The Anomaly Review

Anomaly, The
Grizzled ex-soldier (Clarke) is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Waking up in a darkened room with no memory of how he got there, he finds himself caught in a conspiracy presided over by the sinister Harkin (Somerhalder).

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

04 Jul 2014

Running Time:

97 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Anomaly, The

Combat veteran Ryan (Noel Clarke) keeps waking up for nine minutes and 47 seconds, finding himself in strange situations which mostly involve getting into fights... then wonders what his body is doing in the weeks between his scenes. For its first three or four sequences, this sci-fi mystery-thriller almost pulls off the ‘Total Recall for tuppence’ effect, and director Clarke makes a decent bewildered action hero — but fiendish Ian Somerhalder explains things too often, the budget restrictions start to bite, saintly hooker Alexis Knapp gets too many earnestly silly lines and it just turns into an extended snarl-and-punch-up festival.

Big sci-fi ideas done on a budget doesn't quite translate into a compelling thriller.
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