Two Schwarzeneggers for the price of one! What more could we ask for? Well, two Schwarzeneggers turns out to still be only one fifth of a real actor. He shows absolutely chemistry with anyone in this film, including the scenes he plays alongside himself. Limited though his acting skills may be, he has been better than this, much better.

To be fair, though, there's not a lot else in the production for him to be excited about. THE 6th DAY is a pallid re-run of the Earthbound sections of TOTAL RECALL, only with memory implants being swapped with full-body cloning and Sharon Stone swapped for Michael Rooker (no offence, Michael, but on the looks front there's no comparison). The characters are stock good and bad guys with only Robert Duvall's supervising scientist showing any development at all in subplot about his sick wife. It must have been a good payday for Duvall to find anything worth doing in this at all. There is some minor fun to be had from the couple of sidekick goons who keep getting killed and resurrected.

The near future is borrowed from any number of other, better films. There are hints of BLADE RUNNER and MINORITY REPORT in the holographic advertising and the guns seem to have been borrowed from the LOGAN'S RUN set. The effects are poor, from these pistols to the seriously dodgy jet copters. The opening chopper race is meant to be exciting, but it's more a chase to find the worst effects shot. Why the production felt they needed to use laser weapons instead of good old-fashioned believable guns is a mystery. At least the set with the clone refinery (or whatever the appropriate term is) is impressive.

Everything about THE 6th DAY looks tired and recycled. Perhaps Schwarzenegger himself was just bored at having to run through the same action beats that he has done elsewhere so much better. There is little invention in the plot (hero good, corporation bad, oh look a car chase!) or the action or even the themes. If you want to see a good film about genetic manipulation then try GATTACA. Even the one-liners the script gives to the star are dull.

If there is a sign that Arnold Schwarzenegger's film star career is waning, or that the whole science fiction action genre has had its day, then THE 6th DAY is that sign. It's not bad, as such, it's just sort of there.