Review of Sixth Day, The

Introduction

It`s Arnie. It`s science fiction. It`s got plenty of action. And it`s actually quite topical given the amount of stories about human cloning that have appeared in the news recently.

Arnie lives in the not too distant future, where the cloning of pets is now common place. No more burying the gerbil in a shoebox in the corner of the garden, just head on down to RePet and they`ll rustle you up a new one exactly like the old one.

But in this sharing and caring future the cloning of humans is strictly banned. But if you had lots of money and were somewhat of a mad scientist (or you knew one), would you obey the law? Didn`t think so. Can Arnie beat the nasty people so that the world can live happily ever after?

Video

A very good 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer which is of a high standard throughout. I couldn`t spot any print damage and everything looks as good as you would expect for such a young film.

Except for the special effects, some of which are very dodgy, as Chris has already mentioned in his review. The helicopter shots do indeed look very fake as do some of the other things in this not too distant future. It shouldn`t spoil your enjoyment too much, it`s just that you might expect more in this day and age.

Audio

Ignore the box, for it doth tell lies. The soundtrack is not DD2.0 stereo, but a proper all action DD5.1 soundtrack as you would expect. There`s a reasonable amount of work for all of your speakers to do with some good surround action occasionally.

The score also makes use of all the channels now and again, and does it to good effect.

Features

Quite a few extras here, but they don`t hold up too well against the recently announced region 1 "Special Edition", so you might want to bear that in mind.

What you do get are 10 featurettes of varying lengths covering various subjects. The vast majority concentrate on a particular area of the film, with one being a "making of" which doesn`t tell you much about the making of the film and is really just PR fluff.

There`s also a commentary track, but don`t get excited as it`s just an isolated score with composer`s commentary.

The RePet commercial seen in the film is also included as an extra along with a TV spot, some animatics and trailers.

A reasonable package of extras, but not exactly great.

Conclusion

A rather humdrum run-of-the-mill sci-fi action adventure. If you like Arnie movies you`ll know what to expect, just don`t expect some of his better efforts. There are some good action set pieces and some lighter moments but there`s nothing very new.

The disc itself is good, with good picture and sound and a reasonable selection of extras. If you really did want to buy it, you should hold out for the recently announced region 1 "Special Edition" which is scheduled to appear in January 2002.

A rental if you want a no-brain action film for a Saturday night.