Replicas 2018

     Chad St. John did the writing for this film from a story by Stephen Hamel.  William Foster works in a biology lab for Bionyne Corporation in Puerto Rico.  William and his assistant Ed are trying to transfer the brain of a wounded soldier into an advanced android body.   So far there have been problems with the transfer.  William takes his wife Mona, son Matt, daughter Sophie and daughter Zoe on a short trip to get away.  Unfortunately, there is a violent storm and part of a tree breaks off on to the car.  Then William drives into a lake and everyone dies except William.  He is beside himself with grief and very devastated but he starts thinking about the nature of the work he has been doing??  Would it be possible to bring his family back??  Ed tries to discourage William from going down this path!!

     Most of the critics are against this film but I didn’t think it was as bad as reviewed.  I thought the story was interesting and you can feel the desperation and grief that William Foster is experiencing.  Wouldn’t anyone with the skills to bring a family back try any possible solution!!  In real life Keanu’s girlfriend Jennifer Syme gave birth at 8 months of pregnancy to Ava Archer Syme-Reeves on December 24, 1999 and she was stillborn.  This caused a strain on their relationship and they had a breakup several weeks later.  On April 2, 2001, Syme was driving on Los Angeles’ Cahuenga Boulevard.  She sideswiped three parked cars, rolled over several times and was thrown from the car.  It was reported she died instantly.  She had sought treatment for depression and she was taking two prescription drugs.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

107 min, Drama directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff with Keanu Reeves, Alice Eve, Thomas Middleditch, John Ortiz, Emjay Anthony, Emily Alyn Lind, Aria Lyric Leabu, Nayasha Hatendi, Amber Rivera, Jonathan Dwayne, Louis Gonzaga, Andres Ramos, Jeffrey Holsman.

Note:  Imdb 5.4 out of 10, Roger Ebert 1* Brian Tallerico, Rotten

Tomatoes 10% critic 35% audience, Metacritic 19 out of 100 with 15 critics 4.4 out of 10 with 60 user scores, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Charles Bramesco, Amazon 3.7* out of 5* with 442 reviews.

Special Note:  The story and screenplay were developed at Keanu Reeves and Stephen Hamel’s production company Company Films.  Filmed in Puerto Rico in August 2016 but not released until January 2019.  Worldwide gross for this film was $8.1 million with a production budge of $30 million.  The loss was 21.9 million plus advertising costs.  This film was 12^th at the box office making the worst wide release opening of Reeves’ career.  The film fell 81.5% in its second weekend to $439,731, the ninth worst second-week drop of all-time.  The 1993 film, Falling Down similarly features a man named William Foster who goes to extreme lengths to be reunited with his child.