Self/less

Plot synopsis:
Business tycoon and billionaire Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) is master of his own universe, until he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now on his deathbed, he finds a business card directing him to a man named Professor Albright (Matthew Goode), who informs him about a radical medical procedure called "shedding", in which one's consciousness is transferred to an artificially grown healthy body.While Damian searches the article about Dr. Francis Jensen, a shedding neurologist, he suddenly collapses and the blood sputum is spurting onto the laptop. In his nursing home, Damian receives a call from Albright, saying that once he transferred into another body, it will not return to his original body and his death will be made to the public. Also, Albright plans Damian to fly to New Orleans to meet his friend, Martin. Damian then buries the box, containing something, in the cemetery. Damian and Martin having a coffee in the restaurant, but Damian collapse again to the floor. He is now brought into Albrights and he decides to transfer to the healthy body, we call him as Young Damian. Now his body is transferred to the new body, Young Damian begins to learn how to walk, swimming, etc. Albright prescribes medication to ease vivid hallucinations which he claims are side effects of the procedure.Young Damian starts a new life in New Orleans under a pseudonym of Edward Kittner. After Young Damian introduces his new home, he goes to play basketball and befriends his neighbor, Anton. After Young Damian read his own obituaries in the internet, he tries to call his daughter, Claire, but he refuses to talk with her and quickly hangs up the phone. Because he forgot to take his medicine, Young Damian subsequently hallucinate the war, the woman and a child, and the water tower styled as a pumpkin. When Edward asks Albright about the hallucinations, he dismisses his concerns, but accidentally reveals that he knows details of the hallucinations that Edward did not reveal. Albright arranges for him to move to Hawaii for a change of scenery, but Edward, convinced the hallucinations are some kind of memory, researches a landmark he saw in his vision and heads to St. Louis instead.In St. Louis, Young Damian infiltrates a house and sees the picture frames of himself and his wife, Madeline. Young Damian encounters Madeline, who identifies him as her apparently deceased husband Mark. After that, Albrights men, led by Anton - who reveals that he is one of Albright's employees breaks into the house and attacked Young Damian/Mark and Madeline. Edward learns that the body he inhabits belonged to another man who sold himself to Albright in order to gain the money he needed to cure their sick daughter. Young Damian then excuses him to go to the bathroom for taking medicine. After he took medicine, Young Damian attacks the henchman and kills him. Young Damian sees the fire thrower burns Madelines car. Anton and his henchman overhear the crashing and go to the bathroom. Young Damian shoots another man and Anton told him to the front. Anton goes inside the bathroom then tries to subdue each other, loses the medicine in the process. Young Damian tackles Anton out of the house and he goes back inside the house. The fire thrower burns the house. Young Damian takes Madeline out, but before they can escape, the two goes down under the house. Unseen by Anton and his other men, Young Damian shoots the fire thrower, accidentally burns Anton alive but manage to kill the fire by soaking himself into the tub and kills the henchman. The two escape and collect her daughter, Anna, from school.
The two stay at a motel for a while before heading to New Orleans. There, Young Damian researches the internet of Dr. Jensen, the man who invented shedding; Mark notices a tic he shares with Albright in a video of him and sees Albright in the same video as his assistant, and concludes that Jensen has shedded himself into Albright's body. Young Damian again hallucinates, because he loses his medicine, and collapses.The two drives back to the New Orleans and Young Damian told them to wait in the car. Young Damian finds Dr. Jensens wife, Phyllis, in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimers. Young Damian asks her if he can access his research, but she does not know. When Dr. Phyllis reveals that Albright came every week in her house, to bring butter scotch candy for her, she calls Albright to come in her house. Young Damian tranquilized Dr. Phyllis and he confronts Albright/Dr. Jensen. Young Damian asks Albright for medicine but he warns that if he continues to take the medicine, his "Mark" personality will eventually be completely erased, while if he quits, the "original" Mark will reassert control over his body and kill Damian's personality instead. But Mark flees when more assassins show up, including another man who he recognizes as Anton due to necklace they share Anton reveals that he has shedded multiple times.At a rest stop, Madeline confronts Mark over his behavior and lack of knowledge of their personal details, and he reveals all that has transpired to her. He takes them to his old friend Martin (Victor Garber) and convinces him to provide for Madeline and Anna to flee to the Caribbean. However, he and Madeline discover Anna playing with Martin's young son Tony (Dylan Lowe), who died two years ago; Martin admits that he used shedding to save his son and that Albright's men are waiting for them. Mark then reveals the dark secret behind shedding and flees to distract Albright's men while Martin, Madeline, and Anna escape. Mark manages to crash Anton's car with him in it and defeat his pursuers, but Madeline and Anna are recaptured.Mark stops taking his medicine in order to experience more memories, hoping they will lead him to Albright. This succeeds, and Mark pursues Albright to a lab built in an abandoned warehouse. There, Albright captures him and attempts to shed Anton into Mark's body, but Mark, remembering that metal interferes with the shedding process, takes a bullet casing in his mouth, therefore sabotages the procedure which kills Anton in the process. He rescues Madeline and Anna and takes down Albright once and for all. Mark arranges for Madeline and Anna to flee the country as planned, meets his own estranged daughter Claire (Michelle Dockery), and delivers her a letter reconciling with her. He then heads to the Caribbean and stops taking his medicine, dying peacefully. The real Mark reawakens in his own body and discovers a video message from Damian's personality thanking him for the time he gave him. Mark then reunites with his family at last.

Tags: comedy, murder, violence, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, sci-fi

Review:
Damian(Ben Kingsley) a self made billionaire discovers he is dying, and does have much longer to live, discovers a secret facility that can transfer his soul into a younger body(Ryan Reynolds), when the transfer is a success, Damian really begins to enjoy his new life in his new body, but soon realizes that his new life will have a price to pay.I'm surprised that I liked this, I went expecting this to be bad, but I was amazed on how intriguing it kept me.
When I saw the trailer, I was expecting a quiet little sci-fi drama about an old billionaire played by Ben Kingsley who gets the opportunity to live longer with the purchasing of a new body, played by Ryan Reynolds, and discovers his new body had a prior soul in it.The movie gave me a little more than that thanks to who the prior soul belong too and the large amount of trouble the creator of this body switching technique called shredding goes through to keep his project low key, when the billionaire freaks out about steeling another man's life.
When he delves into Edward's mysterious origin, he learns that some will kill to keep it secret.My buddy and I, both long time film buffs of multi-genres yearn for decent sci-fi thrillers that are well written and directed, leave us guessing here and there via plot twists and turns, includes necessary action, murder and mayhem and a credible Mr. Evil.
This film delivers 116 minutes of story, acting, production value and pure cinema sci-fi thrilling FUN.We were both thumbs-up entertained by one of Ryan Reynolds best efforts plus a fine supporting cast including Mr. Evil (Albright).
Production value gives us some fun shots of New Orleans, area mansions and a finale 'home' in a spectacular locale.There have been so many mind invasion/transfer films that our expectations for something original with thrills, excitement and pathos were low.
He does very well in the roll that Ben Kingsley gets started in a journey to achieve "Immortality." The fact that the film was shot exceptionally tastefully, had a great cast, and contained a worthy script makes it a shoe in for a good ride at the very least.You should take it.It's a return to what Science Fiction should really be.
From the quirky mind of Tarsem Singh, we are brought a Sci-Fi spectacle set five years in the future where immortality now exists with many consequences, having a new body, you need to take these pills so you don't have hallucinations or die.
Essentially like John Frankenheimer's classic 'Seconds', this film is still a merrymaking Thriller with enough twist and turns to make everything intriguing.Even if we get a introduction to Kingsley's character in the first ten minutes, we all can agree that Reynolds portrayed him very ideally, being in a young body again can bring some rather exceptions.
'SELF/LESS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A sci-fi thriller/action flick starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley.
The filmmakers do very little with their interesting ideas; but they do deliver a fun, and stylistically thrilling, action flick.Kingsley plays Damian, a wealthy, and very successful, businessman; who's dying from cancer.
Nevertheless, I found Self/less entertaining thanks to the solid performances from Ryan Reynolds and Matthew Goode in the typical roles of "Creature" and "Dr. Frankenstein" (respectively) who played with the destiny, and now have to pay the consequences.
But the best line in the movie happens about eight minutes in when the old dying Kingsley is trying to make a connection with his daughter who runs some kind of NGO in the city."This isn't work.
With a decent chunk of his money, Damian decides to transfer his consciousness to a new, younger body (Ryan Reynolds).
All you get are big yawns.I also expected more science fiction, but the way things play out, the sci-fi aspect is interchangeable, weak plot device.My standards are not very high, but I still say this movie is not worth watching.
and you don't feel like getting deeply engaged in an actual plot - this movie could probably keep you entertained for a night.
This is one where a dying billionaire is incarnated in a younger body to cheat death, but that along with all the other twists, that he begins to hallucinate things from that previous self, has to take pills or fade away, are just generic devices so we can have plot and hijinks.Along the way we get "social commentary" where the rich buy the poor to prolong a life of comfort but even that grates as silly.
He makes friends, sticks to a routine, but there are episodes -- brought on by the shedding -- which complicate the new life he has.Some things just don't add up, and he sets out to investigate -- and pretty soon ends up running for his life.I would watch the movie again without hesitation..
He is good though, I've always liked Ryan Reynolds, this man is a movie star!
This film is at its worst a cool 90's sci-fi action movie and at its best, it makes you question yourself on whether if you could live forever will you feel bad about who was the person you're inhabiting the body?.
I went into the movie not expecting much; Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern/RIPD), an hour and 10 mins in I just stopped watching.Boring.It reminded me of The 6th Day only The 6th Day was worth watching to the end and an OK movie.The pace and progression of the movie started good and then spiraled downward.
But here with Self/less all i could get is a very predictable boring film, not properly considered scenes like -hey we have a super Rich man lets make all his apartment heavy golden decorated interiors, cluttered looking!
Quickie Review:Damian (Ben Kingsley), dying from cancer uses his vast resource of wealth to go through a medical procedure to transfer his consciousness to a younger and healthier body.
The plot is very interesting, the first 20 minutes would want you to stay and finish it, the story starts with with Damian, Ben Kingsley, that gives a good start, although the scene with him did not gave out much of a story, it works very fine to start.
Lastly, the ending has one of the most wonderful and beautiful scene ever in a sci fi or any movie which is nice ending.Secondly, about the actors, they all did perfectly for their roles, Ryan Reynolds is very perfectly fits the Role as young Damian, he portrays the exact person you would be on the situation, anna, the daughter, portrays a very charming daughter, suits the expression from a child who has disease.
Self/Less might be a bit entertaining thanks to the rather well filmed action scenes (there's a car chase that's more difficult to understand and to follow that the supposedly "mind twisting" plot), but that's about it.
But then he is approached to be part of a pioneering new experiment, where his body is swapped with that of a fitter younger man (in the shape of Ryan Reynolds.) For a while, he is free to rediscover the freedoms and agility of his younger days, but then flashbacks of the former existence of his younger body start to simmer in his mind, and he is embroiled in a race against time when he learns the sinister truth of the experiment he's a part of.Renowned for his flashy visual effects, director Tarsem Singh here has a surreal sci-fi story on his hands, of the type Phillip K Dick is renowned for.
With well known talent Kingsley making way earlier on for hot new property Reynolds, the stage is set for an exciting roller-coaster ride, but, despite Self/Less's interesting premise, it just never delivers.Something this far fetched would have to have a really seat edge feel to it to really pay off, but rather than let the potentially interesting idea really develop, by the end all it's really done is overwhelm you and left you feeling all isolated and cold, and uncaring towards its conclusion.
Take this film as an example, an awesome story and had a good cast, but the writing was let down according to many who saw it.Even in the short period of appearance, Ben Kingsley's role's legacy carried out till the end, because the concept was designed like that way.
Not a fresh concept of an idea, but narrated differently and it needed a bit depth in showcasing everything in the film.My formula/secret for watching a movie successfully even it considered as an average or worse is, I won't bother for all the departments come together to become a well crafted product like the critics expect, because I'm a movie fanatic and love watching them almost most of the time than arguing about its flawed contents.
Movie starts with Ben Kingsley and a very calm atmosphere, giving the impression that we will witness a satisfactory amount of good acting, experience sci-fi thrill and a Black-Mirroresque dystopia.
Well, even these chase-action movies sometimes can be spectacular or epic, Self/less has nothing to do with it.Poor acting (except Ben Kingsley) and poorer plot; yet, initially promising..
This is such a case, thanks to a terrible script.Ben Kingsley turns into a younger man, played by Ryan Reynolds, but discovers that the medical facility is nothing short of being a criminal organization.
All logic or reality is thrown out of the window when a widow and child have the hope of getting their husband back, a ruthless tycoon self made millionaire suddenly changed to this typical hollywood hero and decided to go the unreasonable length and totally illogical way of murdering at least 30+ people to save this one man, who himself in the first place already made the decision to die?,LOL?And of course based on how the movie led the general audience to invest their emotions in, it's totally justified, story wise it might make some sense if it's for some random low IQ military brute misguided by pules of emotions, or a husband that places his wife and daughter above anything else like the owner of the original body, but this ruthless self made billionaire?
setting, if you're satisfied with another hollywood brainless one man murdering everyone just in another kind of randomly different background, oh but he's on the right side saving this other random guy/helpless mom or daughter you cared more because of the 5 min of time the movie forced you to remember their names thus emotions invested in, you've found the right one to watch, but why even this one, the actions, visuals and car chases are short and average at best....
The first 15 minutes (the stuff with Ben Kingsley) has the characteristics of a Tarsem movie, with the magical realism and the dreamlike pacing, but after the body switch it feels like a completely different director.
And that's too bad because Ben Kingsley always gives a good performance; Ryan Reynolds is quite capable and Tarsem Singh is one of the most visionary directors working today (see his movie, The Fall and his TV show, Emerald City).
I will not go over the plot widely discussed here by other fellow reviewers, but suffice to say the story line is very original and clever, and the film works very well as an action thriller, with twists here and there, but above all it is not superficial when its main character Damian is wondering about his legacy, immortality, trying to redeem himself, and coming to terms about the meaning of his life and trying to do what is right as he has been given a second chance.The choice of actors couldn't be more inspired, with both Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds excellent in conveying their inner doubts, with Ryan Reynolds moving at ease in familiar territory for him (the action scenes), and Matthew Goode superbly creepy as the cold calculating manager with whom Damian is dealing.
If it wasn't for Ben Kingley I would give this movie 1 star, but he kept it engaging and interesting the first 15min.Anyway you have been warned, if you want to watch a poor rehash with bad acting and full of plot holes go for it.
A mixing in of a little "fleshing-out" of the film via some Bourne Identity-esque action sequences (Yes, some of us have seen it before, but somehow it still feels almost as fresh and exciting as the first time when Ryan Reynolds does it.) So whats been overlooked?
Ryan Reynolds is good in the lead and although Ben Kingsley is not on screen for long here again he puts in another great performance.
I like Ryan Reynolds and was surprised to see one of his movies reviewed as mediocre.
If you enjoy an entertaining science fiction plot, and appreciate a good ending where the primary character does the right thing, I believe you'll like this one..
This was surprisingly a good entertaining movie,lot of mixed reviews,so i thought it wont be that good nonethless it was a cool experience,had quite a lot of emotion in it.The negatives would be the music (they really needed to cut off on the bgm at some parts) another negative would be the style and pace.the transition from drama to scifi then action to thriller could have been handled better.Inshort - cool flick with some nice performances(ryan reynolds ,ben kingsley and most of the other actors did a good job) ..Dont expect it to blow your mind with sci fi content,go easy on it,this one is for the entertainment value and it does its job pretty well..
Director Singh is known for his visual wizardly with which he was able to overcome the lack of strong plotting in films like The Cell, The Fall and Immortals, but somehow he wasn't allowed to bring his usual lush and vibrant style to the table here.Let's hope that Singh's next project will be something where he can release his visual creative energy, because wasting the talents of Michelle Dockery and sir Ben Kingsley without something beautiful to look at is not a good use of his and our time..
The body that Damian is given to inhabit looks a lot like Ryan Reynolds.
There's a lot going on to keep you entertained while you're thinking deep thoughts about the story's bigger issues.Some critics fault "Self/less" for becoming too much of an action movie and failing to more fully exploit the plot's intriguing set-up.
There were enough surprises and plenty of intrigue to keep you wondering.If I had one little niggle, it's that for me after the transformation to Reynolds it felt like a different film, it didn't feel seamless, maybe that was intentional, I felt they could have delved into the transition a little deeper, it seemed to happen to quickly.Lots of action scenes, really well directed, the effects were great too.
I thought the action scenes were great, and the fight scenes were excellent, as well.The story line had twists and turns, and I was so surprised to see one of the characters actually start off as a 'nice' guy end up being a 'bad' guy as the movie progressed.
Liked the trailer, so I decided to watch the movie.The idea itself makes you think about the decisions one takes in life and how they affect you later on, how regrets overwhelm you and how it is that immortality seems such a divine option that we all dream of and how that can be a total disaster if not managed correctly.Damian is a business man who finds himself in the last phase of cancer, with 6 months to live.
With the three movies that are coming out today if you had to see one in theaters it would have to be Minions at least you would be entertained.So let me ask you if you were dying and a company came up to you and said they could extend your life and were completely honest about the procedure, would you go for it?My Recommendation:Rent It. Body swap Sci-fi premise subsumed by non-suspenseful, generic action "thriller".
This felt like an above average in depended movie and it was both entertaining and thought provoking.Ben Kingley's role was small but just enough so Ryan Reynolds could portray him and still be creditable and it was also good for the pacing.I don"t think this was a big budget movie and they spend their money well giving you a great story about the choices we make in life and how it could be different if we had a second chance.
The business man neglecting his daughter felt very relatable and so was Ryan Reynold's character in an attempt to save his daughter who otherwise would die because of her illness.There are numerous surprises in this film and besides the thriller aspect you get just enough sci-fi and more than enough action.The supporting cast did an excellent job and I especially liked the little girl because I thought she acted really natural.The scale of it all sometimes feels a little small but it was still sufficient and probably caused by a lack of budget.Two keywords come to mind for this and thats sacrifice and redemption.I liked it a lot and so I recommend you'll give it a try.Enjoy..
Self/less (2015): Dir: Tarsem Singh / Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ben Kingsley, Natalie Martinez, Matthew Goode, Victor Garber: Title symbolizes two elements.
I saw "Self/Less", starring Ryan Reynolds-Green Lantern, The Amityville Horror_2005; Natalie Martinez-End of Watch, Death Race_2008; Matthew Goode- The Imitation Game, Watchmen; Victor Garber-Argo, Alias_tv and Ben Kingsley-Iron Man 3, Gandhi.This is a little thriller that has some similarities to a 1966 movie with Rock Hudson in it called 'Seconds'.
Though most of SELF\LESS' running times is devoted to Ben Kingsley moving into Ryan Reynold's brain and body, director Tarsem Singh felt he could get away with dropping a few Real Life hints about some recent corporate moguls who seemed to "come out of nowhere" to suddenly chart America's course.