The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

My Own Worst Enemy was one of the critics picks to be the big winner of the 2008 Prime time TV line up, but was cancelled after just nine episodes. Despite gaining a cult following, and being released on DVD, the show was very expensive to make and just wasn't that interesting. Christan Slater plays Henry Spivey, a simple businessman with a wife and two kids. Every day when Henry goes to work at his Insurance office, he looks into the elevators retinal scanner and is transformed to another person, Edward Albright, a top spy for an unknown U.S. Government agency. The first problem I had with this show is that the whole family situation could have been copied and pasted right from the film True Lies. If that was the only issue, I could have gotten passed it, but the truth is the every episode in the series was nearly identical and the show just went around in circles. Something breaks in Edward/Henry's brain and he keeps switching back and fourth at the most inopportune times. The two are made aware of each and often have to take each others place. They even leave digital messages for one another. That fact is that this show just wasn't that original, not to mention it was very predictable and extremely frustrating to watch. You had to know that almost every time Edward went on a mission Henry would appear and have to do something he wasn't trained for. It was cute the first time, but by the fourth or fifth time, I had more than enough of it. The same is true with the Edward showing up during family time and seeming strange to his wife and kids.The bottom line, My Own Worst Enemy had a great cast, but a mediocre, predictable story, that just went around in circles. All the guns, explosions, and special effects in the world would have been enough to save this show.

I noticed this because the supporting actors have Taylor Lautner and Bella Thorne as the kids of the secret agent. These do not appear all that often, but the home life of the spy is a big ingredient of the story, if not an ingredient that takes up much screen time.Taylor, I only noticed him because of Kristen Stewart, someone who I tend to take seriously indeed.Bella. She headlines in a recent Disney song and dance type series and if the highlights of that are anything like as good as the highlights of Disney TV movies such as HSM and Camp Rock then this is a young actress who I will need to take seriously too. So, I experience the Shake It Up sampler DVDs as rather like the grit of the worst grit of Camp Rock 2, My Own Worst Enemy as a more optimistic example of her work.As far as series go, this is not the sort of thing that I would usually watch, but I still have to rate it as a bit above average. Very acceptable action stories, though those who specialise in these will doubtless be more fussy. My top ten in 2013 had Zoey 101 and Lizzie McGuire and Full House and Buffy and Pete And Pete at the top of the league, second childhood stuff. I experience some other series for kids as working to bring second childhood down. Worst Enemy is not a story for kids, but I find it better than some that are.I found the DVD set at a really low price so had no qualms about purchasing this on a speculative basis. At the price I paid I have no reason to complain and I found it to be an interesting purchase.

Offered as a spy thriller about a super-secret and utterly ruthless American intelligence agency capable of operating anywhere in the world, the series featured a secondary story line about a seemingly average middle class family with relationship issues-- clearly meant to rope in the ladies. With the action lurching uneasily from one to the other, the two story lines didn't quite marry up.The casual violence of the major plot was bound to turn off women viewers far more than they would be attracted by the domestic scenes featuring white bread blonde Madchen Amick. Many also would not "get" the references to major international issues that concern this shadowy and sinister Agency. These also put a date-stamp on the series.Christian Slater is a Jack Nicholson sound-alike who also has Nicholson's sharp, worldly cynicism. Add the gritty physical intensity of a young Robert Blake, whom Slater generally resembles, and you have a great talent. There are some steamy love scenes between the 5'8" Slater and stunning English model turned actress Saffron Burrows--six feet tall and an avowed lesbian off-screen--who plays a psychiatrist on the staff the Agency. This match-up looks ludicrous on paper yet in action it is convincing. In the ironic intelligence of the writing and in its tribute to classic British fiction of the nineteenth century this series owes a debt to "House", the hit medical series on Fox Network.

As others before me have already pointed out, there are some flaws throughout the show. Mainly I have a hard time understanding the benefit of training a killer who is left completely vulnerable and unable to defend himself for more than half the time. I could get over this though if the writers started improving some of the dynamic between his two personalities. But keep in mind that this is a made for T.V. thriller. When are these things anything other than pure fantasy? People who enjoyed the premise of shows like 24 or Dexter, and who don't mind the serious gaps that come up in those stories will probably enjoy My Own Worst Enemy as well. I am interested to see where the show ends up going, and what with the serious lack of inspiration behind most scripts these days, I hope they can get it together and reach the potential that the really great premise has to offer.