Extras: The Impostor Files, Original Short Film, Theatrical Trailer.
Director:
Gary Fleder
Screenplay:
Caroline Case, Ehren Kruger and David N.Twohy
Cast:
Spencer John Ohlam: Gary Senise
Maya Ohlam: Madeline Stowe
Hathaway: Vincent D'onofrio
Cale: Mekhi Phifer
Nelson Gittes: Tony Shalhoub
Impostor
was due back in 1999, I believe. The
storyline is still intact but some questions do remain
as to why it was delayed for so long. It's not the
greatest movie in the world but it's not terribly
unwatchable. Maybe they just didn't think there was a
time to release it or something. But whatever the
reason it still deserved a chance.
Impostor tells the story of an Earth that has been
the victim of constant aerial bombardings from a race
called Centauri. Magnetic domes are built around major
cities to protect them. Meanwhile, a scientist named
Spence John Ohlam (Gary Senise) works on and completes
a weapon that is what the nuke was to the outcome of
WWII. But an enemy interrogation bureu as reason to
believe that Spencer is really a Centauri genetic
cyborg with a bomb inside of him that could kill the
chancelor. Spencer escapes and is chased by the ESA
throughout as he gets help from an underground
civilian (Mekhi Phifer).
I was suprised by this film. After it's delay,
lacklustre box office (VERY lacklustre), and bad
reviews, I expected something terrible, but being
based on a short story by the writer of Blade Runner
and Minority Report, it's easy to like it a little. Do
have some gripes though. One, in the beginning of the
film they show clips of Earth being destroyed. Missles
descending onto New York City was taken DIRECTLY from
Armageddon,
scenes of the missiles slamming into
buildings were from the same film, a scene where a city
is in ruins is Buenos Aires from Starship Troopers
as are two scenes which show an army lined up and getting into
ships.
It just suprises me that the budget was that low that they had to just use
scenes from other movies. Armageddon is owned by the same
studio that made this but still. The cop uniforms are
also from Starship Troopers as well. One last gripe is
that sometimes it felt like it was the same thing over
and over. But the twist ending makes up for it.
Into the disc (all my reviews on the video start out
this way). The video is extremely mixed. I've always
felt that Buena Vista doesn't care about DVD too much
and this is a testament to that. Not only are the
prices extremely high (The Crew was retailing for
$34.99 at one point) but the video and extras are
usually lacklustre to boot. The video suffers from
compression artifacts and noise in most of the dark
scenes which cover a good portion of the movie. The
characters didn't look that sharp either. It was
somewhat distracting in some scenes but I eventually
got used to it.
The sound doesn't fare much better either. I noticed
in one scene it actually faded in and didn't seem as
loud. Not terrible or anything but not as good as it
should have been. And only one audio track is included
and that is English Dolby Digital 5.1, a track with
Senise and the director would have been cool.
The extras are not great either. The Impostor files
is just a behind-the-scenes
featurette, and a trailer is there as well. The real
treat for most fans will be the original short film
that was made before the actual film. The short film
runs at approximately thirty minutes.
Overall, Impostor is a decent flick hampered by a
disappointing DVD. Buena Vista can do much better than
this. But I would only recommend Impostor as a
weekend rental and not as a purchase unless you like
films like Blade Runner and Minority Report.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
