Great Film overall

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

If you like impressive-looking sci-fi with lots of running around, you might like this. On the other hand, if you like thoughtful, intelligent science fiction, you can safely give this one a pass. With a talented cast, good budget, and a terrific premise by Phil Dick (who also inspired the brilliant Blade Runner and Total Recall), this should have been a fine movie. I don't know whether to blame the director, the writer (adapter), or both. (Each has done things I've liked in the past.) There are lots of troublesome inconsistencies, but I want to keep spoilers to a minimum. I can suspend disbelief and I think I have a fair tolerance for implausible heroics and holes in plots. But in science fiction or in fantasy, realism by default must be grounded in the characters, and I couldn't make myself believe the two leads—one a supposedly brainy weapons scientist, the other a top intelligence official—could possibly be so much stupider than the viewing audience. Neither seems capable of self-reflection or insight into the motives of anyone else. An interrogation scene near the beginning of the movie is a brain-numbing disaster. Vincent D'Onofrio's bullet-headed intelligence officer is portrayed as impervious to critical thought and mindlessly cruel. If he believes the circumstances are as he says slightly later in the film, it's senseless for him to act and talk as he does during the interrogation. (Also, didn't anyone ever teach him about the concept of "misinformation"?) Meanwhile, Gary Sinise's rocket scientist, instead of trying to persuade onlookers by asking obvious logical questions, adopts an initial strategy for escape makes no sense whatsoever (and has no obvious point). Mekhi Phifer, good as always, plays the only role that seems remotely plausible. The film director does achieve the small miracle of making a character played by Madeleine Stowe uninteresting, but at least she is given the chance to ask, halfway through the film, the question every character should have been asking from the beginning: "How can you be sure?" That is the central theme of Dick's message, although it's message few of the characters in this film could have understood.

The best, most thoughtful, most fun part of this effort from Gary Fleder based on a 1953 Philip Dick novel is that technology might become so advanced (or alien) that one might not even know one's identity as friend or enemy. And if one doesn't even know, then what kind of enemy is that? Rather sadly, in a way, this point is made very strongly in a quite early (and quite memorable) scene in "Impostor", and we don't really recapture those heady heights until the last 5 minutes. It's no secret (or even spoiler) that much of the film is devoted to having us wonder if our hero is ... or isn't. Simultaneously, we've got a routine-ish "fugitive on the run" movie, if one made reasonably compelling by the solid performance of Gary Sinese as Spencer Olham, as well as certain futuristic touches giving us the odd insight into the world in 2079. But since this is all taking place in a (very) long-distance (and pretty technologically implausible) war between Earth and Alpha Centauri that has necessitated far-reaching changes on our home planet, this reviewer at least felt regularly distracted by a yearning to home in more on that kind of topic (nicely rendered in "Starship Troopers"), as opposed to wondering whether Olham is going to manage to get through this door, slip down that dark and gloomy tunnel (much of this film is in over-subdued lighting), or find some other way to evade the next detector device. Maybe the small story illustrates the bigger picture, but here we have only hints of the latter, which we'd certainly like more of. What is quite interesting is interplay between Sinese's character and that of Cale (played by Mekhi Phifer), though the status of his group of outlaws goes somewhat unexplained. After all, Earth has a deadly alien enemy, so a desire on the part of some to rebel against a rather dictatorial regime can't help but look a bit of a finicky sideshow. A pretty good and nuanced performance is also turned in by Vincent D'Onofrio as Hathaway.Seasoned sci fi fans keen on seeing every film in the genre should not miss it (and Dick is Dick for all that - though the short story is still out there, on paper). Nor should Sinese aficionados pass up the chance (he also produced). Others may wonder if their time might not be better spent, though admittedly this is a short piece at less than 90 minutes before the credits roll.

It's 2079 the world has been at war with an alien race from Alpha Centauri for 45 years. A secret government weapons designer Spencer Olham is forced to go on the run when he accused of being a replicant assassin created by the aliens to kill the Chancellor.Impostor is an overlooked adequate science fiction based on a story by Philip K. Dick. Due to the source material it's reminiscent of Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report to name a few. Coincidently Stephen King's novel the Running Man shares a lot of similarities.Directed adequately by Gary Fleder and despite an abundance of unnecessary slow motion shots, the special effects, futuristic sets and gritty locations are well realised and executed. In addition, it has a fitting score, the camera work was ahead of its time using a style that has become common place since.Wisely Imposter doesn't feature the Alien race and the action follows Spencer Olham (Gary Sinise) on his search through the domed protected city and outskirts to find out the truth while being tracked down by Major Hathaway excellently played by Vincent D'Onofrio. There's a cast of familiar faces including Gary Dourdan, Tony Shalhoub, Shane Brolly and Madeleine Stowe who is at her peak here as Maya Olham.It's a drawn-out mystery, that said it has some nice ideas, touches, a few twists and a satisfying downbeat conclusion. Overall, an entertaining science fiction that oozes atmosphere.

A half-baked science fiction plodder in which Gary Sinise tries to convince the authorities he's not actually a body-snatching cyborg with a bomb in his heart. Originally intended as one-third of a short story anthology, the studio called an audible midway through production and stretched it to a feature length by itself. The lack of preparation is crippling, as bad effects, terrible scenery, atrocious dialog and a heavily padded plot are exposed and emphasized by the longer running time. Sinise's character, the intended heart and soul of the picture, is incendiary and unlikeable, a standoffish prick who makes an already-bad position worse for himself in almost every situation. The awful lines he spits (seriously, the worst-written dialog this side of The Room) aren't helped by a hyperactive editor, switching angles several times in a single sentence. Awful in almost every sense, at least it goes out with a bang.