There was first the cloned sheep, Dolly. Now today, cloning is actually very popular in science. Just do a simple Google search and you’ll find many articles on cloning that are occurring or have occurred. Heck, there was even an active website at one time about gene banking a pet. How far is science willing to go? The cloning of humans is not so far out of reach but most likely will not happen in my lifetime. When it does, you can bet that government will try and step in and stop it.

The 6th Day takes place sometime time in the not so distant future. Cloning of animals is all the rage. If your dog or cat dies, you can easily have yourself a new one in about 3 hours courtesy of Repet. Need a new kidney or heart, no problem; NuOrgan is there to help you. However, the cloning of humans is another story. After a failed attempt to clone a human, the Supreme Court created The 6^th Day laws. This forced a ban on human cloning. However, just because it is banned, that doesn’t mean it isn’t done illegally.

Adam Gibson (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is celebrating his 50^th birthday and the last thing he expected to find upon arriving home from work is to find his family and friends celebrating his birthday, with someone who looks just like him. Before he can confront this impostor, he is met by people claiming they can help him. They explain he has been cloned and that a 6th Day violation has occurred. Unwilling to accept their “help,” they attempt to detain him and kill him. However, he manages to escape them. Adam is now forced to go on the run. Wanting his life and family back, he is willing to do whatever it takes to find out how he was cloned, who cloned him and why.

The 6^th Day is not going to be everyone’s favorite Arnold movie. Mind you, Arnold has done some great movies (Terminator, True Lies) and also some stinkers (Junior, Jingle All The Way.) The 6^th Day falls somewhere in between. Arnold is somewhat robotic in his role here and I am reminded every time I watch The 6^th Day of his performance in Total Recall. His sidekick in the film is, Hank (Michael Rapaport.) Never known for his dramatic acting abilities, Rapaport fails miserably. The two never seem to interact as real genuine friends. It is almost as if they are just running through their lines and hoping it comes across as okay.

However bad the acting is and the sleepwalking most of the actors do throughout the film, The 6^th Day still manages to entertain. We are given tons of good action and a very interesting storyline.

One of the better performances comes from Michael Rooker (Robert Marshall in the film) who is one of the people trying to kill Arnold’s character. He plays the bad guy role very well and even has some funny lines in the film. An interesting tidbit is that this is Rooker’s second film dealing with clones as he played second to Jean Claude Van Damme in “Replicant” in 2001.

It was never made clear what year this was to be taking place in but given that the guns were actually of the laser variety and the cost of a cab ride was about $400.00, it is safe to say it is quite some years away.

Video

The image on this 1080P, 2.40:1 high definition transfer is very decent but nothing earth shattering. First off, skin tones do look great and I didn’t notice any softness to any of the image. The indoor scenes look clean and crisp. No edge enhancement was spotted nor did I spot any specks of dirt on the print.

Sadly, plenty of grain was found in the outdoor scenes during the daytime shots. Also, the blacks weren’t very good either as you could see the grain there as well. The grain could have easily been cleaned up and would have made for a better viewing experience.

I also noticed some shimmering of the picture in many of the scenes throughout the movie.

And finally, many of the special effects looked false to me. Maybe it was due to the lack of advanced CGI at the time but high definition didn’t seem to help out the 6^th Day in the special effects department.

Audio

The TrueHD 5.1 audio works just fine here. Surrounds were used to perfection and comes through crystal clear. The bass was rocking and almost seemed to never stop, so that was nice.

You are also given the choice of French, Portuguese True HD 5.1 and Spanish and Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital. There are also 10 different subtitles to choose from.

Special Features

These are the same extras, aside from the D-Box and BD Live, that were available on the 2 disc DVD. None of the extras are in high-definition.

• Showtime Special: The Future is coming - This is a standard “making of” type of Featurette. Short sound bites from several of the actors as well as the director and other people who took part in the making of the film. It runs about 15 minutes.
• Animatics - This is a pretty neat extra. Basically, you see the animated story board of how the scene is to be shot. You have the option to watch two of the scenes within the movie in animated format.
• On the 6^th Day - This is a collection of 9 behind the scenes Featurette’s showing different aspects of the film.
• Story Board Comparisons - Basically, this is where you are shown the different storyboards drawn up for many of the scenes and at the same time, they show you the scene taking place.
• Repet Infomercial and TV Spot - As the title states, here you can watch the Repet infomercial as if it were a real product. They also have the TV spot shown in the movie.
• D-Box - If you have one of those expensive chairs, you can sit in it and feel the rumble of the film.
• BD-Live - This is available if you have a BD Live equipped player.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed The 6^th Day but not as much as when I first saw it. When reviewing a disc now, I am always on the look out for flaws and when I find them, it dampens the movie experience. Sad but true. However, fans of Arnold and his action films will find this enjoyable. Although the image is lacking in parts, the audio more than makes up for it. This is a fun movie to leave your sense of believability at the door and sit back and just relax.