Reviewed by Johnny McNair

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment – 123 mins – 2002 – Rated R – 1080p Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40: 1 – Dolby TrueHD 5.1

By the time The 6^th Day was released in theaters in 2000, the one-man-army macho muscleman films that Schwarzenegger and Stallone made their paychecks from in the 80’s and 90’s was a dead genre. Audiences were searching for a new kind of hero and blowing things up and spitting out one-liners wasn’t going to cut it anymore. What makes this worse is that this is not even a good film and even if you are a Schwarzenegger fan you’ll be yawning through this one. For those of you who dare, The 6^th Day is now available on Blu-ray from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Not even high definition can save this one.

THE MOVIE

Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Adam Gibson, an average Joe living in the near future who comes home one day to discover that a cloned version of himself has stolen his life and lives with his family. Being that cloning animals is accepted in the future, but it’s illegal to do the same to a human, Gibson realizes that something is wrong (very clever plot so far). But Gibson has other problems to deal with as a group of gunmen constantly hunt him down trying to terminate him. He has no idea what’s going on and begins a desperate quest to learn the truth. The cloning situation works against him, because every time he successfully kills the gunmen who want him dead…They’re replaced by their clones who continue to chase after him again (uh…yup). But Gibson knows that his family is in imminent danger, and not being able to trust anyone, he must work alone to save himself and the ones he loves.

Director Roger Spottiswoode, who helmed the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, can’t even figure his way around this mess. The main problem is there’s nothing unique about the film at all, and even the supporting cast that includes, Michael Rooker, Robert Duvall, and Micheal Rapaport seem to be phoning in their performances. For a big budget action film, there’s no thrust of adrenaline anywhere, making it look like a Sci-Fi Channel made for TV movie. And Schwarzenegger must have been really desperate in his movie career when he turned to the tactic that fellow action man Jean Claude Van Damme used in his film Double Impact, by playing two versions of himself in one film, fighting side by side with each other.

Sometimes you’re not sure if they’re serious, or was this meant to be a spoof of a collection of other films such as A Clockwork Orange, Total Recall, and Gattaca, because it’s really hard to sit through this film without laughing unintentionally. And you’ll also wonder how much effort Schwarzenegger put into the film, because with the exception of close ups, it’s so obvious that a stunt double is doing all of his action scenes. After being elected the Governor of California, he was asked about one day returning to do action films, but said that he was tired of being told by a director to roll around on the ground at three in the morning as a fireball chased him. His last few films before jumping out of the game are proof of that, including the crap-tastic Terminator 3.

If you’re an “Arnold can do no wrong” fan, then you’re going to buy this Blu-ray no matter what; but for all others it’s suggested that you have a good Schwarzenegger movie on hand as back-up, such as Terminator 2, Commando, or Predator. The Governator is now trying to save the world (or at least California) in a different way now, so The 6^th Day is long behind him. If he ever figures out a way to override the law and become President one day, maybe he can pardon himself for his last batch of action movies.

VIDEO

The movie itself may be horrible, but the image quality is amazingly good, presented in 1080p in a 2.40:01 aspect ratio. The transfer makes the film look like it was just made this year rather than being eight years old. Skin tones, colors and blacks are solid and even though there are hints of grain, overall this is one of the best-looking Blu-rays out there. If only more care had gone into the movie itself as was done with this transfer, The 6^th Day would have been an awesome disc.

AUDIO

Offering an ear busting lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio mix, The 6^th Day sound great and will compliment your home theater sound set up. The dialogue sounds crisp and when the action breaks out you will be convinced you’re sitting in a movie theater, particularly the way the subwoofer is utilized. This is top-notch audio show off material. But again, if only such care went into the movie itself the experience would be worth it.

EXTRAS

The extras for The 6^th Day are mainly ported over from the regular DVD and in standard definition. Being that this film didn’t make much of an impact at the box office, there was obviously no reason to go all out with new extras for this Blu-ray.

‘The Future is Coming’ is a 15 minute made for Showtime promotional special that was used to get people pumped of for the new Schwarzenegger film, back when this was coming out. It’s a bunch of interviews with the director and cast, mixed in with clips from the movie to sell it as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

‘On the 6^th Day’ runs about 20 minutes and is broken into nine sections, Another Way to Fly, Finding Sim Pal Cindy, The Art of the Chase, Over the Cliff, Virtual Girlfriend, In the Tank, Free Falling, Detonation, and Enhancing the Look. Mainly all of these clips cover a specific effects shot for the film. Nothing fancy, but better than nothing.

A storyboard comparison shows a split screen version for three action scenes, allowing you to see how the final film version looks against the original concept.

Two Animatics shows the moving storyboards for the Rooftop and Snowy Mountain scenes from the film.

The 6^th Day is one of the first Sony Blu-ray’s to utilize the BD-Live profile 2.0 features, for those who have an Internet capable player such as the PS3. Once accessed the only content available were trailers for Sony titles on Blu-ray or coming soon to theaters, that can either be downloaded in standard or HD format. The selection is slim with such picks as Gattaca, Prom Night, Don’t Mess with the Zohan, and Spider-Man 3 to name a few. This will all be perfected in the future allowing you to download more than just trailers you can see on your PC, but it’s a start.

The D-Box feature that’s normally used on 20^th Century Fox titles can also be accessed on this Blu-ray, but unless you have the equipment to use it, this is useless.

BOTTOM LINE

The 6^th Day is in no way Schwarzenegger’s best work, but it’s better than watching another of his forgotten films, Junior. The best thing this Blu-ray has to offer is excellent picture and sound, so if a limited story and lame action doesn’t bother you, this may be worth the investment. For all those who are just curious, give it a rent before you buy it, and pray that one day they’ll release a new re-mastered version of the Total Recall Blu-ray to make up for this.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 2.5

Video: 4.0

Sound: 4.0

Extras: 2.5

Bottom Line: 2.5