(2000)
1.5
Karl Williams
Ironically, given its source material, this science fiction-action yarn suffers badly in its second act from a serious lack of imagination. That's a frustrating criticism to make of a story adapted from the late, great author Philip K. Dick, who used his real-life schizophrenia to fuel some of the most interesting sci-fi stories ever written, most of them obsessed with notions of identity. His work has yielded critical masterpieces such as Blade Runner and box-office hits such as Total Recall, but here the filmmakers' work suffers tremendously in grafting a short story onto a feature-length running time. The film actually began life as a short and it's obvious that the story is contained almost entirely in its first and third acts, which are fine and well-acted, particularly by Gary Sinise and Vincent D'Onofrio, with a palpable sense of paranoia invading each scene and some nifty special effects. What bogs the film down badly, however, is a second act that consists almost entirely of star Sinise fleeing from sinister forces, sweating, jumping, climbing, and shooting his way out of what appears to be a maze of industrial factory settings. Act two becomes, frankly, mind-numbingly boring and virtually unwatchable as the same action is repeated endlessly, with little sense of rising action, increasing danger, or revelatory moments. Once the film is back on track with Dick's source material in the third act, the film begins displaying a heartbeat again, but it may well be too late for those viewers who have fallen asleep. If screenwriters are going to enlarge on source material, they'd better have something to say, and the no less than four accomplished scribes credited here don't seem able to improve or augment the material. Impostor has its moments, but it would have done better to remain a short.
Impostor on AllMovie
Impostor (2000)
