Twins

Directed by Ivan Reitman, Twins follows Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Julius, the product of a genetic experiment to produce the perfect child, as he embarks on a quest to find his previously-unknown fraternal twin brother, Danny DeVito’s Vincent. It’s a seemingly foolproof premise that’s employed to mildly watchable yet predominantly disappointing effect by Reitman, as the filmmaker, armed with William Davies, Timothy Harris, William Osborne, and Herschel Weingrod’s screenplay, delivers a relentlessly erratic endeavor that remains entirely (and distressingly) unable to achieve liftoff – with the sluggish pace and palpably overlong running time paving the way for a narrative that is, for the most part, hardly as captivating or entertaining as one might’ve anticipated (and hoped). (It doesn’t help, either, that the movie looks terrible, as cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak offers up a grungy, unappealing visual style that’s never not completely distracting.) It’s a shame, ultimately, given that Twins admittedly does boast its fair share of agreeable elements, including (and especially) the irresistible, chemistry-laden work of the movie’s magnetic leads, and it’s difficult, in the final analysis to label the picture as anything less than a massive misfire that squanders its endless potential.

** out of ****