When a sci-fi thriller ambitiously aims to mix elements of FACE/OFF, BLADE RUNNER, TOTAL RECALL and Michael Crichton's RUNAWAY, it's either going to wind up a gawd-awful mess, or a nifty little actioner that will make you use your thinking cap for a change. If you like movies that you can watch from the second act without missing a beat, don't try it with this one. If you don't watch from the opening, you won't know what the hell is going on. As a matter of fact, if you're not used to films that require at least a little brain power, you might want to skip this one altogether...
There aren't many films these days where you will see the lead character portrayed by three or more actors, (not counting BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), so here goes:
At an unspecified time in the distant (but not-too-distant) future, class distinctions have been narrowed down to two categories: "corpies," who are soulless, greedy corporate types into money, materialism and power, (in other words, not much different from the way they are now) and The Rest Of Us, scrapping and struggling to make a living. Of course, among the disenfranchised and disgusted members of The Rest Of Us, there are corporate terrorists who want to shake up the system the best way they know how, and one of those methods is by assassination. When we first see Fisk (Kyle MacLachlan), that's exactly what we find him doing: engineering the astonishing and messy death of a high-level corpie.
Next we meet Steven Toffler (Kim Coates), a corpie who cares about little more than how to get his malfunctioning environmental home computer fixed, and where his next promotion is coming from. He discovers the answer to his latter problem, as his boss is sending him to close a deal with a company called X CHANGE, (hence the title.) X CHANGE is in the business of providing an unusual perk for corpies: body-switching, which is treated with all the routine mediocrity of taking shuttle flights from one city to another, only instead of switching planes, it's switching bodies. A corpie in Boulder, Colorado who wants to skip the travel time, jet lag, etc., can simply switch bodies with some guy in New York for a business trip, spend the required time needed in the host body, then switch back to his own.
Toffler is not at all keen on the process, but since his boss has decreed it (and there could be a raise in the offing), he goes in for his first X CHANGE experience, which everybody promises will be as easy as taking a cab. Right? Guess again.
Switching from San Francisco to the X CHANGE home office in New York, Toffler is introduced to his new host body. He has no idea who this guy is, but we do...it's Fisk, the coporate assassin, or at least the man we know as Fisk. Got all that?
Circumstances occur that send up red flags, which should've alerted Toffler that he's in a lot of trouble, but he doesn't become aware of it, until he returns to X CHANGE'S offices. Bad news: his "real body" is missing, stolen by Fisk. Worse, still: the body he's in was one that Fisk stole earlier, and it's original owner wants it back! And now the most devastating news: Toffler's consciousness will have to be placed in a "loaner"--a genetically-enhanced clone body that only lasts a week, where he'll be kept at X CHANGE as a "guest", until Fisk can be found.
Not happy about this idea, Toffler escapes by making an X CHANGE with a clone other than the one intended for him, (Stephen Baldwin). So for the remainder of the movie, Stephen Baldwin plays Toffler, while Kim Coates gets to slink around as Fisk, booting Kyle MacLachlan out of the picture. Oh, and one other catch: the clone body Toffler now inhabits will only last 48 hours. So he has two days to find Fisk and get his real body back, or die.
Confusing? Seems that way when you try to explain it on paper. But somehow director Allan Moyle (PUMP UP THE VOLUME) manages to carry it off, with an engaging cast of Canadian actors backing the American leads, especially the comely Pascale Bussieres as Madeleine Raynard, an ex-lover of Toffler's who has turned into an anti-X CHANGE activist, and is his only hope of sorting out his situation.
There's action, cool gadgets, a little sex thrown in, and even a little speculation (though not enough to be meaningful) about the ramifications of literally becoming someone else and being able to do what you want in their body without consequence.
But that's an issue for a much weightier film. Your best bet with X CHANGE is to go with the flow and enjoy it for what it is--an above-average B-movie thriller.
There aren't many films these days where you will see the lead character portrayed by three or more actors, (not counting BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), so here goes:
At an unspecified time in the distant (but not-too-distant) future, class distinctions have been narrowed down to two categories: "corpies," who are soulless, greedy corporate types into money, materialism and power, (in other words, not much different from the way they are now) and The Rest Of Us, scrapping and struggling to make a living. Of course, among the disenfranchised and disgusted members of The Rest Of Us, there are corporate terrorists who want to shake up the system the best way they know how, and one of those methods is by assassination. When we first see Fisk (Kyle MacLachlan), that's exactly what we find him doing: engineering the astonishing and messy death of a high-level corpie.
Next we meet Steven Toffler (Kim Coates), a corpie who cares about little more than how to get his malfunctioning environmental home computer fixed, and where his next promotion is coming from. He discovers the answer to his latter problem, as his boss is sending him to close a deal with a company called X CHANGE, (hence the title.) X CHANGE is in the business of providing an unusual perk for corpies: body-switching, which is treated with all the routine mediocrity of taking shuttle flights from one city to another, only instead of switching planes, it's switching bodies. A corpie in Boulder, Colorado who wants to skip the travel time, jet lag, etc., can simply switch bodies with some guy in New York for a business trip, spend the required time needed in the host body, then switch back to his own.
Toffler is not at all keen on the process, but since his boss has decreed it (and there could be a raise in the offing), he goes in for his first X CHANGE experience, which everybody promises will be as easy as taking a cab. Right? Guess again.
Switching from San Francisco to the X CHANGE home office in New York, Toffler is introduced to his new host body. He has no idea who this guy is, but we do...it's Fisk, the coporate assassin, or at least the man we know as Fisk. Got all that?
Circumstances occur that send up red flags, which should've alerted Toffler that he's in a lot of trouble, but he doesn't become aware of it, until he returns to X CHANGE'S offices. Bad news: his "real body" is missing, stolen by Fisk. Worse, still: the body he's in was one that Fisk stole earlier, and it's original owner wants it back! And now the most devastating news: Toffler's consciousness will have to be placed in a "loaner"--a genetically-enhanced clone body that only lasts a week, where he'll be kept at X CHANGE as a "guest", until Fisk can be found.
Not happy about this idea, Toffler escapes by making an X CHANGE with a clone other than the one intended for him, (Stephen Baldwin). So for the remainder of the movie, Stephen Baldwin plays Toffler, while Kim Coates gets to slink around as Fisk, booting Kyle MacLachlan out of the picture. Oh, and one other catch: the clone body Toffler now inhabits will only last 48 hours. So he has two days to find Fisk and get his real body back, or die.
Confusing? Seems that way when you try to explain it on paper. But somehow director Allan Moyle (PUMP UP THE VOLUME) manages to carry it off, with an engaging cast of Canadian actors backing the American leads, especially the comely Pascale Bussieres as Madeleine Raynard, an ex-lover of Toffler's who has turned into an anti-X CHANGE activist, and is his only hope of sorting out his situation.
There's action, cool gadgets, a little sex thrown in, and even a little speculation (though not enough to be meaningful) about the ramifications of literally becoming someone else and being able to do what you want in their body without consequence.
But that's an issue for a much weightier film. Your best bet with X CHANGE is to go with the flow and enjoy it for what it is--an above-average B-movie thriller.