Rating: 
Summary: It's P.K.Dick: Fugitive in the Future to Unsettle Your Heart
Review: Facts first. "Impostor" is based on P.K. Dick's short story and its cast include familiar faces in this sci-fi genre; Gary Sinise appeared in "Mission to Mars": Vincent D'Onofrio in "Men in Black": Madeleine Stowe in "12 Monkeys" and Tony Shalhoub in "Galaxy Quest" and "Men in Black" again. Typecast? You may think. Forget it, and watch the names of director and writers.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.
Rating:
Summary: B- Movie Packs a wallop
Review: 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?
Rating: 
Summary: Dr. Kimble gone Sci-Fi
Review: This movie offers good actors, good visual effects, good production design, good director, and quite a collection of good sci-fi ideas. But all these features can't quite compensate for the fact that the plot is nearly 100% identical with "The Fugitive". It's the well-known "convicted man must infiltrate the hornet's nest to find proof for his innocence while the cops are after him" story all over again. Fortunately, the ending offers a somewhat suprising variation on the theme. A worthwhile film to watch, but no milestone.
Rating:
Summary: It's P.K.Dick: Fugitive in the Future to Unsettle Your Heart
Review: Facts first. "Impostor" is based on P.K. Dick's short story and its cast include familiar faces in this sci-fi genre; Gary Sinise appeared in "Mission to Mars": Vincent D'Onofrio in "Men in Black": Madeleine Stowe in "12 Monkeys" and Tony Shalhoub in "Galaxy Quest" and "Men in Black" again. Typecast? You may think. Forget it, and watch the names of director and writers. 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.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea, but there are problems
Review: I like this movie better than I probably should, just because it's one of the more faithful screen adaptations of a Philip K. Dick story. (It's also -- and not very importantly -- the first to retain the _name_ of the story on which it's based; _Blade Runner, _Total Recall_, and _Screamers_ didn't. _Minority Report_ and _Paycheck_ are more recent -- and even _Minority Report_ dropped the original title's initial 'the'.) I also like it because it's got Gary Sinise in it. He's one of those reliable actors (like Ed Harris) who just makes any role watchable and interesting. There's also Madeleine Stowe, and the wonderfully frenetic Vincent D'Onofrio. But it's got troubles. There are lots of little ones: overuse of slo-mo, hard-to-follow exposition, distracting camera work. But these are just minor annoyances. There's really one big problem: there's about twenty minutes of plot in a ninety-minute movie. The middle third of the film consists of one big long (and highly unlikely) chase scene that ultimately takes us exactly nowhere in terms of the storyline. (Sure, it shows us some of the sociopolitical backdrop -- like the poor people left outside the domes the gubmint built to protect the rich folks from the Centaurian invasion. But it doesn't move the _story_ along.) In a way, that's _because_ the film tries not to mess too much with the short story on which it's based (although it does change some things, of course). That'd be okay for a half-hour TV show, but it's not a great idea for a feature-length motion picture. It's one thing to turn _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ into a movie; that's a full-length novel. But (as the other Dick screen adaptations illustrate) there just isn't any effective way to translate a Dick short story to the screen without expanding the storyline a heckuva lot more than this film does. The _ineffective_ way -- and the way unfortunately adopted by this film -- is to add a bunch of filler and s-t-r-e-t-c-h the thing out. To its credit, though, _Impostor_ is very effective in posing one of Dick's trademark issues -- namely, whether genetic 'replicants' might not be _more_ human than human beings. It also gives a little screen time (but not enough) to the usual Dickian questions about the nature of personal identity. So I'm going to go ahead and like it. But I'm still going to wish there were some more _story_ in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great version of an amazing Dick story
Review: The movie version of Imposter came out in 2002, and starred Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe. Tony Shalhoub was Spencer's friend, Nelson. In the movie version, Spencer is accused of trying to kill the leader of the Earth people, not just blow up a lab. He is then just taken to a room in the weapons facility for the destruction - in this case it's a hugely painful ripping out of the heart. Spencer pretends to be a robot to escape but sadly in this version he is forced to kill his friend, Nelson on the way out. In this version Maya is a doctor, and there's a whole story about the poor people who are forced to live outside the protective shells and live an awful live because of this invasion. Spencer gets a person from this undground to help him get into the hospital, gets his hands on his medical records and runs a full body scan to prove he's human. Unfortunately, the machine gets stuck around his heart level (where the supposed bomb is) and he has to run out. He ends up heading out to the woods where the alien spacecraft is, and ends up there with Hathaway. Once again, they find the dead body, and Spencer realizes he is a robot. But in this twist, there's *also* the body of his wife there - they are BOTH robots. Spencer explodes, and the movie ends with footage of the two robot versions making love that morning, neither of them aware that they were robots. My Notes -
This movie was not loved by critics, but if you read the story I think you really see that the movie did a GREAT job with it. The critics usually picked on the special effects, but the story is about Spencer and his quest to prove he's human before Hathaway kills him. It's not really about special effects. I think Gary Sinise does a great job of playing a smart scientist who isn't a "superhero" or spy or anything else, but who is caught up in this paranoia and tries to find a rational way out of the trap he's in. Just like in the story, he understands the paranoia and why it's there, and approaches it all logically. The idea of the poor underclass having been locked out of the shield area, and the shielded area being so high class and gorgeous, was a great one. Very much like Metropolis. The technology to ID people is very realistic especially in a war-time situation. However, a few complaints. First, they ARE in war-time and have very real threats from aliens. Therefore, if people were wandering around WITHOUT the ID tags, they should be immediately caught. Any time there was a turnstile and Spencer showed up as "no ID", alarms should have sounded. In the underground they should have put a fake person's ID into him instead of just removing the original one and leaving him without any. Second, we have the same sort of issue as we had with the story - namely, if Spencer exploding out in the woods was "good enough" to kill the Chancellor, what was the point of making 2 robots? However, I don't think the movie actually implies that the Chancellor WAS in danger from that blast. Because it was in the woods, it did kill Hathaway and his crew, but I think the Chancellor was safe. Also, if Spencer was a high level weapons person, they shouldn't kill him "just in case". They should test him and find out if he has a bomb in him. I suppose you could say the aliens had such great technology that it would evade all tests. But heck, tape his mouth and ears shut and try a few things, just to see. The ability to test people would be invaluable for future robot detection. What I *love* about the movie is the ending. This isn't just a "boring story" that then ends and you say "Oh well." It added TWO extra twists on top of the original story, which is quite amazing. First, there's the twist that the wife was ALSO a robot, so it wasn't just Spencer that was mislead. Maya had all the loyalty and love and chapel discussions about faith, all while being a robot. Second, the final shot of the two 'robots' making love was simply brilliant. The two robots fully and totally loved each other and made love together. But both were just running memory tapes of the dead humans. Does that mean the robots *didn't* love each other? Or does it mean they loved each other just as fully as the humans had, because they had the same set of memories? I think that was a fascinating insight that Dick never went into.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Bad
Review: The premise: Spencer Olham, a respected scientist involved in Earth's war effort against the evil aliens, the Centauri, goes on a camping trip with his wife for a weekend. When he returns to work on Monday morning, he is arrested and accused of being a synthetic replicant, a Centauri cyborg replacement for the real Spencer Olham, allegedly murdered (without his wife's knowledge) during the camping trip though nobody has a dead body to prove it. While being held he is shown a "Centauri Hit List" that has been partially decrypted... his surname is among the names on the list. He maintains his innocence to no avail, and must ultimately escape so that he can prove his own innocence. It takes over 90 minutes to resolve this "is-he-or-isn't-he" question, while Spencer continually runs away or fights when cornered, and is thwarted every time he attempts to find evidence to prove his innocence. The problem with this film is that, given what Hollywood is today, there are only three or four possible endings. These endings are immediately imaginable and given Hollywood's love of a twist ending, the choices are reduced further. Most intelligent people I've discussed this film with guessed the ending before I even finished describing the premise. So since you basically know how the film is going to end, there is absolutely ZERO suspense. Instead you are just waiting around for the "shocking revelation" that you guessed an hour ago. *yawn* What a lead balloon. Gary Sinise as Spencer Olham, Vincent D'Onofrio as the vicious anti-infiltration agent pursuing Olham, and Madeline Stowe as Olham's wife Mia are all great actors, and the lovely Ms. Stowe offers the added bonus of being fun to look at. But good acting and good looks cannot save this wretched movie. "Impostor" was a bad idea that should never have been made. If you want to watch a film where the nature of the protagonist takes turns you *don't* expect, try Kevin Costner's 1987 film "No Way Out". I'm no fan of Kevin Costner, but at least that film succeeded in doing what this film utterly failed to do--surprise me.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining
Review: i was surprised to not see any reviews on this movie. it is a very entertaining sci-fi movie. and i@‚'‚...‚ƒ‚‚‚...‚Ž‚„that@you@see@it@for@sure.
Rating:
Summary: sci-fi stupid
Review: man this movie was really annoying and was long. who cares man, just dont bother with this one. the actors dont save this one. no one can act in it. Gary Sinise has dry emotions and the others like Vincent D'Onofrio are so horrible. at the end with that big explosion is the best thing, yay, hes really an impostor and he blew him self up and all the other people. prepare yourself before watching this junk
Rating:
Summary: If you're a Sci-Fi fan, you will love this
Review: I read many of the negative reviews, but ended up giving this a chance based on the cast. The central theme of this sci-fi suspense thriller focusses on the question, "How do you know if you are really you?" Imposter has enough visual effects to make you believe its the year 2075 (in Johnny Mnemonicesque fashion), yet focusses on the characters. The cast was great, with every actor/actress living up to their reputation. Sinise and D'Onofrio are especially terrific. After an initial intense beginning, Imposter eases into a nice fugitive-like flow. This movie has most of the things we like in our Sci-Fi: aliens, fight scences (guns and a little kung fu), futuristic chase scenes, neat mind-twisting philosophical mumbo jumbo, a terrific ending and a little CGI thrown in for good measure. If I had one complaint its would be the lack of gratuitous T&A. If this really was a "B" movie as many of the reviewers suggest, the T&A would be there (as I had hoped when I purchased this). As for me, I liked it better than the other Philip K. Dick-based movies, Minority Report and Total Recall (and I love Arnold). Imposter does not come across as a "B" movie. While I would not put this in the same class as say Blade Runner, few movies are. Bottom line - Buy it, you'll like it.
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