Director: Roger Spottiswoode
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger,Michael Rapaport,Tony Goldwyn,Michael Rooker,Robert Duvall
The 6th Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest rote
exercise in testosterone-soaked, big budget thrills, is all about the burgeoning
medical field of cloning, which is more than a little ironic given how the film
is patched together from a half-dozen previous movies, including Arnold’s own
vastly superior sci-fi classic Total Recall. But then, hasn’t Arnie’s
entire career been about cloning? Each of his films is just a different shade of
his familiar brand of ass-kicking - hell, his trademark line is even “I’ll
be back.” The problem with a clone, however, is that it always seems just
slightly inferior to the original.
The 6th Day takes place in the not-too-distant future, which means it’s
not so far off that we can just laugh and say, “I’ll be long dead before
this kind of stuff ever happens,” but still far enough off that we can marvel
over things like taco-flavored bananas and laser guns. Schwarzenegger plays Adam
Gibson, all-around average guy - a concept that might have been easier to
swallow if he were played by, say, David Strathairn rather than someone whose
biceps are thicker than my waist. Adam has a wife (remarkably not named Eve), a
button-cute daughter, and a successful helicopter charter service. Why a charter
service? Well, if for no other reason, so we can have a sequence in which
ultra-sleek, candy-colored helicopters go zipping through the mountains like
something that may turn up on Playstation 5 one day.
Adam’s life is thrown into turmoil, however, when he comes home one day,
peers through his front window, and sees… himself, a carbon copy Arnold,
frolicking with friends and family. If that isn’t bad enough, he suddenly
finds himself on the run from the usual assortment of shadowy bad guys,
hell-bent on erasing him at all costs. All of these cloning shenanigans are
eventually traced back to a megalopolis corporation headed by the patently
malevolent Michael Drucker (Tony Goldwyn), who, for some reason, kept reminding
me of WWF patriarch Vince McMahon (Oh my God! I just realized how Hulk Hogan and
Ric Flair have kept going all these years).
In the end, we find that what Drucker craves most is merely immortality - the
ability to resurrect his mind long after his body has failed - rather than
anything so tired as world domination. But that’s about as morally complex as The
6th Day gets, unless you count Robert Duvall whoring himself as the
oh-so-noble scientist trying to keep his late wife alive through genetics. And
although there are numerous kernels of intelligence embedded throughout the
screenplay (who wouldn’t love to have a virtual reality girlfriend?), they too
often get shuttled aside for the usual Schwarzenegger glut of high-octane
explosions, frenetic car chases, and howl-inducing dialogue (“You cloned the
wrong man” - oh, brother). It must be admitted that The 6th Day, as a
high-concept potboiler, is a notable step up from the glittery mess known as Batman
& Robin and last year’s Arnold vs. Satan slag heap End of Days.
But while this is supposed to be a new breed of Schwarzenegger movies, I can’t
help thinking that it’s all a bit too much like the old.
