High-concept sci-fi is a troublesome beast. It’s not considered nerdy to watch (though really, that concept is kind of going away in an age where everyone is rushing to superhero movies as fast as they can), but it can still be an unmitigated disaster (“The Box,” anyone?).
Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley are teaming up for the latest effort, “Self/Less,” which has Kingsley plays a rich tycoon type who finds his old body betraying him. His solution: an experimental body transfer, where his consciousness goes into someone else’s body, only to find the consequences of his actions are not what he expected.
This is hardly a new theme: hell, it wasn’t even new when “Freejack” tackled almost the same concept with Anthony Hopkins, Emilio Estevez, Rene Russo, and Mick Jagger way back in 1991.
But films of this type attempt to both satisfy immortality fantasies and tackle big moral questions, and often only do one or the other. Judging by the lack of attention “Self/Less” is getting, and how under-the-radar it is, even with a mid-July release date chances are this one is going to be a dud.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t hold out hope, and maybe the promise the film offered Kingsley and Reynolds when they signed on will indeed be fulfilled.
Really, though, there is only one way to find out: go see it.
