neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Godsend
	Nick Hamm Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Robert De Niro, Cameron Bright 2004		Don't let Robert De Niro's presence in the cast fool you into believing that the sci-fi/horror film "Godsend" is worth anything more than a sneer. Acting icon De Niro plays a large part in the movie, which concerns a bereaved couple allowing morally questionable Dr. Richard Wells (De Niro) to illegally clone their late son, the victim of a freak auto accident. But this science-gone-too-far retread is a 3-D production: Dumb, Dull & Derivative. It's no godsend, unless it was sent by the God of 2 A.M. Cable Fodder and In-Flight Snoozers. Paul and Jessie (Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) are a stylish urban couple: He's an inner-city teacher, and she's an arty photographer. Their boy Adam (Cameron Bright, a moon-faced kid whose creepy/sick smile gets a real workout) is an 8-year-old mix of precocity and goopy innocence, and then — crunch! — he's dead. Wells appears, reeking of a hidden agenda, and offers the parents a chance to get Adam back from the grave via a new cloning technique. But it must be done on the sly in a remote upstate town where the doc's lab is located. They go for it. The process is a success until Adam-2 hits his 8th birthday, right about the same time his predecessor bit the asphalt. He seems to be turning into "The Bad Seed," or "Clone of the Damned," or "Rosemary's Clone," or … Ah, forget it.