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With Shannon Whirry and Shannon Tweed at career peaks, softcore porn movies were the rage in the '90s, via VHS and Cinemax popularity. Hardcore porn, especially via internet distribution ended that era, but here's a throwback, made by indie filmmakers headed by James Bird whose pretentious "fantasy/surrealism" style comes off as precious and as artificial as his AI characters.

It was distressing to see British actor John Rhys Meyers descend so quickly into the career tailspin of a Malcolm McDowell (who he physically resembles) -moving from A pictures to grade Z level. His breathy line readings are extremely poor, and his overall sleepwalking performance made him seem like an AI himself. Why Bird decided on such a misogynist premise (no husband replacement studs for sale here) mystified me. And the casting was a bust, with lovely heroine Elena so closely resembling Twiggy of the Sixties, rather than going for a voluptuous softporn actress. Even the glamorous settings look like current porn, hardcore that is, where the expicit lovemaking is often photographed in fabulous mansions by directors like Jules Jordan or Kayden Kross.

I recall Paramount Home Video releasing plenty of drek in this vein way back when, but for current Paramount Pictures to indulge is disappointing. The sci-fi potential of the story is completely wasted. Obviously, it takes a big budget to do a "Blade Runner", but the aspirations here are embarrassing.

In the future, people could buy robots to be their spouse. A very sexy, good looking, obedient spouse. Jonathan Rhys character buy one of this robot called Meredith (played by Elena Kampouris) to replace his late wife.

He is a detective who work for the company that make the robots. Because there's a terrorist group that against the exploitation of these robots and trying to sabotage their AI. His job is to retrieve all the kidnapped (or freed sex slaves) robots that was ruined by the terrorist group.

To be honest the story is interesting, it has everything to be the next great sci fi movie. The mystery, the twist, and if handled correctly, packed action. But I guess this movie was made with minimum budget.

We have a company that make advance robots. But the office looks like something you see in the 90's, boring and dull. The action is cut short. They could make great scene when he tries to infiltrate the terrorist base and beat the bad guys. But the action is so-so.

Camera movement is stiff, bland cinematography, and CGI that looks like early 2000's tv shows. Some actors are underperformed. I can continue for longer.

Elena Kampouris is the only thing that worthy of your attention. Her acting is good. And the sex scene is an eye candy for sure. Despite bad things the story isn't boring and quite engaging. I like the concept of dreaming robots they make. And the twist is kind of predictable, because of too many clues scattered in the movie.

If only this movie has better budget and director. This movie can be the next big thing actually.

This movie and its premise had a lot of potential, however the story is somewhat lackluster and unimpressive. Some of the acting and parts of the plot are also quite questionable.

However there are also some good parts. The actress playing Meredith is actually pretty good at interpreting an android and very likeable. Actually I liked her as an android a lot more than when she was playing the real person. Go figure.

I also enjoyed seeing a lot of beautiful half-dressed women in one place, which is mostly a big no-no in nowadays' movies.

Another thing I liked was the soundtrack, it has some good futuristic tunes and sound effects.

Overall, I'd say this movie is enjoyable/watchable if you have like 2 hours to kill.

It's a bit disappointing because it could have been great, but it's only halfway decent.

Released earlier in the year, Wifelike is not the typical human/robot type film. It does contain interesting ideas but overall, it seems like it tries being more clever than it should be. And taking itself a little more serious.

Elena Kampouris is the clear standout here where from her opening appearance, we get a sense as to how this may unfold.

The film is definitely engaging and not boring with its constant turns and several twists but it's climax isn't great. The end twist is quite predictable where there were a lot of clues along the way.

Otherwise Wifelike is solid but don't expect another Ex Machina.

Grieving widowed William Bradwell is given Meredith, an AI companion, programmed to simulate his wife in all ways. A criminal organisation is stealing other AI copies and reprogramming them.

The opening sequences made me think we were heading for a black comedy, it certainly had the opportunity to go down that route, instead they tried to make a sci fi thriller, it just didn't work.

What I found pretty funny, I couldn't tell who spent more time in makeup, Meyers looked like he'd spent days in markup, come on!!! Kampouris, I am sure she had some fun with hair and makeup, so long as she could get in there that is.

I thought the acting ranged from poor to fair, I thought Elena Kampouris and Jonathan Rhys Meyers had some decent moments, and a few scenes where I wanted to shut my eyes. Some of the supporting cast struggled.

Nope, it just doesn't work.

4/10.