Godsend Review

Godsend
When their son Adam (Bright) is killed in a tragic accident, Paul and Jessie Duncan (Kinnear and Stamos) take Dr. Wells (De Niro) up on his offer to clone him. For eight years they raise Adam Mk. II until, as he reaches the age when the original Adam died, he starts going, well, a bit mental.

by Mark Dinning |
Published on
Release Date:

02 Jul 2004

Running Time:

103 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Godsend

Word has it that director Nick Hamm (The Hole) shot seven different endings to this tosh. We've only seen one of them, and that was laughable at best, so Christ only knows what manner of dumb screenwriting lurks in the other six. Frankly, it doesn't really matter: Elvis could turn up, pull a lightsaber out of his arse and do a naked can-can with the Olsen sisters for all we care - no trick in the book could redeem the pure chaos that here precedes it.

Having now given up reprimanding Bobby for his insane choices of late, the real vitriol should be directed at the agent of little moppet Cameron Bright, who this year has managed to dump his 11 year-old client in both this and The Butterfly Effect. What on Earth did the poor kid do to deserve that? Get crayon all over the office furniture? But it's not particularly the little guy's fault that his performance as the 'spooky' kid never rises above mild irritation, since he's given little to do other than stare blankly from darkened corners.

Ironically, just like the Ashton Kutcher stinker, Godsend is based on an intriguing premise. Sadly, it's mangled into an Omen-lite disaster area, thanks to a script torn between making a moral point about cloning and cheap shocks. Ultimately, it achieves neither. Good work all round.

Boasting all the menace of a finger-nibble from Dolly the sheep, Nick Hammís genetics horror is effective only as a cautionary tale for morons.
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