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THE 6TH DAY
THE 6TH DAY is a pretty solid and entertaining Schwarzenegger outing that really should have done better at the box office. Anyway, the DVD looks and sounds fantastic, making it worth a spin in your home theater. |
This DVD review 
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DVD
reviews are Copyright © 2001THE CINEMA LASER and may not be copied
or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. |
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Personally,
can’t understand why THE 6TH DAY ($25) didn't perform well at the
box office. With THE 6TH DAY, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in
form, delivering the kind of explosive sci-fi action that his fans have
come to expect from his movies. The digital special effects work is completely
beyond reproach and the numerous action sequences are staged with plenty
of energy and sense of style. Additionally, the science fiction story
is fairly relevant to scientific breakthroughs that are occurring right
now, so the plot of THE 6TH DAY isn't totally outside the realm
of possibility.
Set
in the near future, THE 6TH DAY tells the story of a world where
human cloning is banned, but the world still enjoys the fruits of cloning
technology for growing replacement organs for transplant, as well as bringing
back beloved family pets that have died, thanks to a company called RePet.
In THE 6TH DAY, Schwarzenegger portrays charter pilot Adam Gibson,
who flies his clients to mountaintop ski adventures. On the day he takes
on a new high profile client, Gibson switches places with his business
partner, so he can run errands before spending his birthday with his family.
When Gibson returns home, he looks through the window and sees himself
already inside the house, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake.
Quicker than you can say Jack Robinson, several goons show up to inform
Gibson that there has been a violation of the 6th day laws- which means
that he has been illegally cloned. Since there is already one Adam Gibson
in the house, the goons make it plain that they plan to eliminate the
other Adam Gibson- the one that no one else has seen yet. Of course, Gibson
doesn't have any intention of having his life stolen, so he goes on the
run to save himself and to discover who is responsible for creating his
illegal clone.
The
story structure of THE 6TH DAY has a lot in common with Schwarzenegger's
earlier effort TOTAL RECALL. Both films depict unwitting protagonists,
who find themselves victims of a larger conspiracy, in which they discover
that their lives are no longer their own. Additionally, in both films,
the protagonists find themselves on the run from a never-ending parade
of henchmen whose only desire is to terminate them. While THE 6TH DAY
does copy the formula of a successful Schwarzenegger outing, there is
enough here to differentiate it from TOTAL RECALL. Also in the
film’s favor is the fact that THE 6TH DAY offers a reasonably intelligent
story that does question the ethical implications of human cloning, without
spoon-feeding the audience a decisive answer. Much of the technology presented
in the film is not outside the realm of possibility; although the way
cloning is achieved in the film proves to be a real stretch. Fortunately,
director Roger Spottiswoode moves the story along at a brisk enough that
one doesn't have time to question the viability of all that they see.
Additionally, Schwarzenegger is surrounded with a solid supporting cast
that includes Michael Rapaport, Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rooker, Sarah Wynter,
Wendy Crewson, Rodney Rowland, Terry Crews, Ken Pogue, Colin Cunningham
and Robert Duvall.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment offers THE 6TH DAY on DVD in a wide
screen presentation that frames the film at 2.35:1 and includes the 16:9
enhancement. The image on the DVD is virtually perfect, appearing incredibly
sharp, finely detailed and displaying superb depth. Colors are very solid
and the flesh tones appear completely natural. More vivid hues are expressed
with complete stability, without so much as a hint of bleeding. Blacks
are right on the money, plus the level of shadow detail is truly excellent.
Digital compression artifacts are completely concealed by clean authoring.
As I have come to expect from brand new movies, the film element used
for the transfer is free from blemishes. Considering the DVD’s marvelous
image quality, it’s easy to say that Columbia TriStar has produced another
disc to show off one's home video set up.
THE
6TH DAY also features a killer Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack.
This track is aggressively mixed, taking full advantage of the discrete
properties of the format. Channel separation is excellent in both the
forward and rear soundstages, with smooth panning of sound effects in
all directions. The sound during the flying sequences is especially effective
and more than a bit showy, which makes them even more fun to watch. Dialogue
reproduction is clean and fully intelligible, even when the sound effects
are at the strongest. The bass channel is usually quite powerful, and
at times, completely explosive. As with the video, the 5.1 channel soundtrack
for THE 6TH DAY really delivers the goods, making it demonstration
worthy material. English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks are also
encoded onto the DVD, as are English and French subtitles.
Animation
and sound enhance the interactive menus, which provide access to the standard
scene selection and set up features, as well as a couple of extras. THE
6TH DAY was originally supposed to be a special edition DVD, but I
guess the less than outstanding box office grosses changed someone's mind-
too bad, I enjoyed this movie and really would have liked to see more
behind-the-scenes features included. However, THE 6TH DAY does
include a 5.1 channel isolated score, with commentary by composer Trevor
Rabin. It's a good score, and this is a feature that I wish more DVDs
would include. Also featured on the DVD are both the uncut infomercial
and commercial for the RePet service, which are seen briefly in the film.
If RePet actually did exist, it would probably be one of the most successful
businesses based upon biotechnology. After all, what pet lover wouldn't
want their beloved four legged family member to live as long as they did?
Talent files and theatrical trailers for THE 6TH DAY, as well as
other similarly themed DVDs close out the extras.
