Synapse (1994)

Rating: **
Alternate Title: Memory Run
Cast: Karen Duffy, Saul Rubinek

A competently made, but poorly written and boring sci-fi thriller set in an Orwellian future. The totalitarian government called Lifecorp has made a medical breakthrough which allows them to graft the memories and personalities of one person into a reanimated corpse. "Why would you want to do this?" you ask. This is what will keep the aging members of Lifecorp alive and in power. Karen Duffy is one of the early experiments. She was a criminal's murdered girlfriend who gets her boyfriend's memory and personality. He/She spends the rest of the film trying to cope with his/her new body and the psychological trauma of it all. She finally manages to escape with the aid of a sympathetic doctor (wonderfully twitchy Saul Rubinek), joins up with the underground freedom fighters, gets her questions answered, does some soul searching, and finally exacts her revenge. A couple of neat, but predictable sci-fi clichés are also thrown into the plot, but there are gaping holes all over the place. An adequate performance from Ms. Duffy, who has an amazing amount of grease in her hair for the entire duration of the film. She's fairly attractive, handles a gun nicely, and delivers the tough chick package pretty well. In fact, I think she was almost too hard at times (his/her male macho psyche kicking in, perhaps). Watchable, but just once.