1990s SF film
Memory Run, 1996, USA DIRECTED BY ALLAN A. GOLDSTEIN
This has a decent enough SF premise that is unfortunately rendered almost invisible behind the endless and seemingly obligatory action sequences. Rejuvenation has at last become possible in the Los Angeles of 2015, with the Life Corp having taken the place of the US Government, so America is now a tinpot totalitarian state. Life Corp's aim is to transplant the brains of the elderly rich into younger cloned bodies, and their first successful experiment took the brain of the rebel Union leader and put it in the head of his lover. Beneath the surface this film is a rather too obvious allegory for unchecked capitalism running rampant over human nature: the government is the Corporation, their opposition the Union; as expected, self-interested and dehumanised people have gained control and the rest just have to resist. A few heartfelt performances struggle to rise above the sound of macho gunfire, and any opportunities to explore some near-future gender issues are casually tossed aside. End result: disappointingly shallow, with the story served up as expected with no real twists, though one pleasant surprise was to see the late Barry Morse in such a prominent role despite him only being able to use as much of his considerable range as such a narrow screenplay would allow.