The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Paul (Greg Kinnear) and Jessie Duncan (Rebecca Romijn) are married celebrating their son Adam (Cameron Bright)'s 8th birthday. Adam is killed hit by a truck. Jessie's old professor Dr. Richard Wells (Robert De Niro) of The Godsend Institute offers to clone their son. After the new Adam reaches eight, he starts having nightmarish visions of another boy named Zachary.Even if I buy the premise, this thriller has no tension. The start is so low energy. The movie may as well start later in the story or compress the introduction more. It turns into some sort of ghost story but the investigation isn't that compelling. This is a second-tier horror movie without any thrills or frights. The solid actors are left with nothing good.

Wealthy young couple, mourning the death of their seven-year-old boy, accept a strictly hush-hush offer from a shady-but-brilliant scientist to participate in his experimental cloning procedure--a little juggling of genetics and voilà! a new son. Unfortunately, once the lad becomes older than his deceased counterpart, he begins exhibiting strange and psychotic behavior. There's a homicidal eight-year-old on the loose! Abysmal thriller, aimed at the easily scared, has a solid trio of adult actors (Robert De Niro, Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) playing hysterical scenes opposite a menacing tyke (Cameron Bright, who could easily pass for 13). The film is so poorly directed and edited, the viewer is often unaware as to what exactly is transpiring in the plot, what the timeline of the events are, or why all the characters seem to be angry with each other. If you do stick with it, see if you can count how many times the editor begins and finishes scenes with Kinnear driving the family car, always with the same look of pained anguish on his face. De Niro must have needed the money, how else to explain the embarrassed expression on his face? * from ****

In the movie Godsend, a couple loses their son in a car accident and will do anything to get him back. They befriend a stem cell research expert ( DeNiro), who makes a clone of the couple's son. The clone appears to be fine until his eighth birthday when a series of frightening events begin to happen. I was very disappointed with the movie because they took an interesting idea and made it boring. Cloning is a hot topic that has the potential to make an appealing movie, yet I found myself dozing off to a supposedly, "scary movie." I normally like Robert DeNiro and Greg Kenner, but they let me down in this movie. The music was lousy and the plot was filled with holes. The most frustrating thing about Godsend was that the entire movie built up to a conclusion that wasn't there. It's a shame that Hamm wasn't able to pull this movie off, it had an exciting idea that I was looking forward to.

My Take: Boring rehash that wastes its cast and its audience as well. From a title like "Godsend" or "The Omen" or "The Exorcist", one can't have an idea that the film being presented is a religion-based horror flick. Sadly I say, this isn't. "Godsend" is a science-fiction story about resurrection. The film opens with the birthday celebration of young Adam (Cameron Bright), the son of couple Paul (Greg Kinnear)and Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) Duncan. The film continues a few days later when Adam becomes victim of a car accident. While Paul and Jessie grieve the death of their son, scientist Richard Wells (Robert DeNiro) approaches them with a message of hope, their son can be brought back to life. After a couple of experiments, they have brought Adam back to life. Pretty soon, this 'new' Adam begins to have nightmares, terrifying revelations of a boy named Zachary (who looks like him) and a burning school. Of course, these are just nightmares, or a trick of the imagination, but can it be real? Oooohhh... The better question is can director Nick Hamm overcome the growing tedium of the script? How many more plot twists and revelations are they gonna keep throwing at us before we all say in unison that we don't get it? Can Robert DeNiro salvage his career in such a career-derailing role? Do I have to tell you where all this is going? Rating: 0 out of 5.