Review of The Identical (2014) by Alasdair B — 23 Dec 2014

Earlier this year I watched Left Behind, a bigger budget Christian film starring Nicholas Caige. It ended up being one of the worst films I've ever seen, and one of the the worst performances from Caige. "The Identical'' is not as bad as Left Behind, however it is pretty terrible. It's directed by some guy who's never made a film before and stars Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd, Seth Green, Joe Pantoliano, and Blake Rayne.

"The Identical'' is about a young man named Ryan Wade. He is the twin brother of Elvis. Excuse me, I meant Drexel the Dream. Ryan wants to sing, instead of following the footsteps of his preacher step father. Eventually, Ryan's looks and voice earn him a "career'' as a Drexel impersonator. He travels the U.S. singing Drexel's songs and dressing up like him. He looses his way, wanting to write his own music and stop pretending to be someone he's not. Finally, he finds himself. Rising up from his despair, he returns to impersonating Drexel and following his calling.

The performances in this film are so bad they're funny. I asked myself, why the heck is Ray Liotta in this? Simple; paycheck. Liotta is a phenomenal actor, but even he is terrible in this. The terrible dialogue he is forced to say made me feel sorry for him. Blake Rayne, our main character, also can't act. Most of his scenes are so dry and uninspiring. However, I must say, this kid looks just like Elvis. If you wanted to do an Elvis biopic, get this guy. As long as you have the right director, he would be perfect. Despite his bad acting I will say this; he shows potential. I can really see this guy giving better performances if he gets good direction and coaching. The acting is really awful across the board.

The direction in this film is monstrous. Obviously, the director of this film has made nothing before this. He's a no name wannabe who has no idea how to direct actors and actresses. The screenplay for his film is also so underwhelming. I don't know who wrote this script, but it's bad. The dialogue is cliche and stupid. The characters are hollow and lifeless. The very concept of this story is idiotic. Nothing makes sense! It's about a guy who wants to sing and stop being the identical, but ends up following his dream which, apparently, is being the identical.

The production in this film is also lazy. Mainly in the inconsistency. Ray Liotta and his wife in the film, look exactly the same over the corse of thirty years! Suddenly at the end, Liotta gets white hair. It's so lazy. I was so disgusted by how lazy this was. The story is basically pointless, the humans don't behave like normal human beings, and everything in this film is illogical. The one good thing about this movie is the cinematography. Seriously, I was super impressed by the camera work and the lighting. It was shocking how good the photography was compared to the laziness of the rest of the production.

"The Identical'' is another lazy Christian film with a confusing illogical message. It wastes Ray Liotta and Joe Pantoliano, and it wastes it's opportunity being in the big screen. This film should have been straight to DVD release on the Halmark Channel. The acting is awful, the script is amateur, the characters are lifeless, it has terrible music, lazy production, and it has a horrible director. I'm ashamed to say this, but parts of his film were shot in my hometown. On the upside, Joe Pantoliano was in my town shooting this movie. That's something to take pride in.