As time goes by, things change, people change. In Hollywood it is much the same; genres enjoy success then fade out before undergoing sudden resurrections, fads are discovered, brief obsessions milked heavily and quickly forgotten afterward. Actors, directors yearn for greener pastures. Wes Craven, not willing to be labelled as a horror maestro any longer, branches out, however unsuccessfully, likewise Leo DiCaprio not content with his prettyboy teen idol image focusses his efforts on more offbeat material in an attempt to be taken seriously as an actor. Amidst all this change, stands firm a welcome constant in the shapely shape of Arnold Schwarzenegger. With The Sixth Day, Arnie remains on all-too familiar territory, trading on his simplistic charisma and screen presence. Arnie is Arnie, he really can't do anything else and I guess that's why people love him. Here he's once again kicking bad guy ass in his usual inimitable fashion.
In the not-too-distant future, Adam Gibson lives a perfect little life with a loving wife, a sweet kid and a penchant for flying fast planes. One day, after a disconcerting day at work, he returns home to find his identity has been stolen by a clone. In this future, anything can be cloned, with the highly illegal exception of human beings. Adam is forced to go on the run when the sinister coropration behind this heinous crime send a troupe of vicious thugs after him. Adam however is not the type of man to take things lying down, especially when his family become caught in the crossfire.
The Sixth Day is without doubt an enjoyable big screen experience. Despite the thoroughly modern theme, there is something so distinctly nineties about the whole production. Everything is in place for a perfectly comfortable popcorn cinema experience. However, there is also an attempt made toward a more intelligent, thought-provoking drama underneath all the action and textbook thrills and surprisingly enough within the first hour this intriguing element is allowed centre stage for - in this kind of movie anyway - almost disconcerting amounts of time. Action fans need not worry for the traditionally explosive setpieces are present throughout, especially during the painfully retracted ending which goes on for an interminable length, spending almost half the movie's budget.
The movie's main faults lie at the feet of its key creators. Director Roger Spottiswoode is a director without personality. He is a Hollywood studio's wet dream, someone who is capable of shooting a perfectly adequate big budget film in a reliable, responsible manner, staying well within the bounds of acceptable mainstream cinema. The Sixth Day looks and plays like any other number of high profile blockbusters, a true lesson in conformity. Arnold's presence, however reliable also prevents the film from fulfilling a far more interesting potential. Without him, to simply state the obvious, a real actor could have been cast, someone capable of presenting a fully formed human being around whom the dramatic elements could have been played more prominently. Let's face it, Arnold is extremely limited, he can't handle anything remotely resembling real emotion so he certainly seems lost when asked to do something other than run, punch or shoot. Indeed without him, The Sixth Day would have been a completely different and, I would venture better movie.
The supporting cast is, for the most part also a huge letdown. Tony Goldwyn and Michael Rappaport are left dwindling in typecast hell, playing respectively, slimeball Drucker and fast-talking, sex-mad Hank. Meanwhile, Michael Rooker pops up, hammering yet another nail in what was once set to be a promising movie career. In his debut, Rooker showed an immense talent as the sanity-challenged Henry Lee Lucas in John McNaughton's chilling debut, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. With the exception of his immediate follow-up work (Mississippi Burning and Sea of Love) he has squandered away his obvious gift in menial supporting roles and lukewarm star turns. Here, he is almost entirely unwatchable, gurning his way through a blatantly OTT performance. Robert Duvall the only actor capable of giving an actual performance, shines brightly during the dramatic intervals but is dreadfully out of place when his kindly scientist is washed away by the all-action finale.
At the end of the day, for the two hours you spend in the cinema watching it, The Sixth Day definitely delivers. It is purely undemanding fare that will be quickly forgotten the minute you step back into the real world. There was a time when each new Arnie outing could be labelled as an "event movie", eagerly awaited by one and all but it all seems like such a distant memory, the big man drowning in a deep sea of mediocrity and shit. While The Sixth Day is something of a return to form, it is still a far cry from the mighty heights of True Lies and the Terminator movies, yet hearing Ah-nuld utter the word "philosophy" in a sentence is almost worth the price of admission alone. |
