With its outward bursts of incendiary violence, agog female sexuality and a brave, nutty, obstreperous dual-central performance, Lee Tamahori's schlocky, gleefully ignoble thriller "The Devil's Double," is the kind of moderately pleasurable piece of exploitation that's more enticing for its girls-and-guns masculinity than its astuteness.
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But it's a moderate, if not bantam amount of slick to go with its slack, and even when this pseudo -action film appears primed for liftoff, it shrivels into a disappointing true-story shell that fails to find weight in this historical quasi-revenge saga.
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Dominic Cooper applies his talents to dual lead roles here (a daring feat regardless of quality, but his fever-pitch energy is admirable all the way) as both Uday Hussein, Saddam's reckless, homicidal son and his appointed body double, the earnest, resistant Latif Yahia.
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Latif initially refuses to offer up his services, citing family and conflicting ideologies, yet after being tortured and imprisoned in an attempt to sway his decision, he is given no other choice but to undergo a few minor operations and embrace his (quite hilarious) physical resemblance.
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But even so, Latif isn't content, especially not after he witnesses the sadistic, savage Uday first-hand as he ravages through women (some unwilling, some barely pre-teen), all the while watching his mistress Sarrab (a sexy-yet-dull Ludivine Sagnier) who overtly eyes Latif beginning with a retro-cool seduction set to Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
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Yet even as Latif's decision becomes closer to the inevitable, "The Devil's Double" still can't extract any pleasure from its brainless aspirations with its feeble, indistinct direction and strangely muted climax. Sadly, this is one sexed-up, gaudy disappointment. [C]
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