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Godsend

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Godsend

PG-13

Released Apr 30, 2004

1h 42m

Mystery & Thriller

Horror

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Popcornmeter

3%

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137 Reviews

20%

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25,000+ Ratings

After Paul Duncan (Greg Kinnear) and his wife, Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), lose their young son, Adam (Cameron Bright), in an accident, they are approached by Richard Wells (Robert De Niro), a fertility doctor. Wells believes that he can clone Adam and gives Paul and Jessie the option to let him try, but only if they start life over elsewhere. Adam's clone proves to be identical to the deceased boy, but, when he reaches his 8th birthday, things begin to go horribly wrong.

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Critics Consensus

A murky thriller with few chills, Godsend features ludicrous dialogue, by-the-numbers plotting, and an excess of cheap shocks.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

A bad thriller that is too intense for tweens.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 24, 2010

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

As in most bad thrillers, the number of pointless shocks increases in direct proportion to the drama's decreasing vitality, like defibrilator paddles jolting a dying man.

Jan 5, 2007

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Noel Murray

AV Club

[Relies] on cheap shocks instead of honestly exploring how the parents of a dead child might feel about raising his clone.

Jul 22, 2006

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Eddie Harrison

The List

Perhaps it's appropriate that a horror flick about cloning should be a derivative affair...

Rated: 1/5

Apr 18, 2019

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Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

"Godsend" suffers from a feeble plot, laughable dialogue, and thriller cliches that barely effect the characteristic jolts of the genre.

Rated: D+

May 8, 2009

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Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

As anticipated the climax is very abrupt and unresolved, but by then I just didn't care, and was so glad to see this junk come to an end.

Apr 29, 2009

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B K

Awful! Hard to believe that a de Niro film can be as bad as this, but this film delivers rubbish in spades. De Niro clearly works hard, but the plot and the script are so riddled with holes, that there is no opportunity to perfume the pig. The plot may not be real world, but that does not excuse the plethora of unexplained actions. Avoid.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/09/25

Full Review

Federico

Ykes. Poor De Niro and Kinnear can't save this trainwreck of a movie. The decent performances are far from being enough to make this movie re-watchable or advisable.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/08/23

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Victor E

Decent movie with a terrible ending

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/08/23

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Regina P

The fact that I had a hard time remembering the ending by the time I decided to write the review is the exact reason I am giving it one star.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

04/24/23

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Audience Member

Boring, listless horror flick with a grain of a good idea (cloning a recently deceased child), but does absolutely NOTHING with it. Why even cast Robert De Niro as a mad scientist when you have him play it straight?

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I think the acting was really good, the plot was something new at the time. And cloning has since become a topic not spoken of. Not a chilling picture by any means, but a good story with some suspense to it. About 90% of people didn't like it, but I thought it was very good for what it was. And you really can't go wrong with Greg Kinnear and Robert De Niro!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/14/23

Full Review

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Nick Hamm

Director

Frank M. Calo

Director

Greg Kinnear

Paul Duncan

Rebecca Romijn

Jessie Duncan

Robert De Niro

Dr. Richard Wells

Cameron Bright

Adam Duncan

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Synopsis

After Paul Duncan (Greg Kinnear) and his wife, Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), lose their young son, Adam (Cameron Bright), in an accident, they are approached by Richard Wells (Robert De Niro), a fertility doctor. Wells believes that he can clone Adam and gives Paul and Jessie the option to let him try, but only if they start life over elsewhere. Adam's clone proves to be identical to the deceased boy, but, when he reaches his 8th birthday, things begin to go horribly wrong.

Director: Nick Hamm, Frank M. Calo
Producer: Marc Butan, Michael Paseornek, Cathy Schulman
Screenwriter: Mark Bomback
Distributor: Lionsgate Films
Production Co: Lions Gate Films, 2929 Productions, Artists Production Group, Blue Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Scene of Sexuality|Frightening Images|Some Thematic Elements)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 30, 2004, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 3, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $14.3M
Runtime: 1h 42m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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