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 change", despite being a rather good movie,
makes one generalization that nearly sinks it. At its heart, the movie claims
that all corporations, and the corporate structure, are inherently evil. Which
leads me to these ironic questions: What corporation financed this movie?
Without corporations, who would build that nice little pad the idealistic
reporter lives in? Or run the city? Or provide her paycheck? Or keep her lights
on, her telephone running, and her gas flowing? I guess in the world of naïve
anti-corporate idealistic types, Fairy Gnomes go around providing the luxuries
of life for free. Gee, it must be nice to be so simple-minded.
Besides its childish retort of capitalism,
"Xchange" is a pretty decent movie, with a good cast and a screenplay
that manages some very good moments. The only thing that keeps the film from
being outstanding is its limited budget, which means director Allan Moyle
("Pump Up the
Volume") can't realize every detail of "Xchange's"
"world of tomorrow". The screenplay by Christopher Pelham is probably
too ambitious, but you have to give the man credit for a novel idea and some
unexpected plot twists.
"Xchange" is about Toffler, a corporate
mouthpiece whose body is stolen by a corporate terrorist name Fisk. With Fisk
out there using his body to kill people in the name of ridding the world of
those eee-vil corporate types, Toffler has to evade the authorities and
the corporation that "lost" his body in the first place. Kim Coates
("Blackhawk Down")
plays Toffler pre-theft, while Kyle MacLachlan ("Showgirls") shows up
briefly as the pre-theft Fisk, and then later as the post-body transfer Toffler.
Stephen Baldwin ("Dead
Awake") plays Toffler post-theft as well as playing other clones that
are used, in this futuristic world, for dangerous manual labor.
French beauty Pascale
Bussieres is Madeleine, the idealistic journalist. Madeleine despises
corporations, but one gets the sense that her adamant hatred stems more from
ex-lover Toffler's unceremonious dumping of her years ago instead of her
indignation at the corporate structure's eee-vil ways. After his body is
stolen, Toffler seeks out the crusading journalist to help get back his body.
Can you say, "Gee, that's ironic"? (Irony, you'll find, fills Pelham's
not-so-subtle screenplay, including a scene where two corporate bigwigs
practically, er, screw each other over.)
It has to be said that the budget of "Xchange"
doesn't do its story justice. In a world where people can swap bodies by putting
on a metal headband doohickey, gas-guzzling cabs and '70s Chevys still roam the
streets of New York. Homes are run by automated artificial intelligence, but
cops are still carrying around automatic handguns. Needless to say,
"Xchange's" futuristic vibe works best when the movie is indoors,
where the illusion of advanced technology is easier to sell.
If you could ignore the naïve nature of
"Xchange's" anti-corporate message, the movie is very entertaining.
Allan Moyle manages to hide the movie's shortcomings with good camerawork and
the actors all do decent jobs, especially Bussieres and Baldwin. MacLachlan
isn't in the movie long enough to make an impact, and Kim Coates (that's a man,
if you were wondering) plays the villain as too stiff and unconvincing.
MacLachlan, during his brief stay, played a better villain.
"Xchange" is a surprisingly enjoyable film, and
manages to overcome much of its visual shortcomings. And while the movie's
themes of corporate evils lack subtlety, at least it's not as poorly written and
executed as "Power
Play", which practically re-defined stupid and clichéd moviemaking.
And oh, like a lot of action movies, "Xchange" manages to have its
climactic fight in an old refinery of sorts. Although I believe there wasn't any
steam shooting off randomly this time around.
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