Artisan presents Replicant! Directed Ringo Lam.

Cop Jake (Rooker) has been hunting down a ruthless serial killer The Torch (Van Damme) for years. He has come very close to catching the guy but he is still at large. Upon Jake’s retirement from the force a Federal Agency approaches him with an unorthodox approach to catching this elusive murderer. You see they have cloned The Torch from a strand of hair that he once left behind at a crime scene and they want Jake to use the Replicant to track down the killer. The idea is that the Replicant will eventually remember the original memories and that will lead Jake to him. Jake gets custody of the Replicant and then the hunt begins.

Let it be known that Van Damme has played 2 (two) characters before once in Double Impact and in Maximum Risk in which was also another film that was directed by Ringo Lam film. You may be disappointed, but Replicant is not your typical Van-Damme movie. Do not get me wrong you will still get all your very exciting fight scenes the nasty explosions, cool car chases, and Van Damme doing the splits. But the film is also a character driven piece that explores the relationships and the situation at hand very deeply.

The character of Jake (Rooker) is a bit trickier. He's the good guy but is initially portrayed in a very unsympathetic light. He beats the Replicant and treats him like a dog for almost all of the film. I actually felt a little troubled by how he mentally-physically abused the child like being. Thank Mommy Dearest for the action genre. Fortunately the relationship between Jake and the Replicant eventually evolves to mirror a parent child relationship with all the complex issues that come with it. I was happy when he stopped beating Van Damme. And last we have the Torch Replicant relationship in which brings up the theme of brotherhood and the eventual internal confusion within the Replicant.

The film has its snags though. First one relationship suffers in this movie and that is the Jake - Angie (Dent) thing. After seeing the deleted scenes I now know that it was initially fleshed out but as it is now Angie’s presence in the film is never fully justified. I was also very surprised at how the characters reacted to seeing the first human clone. The film also has the occasional line such as welcome to my world motherf****r and the last frames of the movie I was pretty disappointed I thought it was kind of a silly to cap everything off.

Overall Replicant pulled me in with it's characters and put a smile on my face with it's action set pieces and its situational humor. It even pulled at my heart in respect to the Replicant and his plight. It was the first time a Van Damme movie touched me on a deep level rather than a cool round kick. The rainy Vancouver location also served the film well and director Ringo Lam is on top of it all.

In a nut shell you should rent it,buy it and watch it!

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