Cheap Impostor (Director's Cut) (DVD) (Vincent D'Onofrio, Shane Brolly) (Gary Fleder) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Impostor (Director's Cut)

Gary Fleder is famous for the gripping thriller "Kiss the Girls" but more impressive names are Ehren Kruger and David Twohy. Kruger is responsible for "Scream 3" "Reindeer Games" and that shocker "Arlington Road," and of course Twohy is a guy behind the camera of "Pitch Black." Now you know what I am going to say. "Impostor" is very an unsettling movie, to say the least.

And the original short story was written by P.K. Dick, master of creating an authentic view on the future world. The film version respects that merit, and in the first three minutes throws you into the world at a devastating war with aliens in the shortest way. After that, the film follows the protagonist, a scientist Spencer (Sinise), who, without his knowing, got involved in a plot whose nature should remain secret here. As a result, Spencer runs away in a "Fugitive" fashion to prove the truth, hiding from the government agent (D'Onofrio) who is obsessed with hunting down every suspect in an uncompromising way. Here the director Fleder keeps a good, fast pace from the surprising opening to the end, grabbing your attention throughout the movie. The producion designs that realize the bleak future world (including a hospital where Stowe's character works, or ID system that recongize you anywhere you go) are, if familiar, very impressive visually. Though the idea itself is not particularly new, the director guides you skillfully through the maze of the future world.

This film has already been released theatrically in Japan with the title "Clone" in the autumn of 2001, and is originally based on a short film Fleder is said to have made. Dimention Films first commissioned omnibus short sci-fi films from three directors, and one of them was Fleder's. The company was so happy about his segment that they made it a feature film, which turned out to be "Impostor." As this production history suggests, "Impostor" suffers a little from the prolonged middle-section. The episodes about stealing medicines, or unlikely friendship between a bounty hunter (Mekhi Phifer) and Spencer seems a bit contrived though still engaging in their ways. And you may think that underrated Shalhoub is wasted again in a relatively minor role.

However, as a whole I am satisfied with this adaptation of the sci-fi master P.K. Dick, and if you are interested in his name (or anyone involved in the film), have a look. It is worth that. But beware: this is not a film for everybody's taste.

B- Movie Packs a wallop
I loved Impostor. I knew it was a B movie from the get go, so it's important that you know that. It has a Total Recall feel to it, and it should since it was written by the same author.

The movie takes right off, but towards the middle begins to drag. The action doesnt stop but there are too many scenes with Gary Sinise just breathing heavily, staring at the camera. Impostor is based on a short story, and you can tell by all the time that is wasted.

Vincent D'Onofrio (Men in Black, Law and Order CI), is great. I only wish his character had more to do. He's the villian because he's chasing the main character, however he would be very much likable if he were on our team. He's a brillant actor, hopefully we'll see more of him on the big screen.

Some of the scenes are a little hard to believe. A lot of futuristic movies deal with a humanoid fight with Aliens. I really hope our future doesnt pin us living in fear on earth. This movie has us living without the sky, meaning the cities that are left, are coverd in Domes protecting them from Alien attacks.

Gary Sinise is great in this movie, his best work since The Stand...has he been in anything else?

In the Future, not everyone is who they seem to be.
Inspired by a short story written by Phillip K. Dick, the author who inspired one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time in Blade Runner (1982), Impostor (2002), directed by Gary Felder (Kiss the Girls, Don't Say a Word), stars a pretty impressive cast in Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, and Vincent D'Onofrio. It's odd that I hadn't even really heard of this film other than on here, but it could be it wasn't promoted enough to garner a larger audience or it may have gotten lost among the other releases that year...either way, I enjoyed it despite a number of perceived flaws.

The film takes place sometime in the not so distance future, as the Earth is involved in a galactic battle with a mysterious alien force (All your base bewrong to us!) for the last ten years. Seems these aliens want our planet in a bad way, even if it means destroying most of it in order to wipe the humans from the surface. Dr. Spencer Olham (Sinise), a patriot and a scientist working for the global government, is in charge of research developing a super sophisticated new weapon to battle the hostile inter-planetary creeps, but soon finds himself as public enemy number one as he is accused of being a cybernetic construct, a living/mechanical thing created by aliens, replacing the real Dr. Olham, with the intent of carrying out a terrorist attack on an unknown target. You see the method of the attack involves a highly explosive, yet virtually undetectable device implanted within Dr. Olham, one that activates when the carrier comes in proximity of its' target...at least this is what Major D.H. Hathaway (D'Onofrio), officer of the ESA (Earth Security Agency) claims, based on sketchy evidence collected through intercepted alien transmissions. Oh yeah, the only way to distinguish a human from an impostor is by vivisection, something which Dr. Olham isn't too keen on for obvious reasons, so he manages to escape custody for the purpose of not only clearing his name, but staying alive.

While I did enjoy the film, which is touted as a futuristic Fugitive, it does have a number of negatives working against it...but I will talk about those later. As far as the positive aspects, the production values are really good throughout, even though I noticed things used in other films like scenes and props from other films like Starship Troopers (1997), Gattaca (1997), and Armageddon (1998). I really did feel like I transported to a future environment, as the level of quality and detail was maintained throughout the film. I thought the special effects were quite good and fairly realistic, even though some of the more grand scenes like ships flying through the air were painfully obvious as CGI work. Gary Sinise, who always seems to put forth an exception effort even despite the film (okay, Reindeer Games was a pretty lame flick, but he was still pretty fun to watch), and I could feel the elements of Phillip K. Dick's story come through, although it was pretty obvious, since the film was based on a short story, that the plot had been stretched out rather than fleshed out. The level of tension within the story was kept pretty tight, as the pacing rarely slowed down. Madeleine Stowe, who plays the character of Dr. Maya Olham, Spencer's wife, is very good, but she seemed under used as her character suffered form lack of screen time and character development. I did enjoy the twist at the end, as it really screws with your mind, and you may not pick up on it until moments before it is revealed, as I did, providing a memorable finish.

The negatives...the camera work suffered at many points. The use of angular shots was over used, and gave me flashbacks of the John Travolta travesty/vanity project Battlefield Earth (2003). It wasn't as bad here as it was there, and it's a technique used to heighten tension within a film, but too much can cause a form of motion sickness in viewers, and this film just barely crossed the line in that aspect with one too many of those shots. The worst thing for me was the very regular use of slow motion. Used properly, it can be effective, but here, it seemed like every third scene involved some sort of slow motion shot, and it felt like the director was padding out the running time rather than using it to effectively present a particular shot. And throughout the film locations and military time appeared at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. I can see why the location was given in some instances (it was wholly unnecessary at some points...hey, I can tell we're in a hospital, as all the doctors, nurses and medical equipment conveys that fact), to relay specific locations to the audience, but why was the time displayed regularly? There really wasn't any time-based factor within the story, no countdown of any kind, as in Escape from New York (1981), so it was utterly pointless and annoying. Tony Shaloub makes an appearance, but his role is basically pointless, and adds little to the story, effectively wasting his talents. As far as Mekhi Phifer's character, well, it was just so very shallow it's hardly worth mentioning. And Vincent D'Onofrio's character...I normally enjoy his work, especially on Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but here I felt the character was a bit overdone, like when John Travolta plays villains on the screen (if you've seen Swordfish (2001), you'll know what I mean).

The wide screen anamorphic picture looks good here, and special features include a lame 12-minute featurette titled The Impostor Files, the original Impostor short film, and theatrical trailers for this film along with a number of others. My recommendation is to rent this film first, as once the twist ending is revealed, there isn't much replay value.

Cookieman108