"It's like looking in a mirror, only not!"

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2018)

The sci-fi aspect of the story is commendable but things get somewhat preposterous rather quickly. The difference in size between John Travolta and Nicolas Cage should have triggered some kind of reaction in the other characters they dealt with, not to mention their proportionally different shaped heads. Travolta's is a lot rounder while Cage has a more elongated aspect. Certainly Sean Archer's wife Eva (Joan Allen) should have figured something was wrong when she shared a bed with Sean's replacement. Additionally, as Archer (Travolta) assumed Castor Troy's (Cage) identity, he didn't have much of a problem with multiple law enforcement authorities getting killed in the line of duty, not to mention stealing a car when the opportunity arose. Some FBI agent!
I'll say this, if Nicolas Cage wasn't a pro-wrestling fan I'd be surprised. During the jail break with Ivan Dubov (Chris Bauer), he let out with a handful of Whoo's! that would have made Ric Flair proud. You know, I thought it was pretty dumb when Sean (as Castor) derided brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) after learning of the bomb plant at the Los Angeles Convention Center. That was just an unforced error that wasn't necessary.
The film's primary audience is the action/adventure crowd and on that score the picture delivers. The boat crash to wind things up at the finale is simply spectacular, even if the logistics of the high speed chase on water defies credibility. With identities back in place for the closing scene, anyone who didn't see Sasha's (Gina Gershon) son Adam coming around to fill the vacuum left by young Michael (Myles Jeffrey) from the film's opening scene, well you just weren't paying attention. All's well that ends well I guess.