Rating: 
Summary: Well-acted, intelligent sf
Review: Philip K. Dick wrote the stories that inspired the movies Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and Impostor. I think this one will mostly appeal to his fans and to fans of the TV series The Outer Limits. Instead of trying to become some great scifi blockbuster, it focuses on strong acting, intelligence, and plot twists. Still, the frequent action sequences might help it slowly reach a larger audience, even if it initially gets lost among the holiday fluff. I wouldn't call this one of the best science fiction movies ever, but I would call it one of the more intelligent and well-acted ones I've seen recently.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi chase story
Review: ...Gary does a great job in a somewhat limited story which is supposed to take place in the 2070s. It's a dystopian story written by the great Science fiction writer, Phillip Dick 50 years ago-- a story particularly relevant in light of the new responses to security the government is instituting after 9/11. We find a very happy Gary Sinese coming back from a weekend vacation in the woods, out of the "energy dome" which projects their city from attacks by the enemy of humans, the alien Centaurians. We see Gary making PG-13 love ( a sure sign of increasing celebrity) to his wife. Then he goes to work, and then all hell breaks lose when he is accused of being a spy clone. The rest of the story is about him trying to prove he's the real person he claims he is. We encounter technologies in 2070 that are, for the most part already available on a limited basis now-- DNA scans, identity implants, randomly placed facial recognition crowd scanners--- But in this world, these are all commonplace. The movie was inspired by a short story and it feels that way, with minimal character development. If you like high tech chase stories (not car chases) then you might enjoy this. For me, it was a nice change from the recent fantasy fare (Shrek, Lord of the Rings) which I enjoy, but those don't have the "edge" of hard science fiction. This was pretty classic genre material, with aliens, good and bad officials, a hero in trouble. There's a twist ending that's a bit limp. I might have given this less stars, but SF is so rare anymore, ...
Rating: 
Summary: HE ROBOT?
Review: There are times in this generally well-made film that you wish director Gary Fleder hadn't let the action sag in the middle. Although it didn't destroy the film, it keeps it from being a true scifi classic.
Gary Sinise stars as a scientist who is determined to be a cyborg created to blow up a visiting chancellor. Vincent D'Onofrio is the diehard military man out to destroy him. Madeleine Stowe is Sinise's physician wife who wants to stand by her man regardless. Tony Shalhoub has a very brief role as Sinise's best friend, and Mekhi Pifer is an underground rebel who helps Sinise out.
The visual effects are stunning and beautifully filmed. The performances on the whole are adequate; D'Onofrio is brilliant, as always. The ending has a twist that I didn't see coming, but one that makes good sense.
IMPOSTOR is not a classic, but it is a well directed and acted adventure yarn.
Rating:
Summary: In the Future, not everyone is who they seem to be.
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Yet another good movie based on a Philip K Dick story
Review: There is something insidious about a PKD plot. Many of them lend themselves to movie adaptation - for instance Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner), We can remember it for you wholesale (Total Recall) and of course Minority Report. It's been 30 years since I read the story, but it was still pretty fresh in my mind. The script seems to stick pretty close to what PKD wrote, and that may be the problem. It distresses me to admit that a movie can go wrong by being too faithful to the story on which it is based, but that seems to have happened here. The lack of insight into the protagonist's feelings and thought processes limits the empathy you can feel for him, so the plot ends up as a kind of telescoped futuristic "The Fugitive". Gary Sinise does what he can with the lead role, with Madeleine Stowe even more muted as his wife. The two most colourful characters are Vincent D'Onofrio as the ambivalent Major Hathaway of Security, and Mekhi Phifer as the streetwise Cale.
Bottom line - this is a story set in 2075 but written in about 1960, and that harms its credibility. Our surveillance techniques today are just about as good as those in Impostor - surely a dictatorship locked in a life-and-death struggle with merciless aliens, 70 years in the future, could do better when it comes to tracking a runaway? Perhaps a little more explanation and less high-speed, hard-to-follow action would have helped. When all is said and done, it's still a pleasure to follow the precise mechanism of PKD's scenario as it works itself out.
Rating:
Summary: HE ROBOT?
Review: There are times in this generally well-made film that you wish director Gary Fleder hadn't let the action sag in the middle. Although it didn't destroy the film, it keeps it from being a true scifi classic.
Gary Sinise stars as a scientist who is determined to be a cyborg created to blow up a visiting chancellor. Vincent D'Onofrio is the diehard military man out to destroy him. Madeleine Stowe is Sinise's physician wife who wants to stand by her man regardless. Tony Shalhoub has a very brief role as Sinise's best friend, and Mekhi Pifer is an underground rebel who helps Sinise out.
The visual effects are stunning and beautifully filmed. The performances on the whole are adequate; D'Onofrio is brilliant, as always. The ending has a twist that I didn't see coming, but one that makes good sense.
IMPOSTOR is not a classic, but it is a well directed and acted adventure yarn.
Rating: 
Summary: Too boring,
Review: I love Blade Runner, it's really awesome, this was similar but so different. Screenplay let it down, got really bored and the ending was trite. Short and sweet this time, I wasted enough time on this clunker already. Thanks for reading.
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.
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