Review of The Identical (2014) by Carlos Z — 19 Aug 2015

"I'm sorry, Elvis had a twin brother? What kind of Christian movie is this?".

DVD Movie Review: The Identical.

Date Viewed: January 21 2015.

Directed By Dustin Marcellino.

Written By Howard Klausner.

Starring: Blake Rayne, Ray Liotta, Brian Geraghty, Ashley Judd, Seth Green, Erin Cottrell, Joe Pantoliano, Chris Mulkey, Amanda Crew and Danny Woodburn.

How on earth did "The Identical" get made?

It is laughably bad. I heard critics say that this is the "Showgirls" of evangelical Christian movies but I don't think so, the "Left Behind" remake starring Nicolas Cage took the cake.

Just how good actors like Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd and Seth Green agreed to this wacky mess is beyond me. Get ready to laugh your head off because you cannot believe what this movie is about. It is about two identical twin boys who get separated at birth during the Great Depression, the first twin became an iconic 50's rock and roll named Elvis Presley (actually his real name is Drexel Hemsley), the second twin was raised by a music-hating reverend named Wade (who is laughably played by Ray Liotta, giving the worst performance of his entire career).

The other twin is Ryan Wade (Blake Rayne), he has passion for music just like his twin brother but his father wants him to stay out of the business. When they adopted him, Wade and his wife, Louise (Ashley Judd) think that he had been gifted and called by God to be a preacher. Ryan doesn't want to go on God's path so he launches his own music career just like his brother did with the help of his friend, Dino (Seth Green) and his wife, Jenny (Erin Cottrell). When Ryan finally discovers that Drexel Hemsley (also played by Rayne) was his twin brother, he truly questions everything he ever believed in God.

There are a lot of crazy choices in "The Identical" for example, there's a subplot about "Jews for Jesus" and when we get to the 1960s, the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement are not mentioned at all. In a year full of terrible faith-based movies including "Son of God", "Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas", "Persecuted", "God's Not Dead" and of course "Left Behind", "The Identical" is the craziest of them all. Blake Rayne's two performances as Ryan and Drexel are very stiff and his movie career doesn't look too bright, look for him to possibly star in "Sharknado 3". As for Liotta and Judd, they are capable of doing better movies than this. What were they thinking of? Sure, Elvis Presley made a lot of bad movies but those movies were a work of genius compared to "The Identical".

I've seen a lot of dreadful movies in my time but I don't think "The Identical" was an epic folly compared to "The Oogieloves". Seriously everybody needs to see it, it is fascinatingly bad. This is my nasty review for "The Identical", Thank You Very Much.