Godsend on DVD (2004)

Appalling

NegativeFactor from Shropshire , 10/09/2004

It’s not very often I rate a film with an unwatchable 1 point, but ‘Godsend’ really did earn it.

First things first, completely ignore the trailer for this film. The trailer tricks you into thinking this is a horror film. You do have all the perfect horror ingredients, weird kid, flash backs, dead people (sound familiar?) and an enigmatic doctor type. However they seem to have gone bad in the mix, very bad.

The basic premise is that a young boy dies at the age of eight. In a state of distress his parents are offered an exact clone of their child by a mysterious doctor (De Niro). Ethics out the window the parents opt for the clone. Things are fine up until the point the cloned child exceeds the life of his dead counterpart. From this point on things go, well, pear shaped.

I won’t give away the ending to much, but let’s just say it would have been better if the cast of ‘Queer eye for the straight guy’ suddenly appeared and revelled that the clone simply needed a ‘makeover’.

This film really is appalling; it doesn’t even warrant a straight-to-video, more apt would be a straight-to-bin.

Read all reviews

Don't waste your time

A customer from England , 20/12/2004

The first half hour or so of this film is great. Unfortunately, it goes downhill after that. It's full of repetitive and confusing dream sequences which lead to a disappointing explanation and a downright confusing denouement. By the end, you just don't care about the characters. Plus, without giving away the plotline, why De Niro's character would have wanted to do what he did anyway is utterly nonsensical. I was really looking forward to seeing this film, but it was an ultimate waste of time.

Read all reviews

Excellent film making at its best

A customer from Uxbridge , 15/11/2004

Despite the other view on here, I found this film to be excellent, and the alternative endings actually show how much thought went into this film.

What needs to be taken into account is that the director is British, and Hollywood ethics dictate how films should end. Therefore watching the film through you get a fine film, with a very American ending, but with the extras you get to see how the director originally intended the film to end - and how perhaps it would have ended had Film Four still be around. As it is, all of the 4 alternative endings are much darker than the one that made the final cut and more reminiscent of a British film.

Aside from that, the film is perfectly scripted, perfectly acted, and has a twist that takes ages to properly work out, never once patronising the audience by being predictable.

It challenges whatever views you may hold on the ethics of cloning and poses the question 'can you really trust science, when the scientist is only human?'

Should have done much better at the box office. This is probably my film of the year!

Read all reviews

Garbled, reactionary nonsense

Soutpiel from London, England , 10/03/2005

I won't waste too much space repeating what so many others here have said. The charcters are bland and lack depth, the acting is lame, the plot laboured, and the twists predictable yet unbelievable.

What annoyed me most, though, is the garbled anti-cloning message. Sure, human cloning is a serious issue that needs to be properly thought out; the science, the politics, the ethics need to be intelligently explored. This film does none of these things. The message seems to be - mess with nature, and unleash evil.

Along with this - a troubling religious sub-text. 'Godsend' is the name of the Institute that does the cloning. Double meaning - 'God's End' - geddit? The characters make a few references to God and praying, reminding us that these are God-like powers the characters are dabbling with. But even this apparent straightforward reactionary knee-jerk is garbled by the end - is the evil the result of human nature or bad science?

Stupid, offensive, incoherent moralising of the worst kind. What's more, it even fails as basic entertainment.

Read all reviews

WOW! Cliff Hanger

A customer from Essex, England , 18/06/2005

WOW! It was one of those films that disguises the shock in the story line from the trailers. Its deffinately scary but will there be another as there seemed to be a cliff hanger there?

Read all highest rated reviews

Appalling

NegativeFactor from Shropshire , 10/09/2004

It’s not very often I rate a film with an unwatchable 1 point, but ‘Godsend’ really did earn it.

First things first, completely ignore the trailer for this film. The trailer tricks you into thinking this is a horror film. You do have all the perfect horror ingredients, weird kid, flash backs, dead people (sound familiar?) and an enigmatic doctor type. However they seem to have gone bad in the mix, very bad.

The basic premise is that a young boy dies at the age of eight. In a state of distress his parents are offered an exact clone of their child by a mysterious doctor (De Niro). Ethics out the window the parents opt for the clone. Things are fine up until the point the cloned child exceeds the life of his dead counterpart. From this point on things go, well, pear shaped.

I won’t give away the ending to much, but let’s just say it would have been better if the cast of ‘Queer eye for the straight guy’ suddenly appeared and revelled that the clone simply needed a ‘makeover’.

This film really is appalling; it doesn’t even warrant a straight-to-video, more apt would be a straight-to-bin.

Read all highest rated reviews