Roger Avery blew me away with Killing Zoe, a very disturbing tale of violence and romance. The same gentleman is/was good friends with Quentin Tarantino and had assisted him in writing Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and True Romance. This same guy was also supported by Neil Gaiman in his rejected pitch to do the Sandman movie. Of course, aside from Killing Zoe I had no other exposure to his work, but I was sure I liked it. Then I read in a tv guide one day that there was a movie called Mr. Stitch. It had Rutger Hauer in it so it couldn't be too crappy (even though the other name beside his was Nia Peeples). As I turned to Mr. Stitch (from the 98 Oscars telecast) I heard the unmistakeable sound of tomandandy, the same techno-electro duo who scored Zoe. As the opening credits rolled (the type font was very stylish) I began to wonder if this was a Roger Avery film, then BAM there was his name. So I watched. And I watched. And I wondered... is this really a Roger Avery film.
The visuals confirmed the fact, with one of the most stylistic films I have seen in a while, reminiscent of Kubrick but still a style all his own. The sights, however didn't make up for the story, which was rather trite, if nothing else.
Basically, the military has set up a project to create the ultimate killing machine by using the parts of dozens and dozens of other humans. Of course it's all a big cover up and anyone who wishes to leave the project must die. Level three of the project is Lazarus (played by Wil Wheaton), put together by Dr. Rue Waterman, and kept in a sterile white room, observed by a giant floating eye. Lazarus has trouble adjusting to the fact that he has no past, and finds out his violent tendencies aren't under his own control. It's kind of like the Hulk meets Frankenstein. After having vivid memory flashbacks from at least two individuals, Waterman calls upon psychiatrist Elizabeth English (Nia Peeples) to resolve Lazarus' identity crisis. Of course she finds out that one of the personalities is her former lover, Dr. Frederick Texerian (Ron Perlman) and stokes the fire instead of extinguishing it. Lazarus, under threat of extermination (as well as regaining his Texerian memories) breaks out of his holding area and goes to resolve the conflicts of his past lives before destroying the whole Stitch experiment facility.
The acting is never extraordinary, the script isn't very interesting (it's like an hour and a half long Outer Limits episode), and pacing of the film makes it pretty boring to watch. Again, the only high point are Avery's cinematic style and tomandandy's soundtrack.