'IMPOSTOR' DELVES INTO FUTURE, BUT WHO CARES?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

If ``Impostor'' seems familiar yet unsatisfying, that's because, like ``Blade Runner'' and ``Total Recall'' before it, it's based on a story by Philip K. Dick.

So you've got futuristic reality-bending. You've got androids called replicants that are more convinced of their humanity than most people are of theirs. You've got grandiose high-tech cityscapes and grunged-up, rat- infested blast zones.

And you've got paranoia by the bucketful, a specialty of the late sci-fi author who never seemed quite convinced that anyone or anything was what it seemed.

What you don't have working for ``Impostor,'' however, is the visual elegance of a director like Ridley Scott or the twisted gleefulness of a Paul Verhoeven. The man calling the shots here is Gary Fleder, as uninspired a plodder (``Kiss the Girls,'' ``Don't Say a Word'') as they come.

To his credit, Fleder brings a certain formula thriller clarity to ``Impostor'' that eluded both of the more distinctive directors' more memorable efforts. But if there was ever a fabulist who was all about not being clear, it was Dick. Fleder makes this movie work as a generally propulsive chase actioner, but has a tougher time getting the more intriguing, identity manipulation stuff to stick.

It's 2079, and things have not been going well for many years, since aliens from the Centauri system began attacking Earth. Most of the remaining cities are protected by energy domes that give their daylit atmospheres a kind of amber, permanent smog glow (their crumbling poorer districts seem fixed in an endless twilight). But things aren't all awful. The well-off have neat, voice-command appliances, camping in the remaining woods appears to be a common recreation and, for some, love is better than ever.

One of the happy couples is Spence and Maya Olham (Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe). He's a thoughtful weapons-development scientist for the slightly fascistic, planetary government, she's a dedicated if often overwhelmed hospital doctor, and they share great emotional and physical bonds.

Then Spence goes to work one day and meets zealous security officer Hathaway (Vincent D'Onofrio), who drugs the scientist and, essentially, wants to drill his heart out. Hathaway is convinced that Spence has been replaced by an advanced alien replicant who, although organically the same as human and possessed of all its subject's feelings and memories, is literally a walking time bomb, an assassin set to arm and go off at the right time and place. Spence, naturally, considers this insane, escapes, and tries to prove he's really who he's sure he is before he gets recaught and killed.

This proves quite a challenge, what with I.D. scanners and news monitors all over the place to track his movements and alert the population to the fugitive's dangerousness. Cale (Mekhi Phifer), a canny operator from the lower depths, becomes Spence's valued, if skeptical, ally in getting back to Maya, who can presumably run tests to prove her husband's humanity. But the implacable Hathaway's men are all around her, making contact next to impossible. Besides, with all the drugs that have been pumped into him, Spence's fine strategic mind tends to schiz out just when he needs it most.

Or, more accurately, when ``Impostor's'' roster of screenwriters thought that it would bring more tension than story logic damage to any given scene. It's a Dickian touch, to be sure, but more distracting than necessary. There is so much action (and so much of it brutal and bloody, the film's PG-13 rating makes for another sterling example of that system's capricious irrelevance) that there is hardly any room to explore the story's social and psychological themes, let alone some halaked delusions.

The movie began life as one-third of a sci-fi triptych that was never released. Give Fleder and company credit for integrating additional footage smoothly enough so you don't really notice. It just would have been nice if they could have made you care more about the final result.

``IMPOSTOR''

(Rated PG-13: violence, sex, language, drug use)

The stars: Gary Sinise, Vincent D'Onofrio, Madeleine Stowe, Mekhi Phifer.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Gary Fleder. Written by Scott Rosenberg, Caroline Case, Ehren Kruger and David Twohy, based on Philip K. Dick's story ``Impostor.'' Produced by Marty Katz, Daniel Lupi, Fleder and Sinise. Released by Dimension Films.

Running time: One hour, 36 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Gary Sinise and Madeleine Stowe try to survive in a brutal, futuristic world in ``Impostor.''