aren’t embarrassing, this movie is for you.

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