The 6th Day [2000]

THE 6TH DAY is a good little sci-fi action film. There was no reason for it to not be a hit. However, Arnold just isn't the superstar he once was and his past several films have been a vivid example that he simply can not open a movie by himself anymore. The publicity campaign for THE 6TH DAY was focused squarely on Arnold and that probably turned people, if not off, at least lukewarm to movie. Arnold really needs a solid hit to bring him back to the top of Hollywood, and this simply wasn't meant to be it. (Personally, I think his TERMINATOR 3 is going to be a mistake as well, but KING CONAN: CROWN OF IRON has potential.)

THE 6TH DAY refers to the biblical reference when God made man. The movie is about human cloning and Adam Gibson (Schwarzenegger) has just discovered that he is not the only Adam Gibson in his life. Adam runs a helicopter service with his partner Hank Morgan (Michael Rappaport) and decides to take a day off so he can get a cloned pet to surprise his daughter since hers just died. However, the surprise is on him when he returns home to discover a cloned version of himself enjoying his home life. He has just witnessed a 6th Day violation (a human clone) and is now the target of the people who made the clone.

This movie has much to recommend: some really fun B-grade action scenes, the always great Michael Rooker (once again playing a nasty bad guy), some really decent hard science fiction (rather than science fantasy which tends to dominate so called sci-fi films these days) and one of the best excuses to have your small group of villains completely unstoppable (if one gets killed, you have some clones as spares.) Even though THE 6TH DAY is already dated (unless the XFL returns) and was only a mediocre success at the box office, it should have a good long life on video because it is so much fun.