Recombining elements of “Blade Runner,” “Strange Days” and “A.I.” makes Bruce Willis’ “Vice” an ൩intriguing sci-fi thriller, but in the end it doesn’t do enough with its ideas.
Willis plays the proprietor of a Vegas-like playground for adults where clients can rape and kill as much as they want — because their expendable victims, despite appearing human, are part robot, part clon✅e. A detec♔tive (Thomas Jane) who’s arrested too many of those clients for real-world crimes thinks this Disneyland of sin is getting people hooked on bad behavior rather than giving them an outlet for aggression.
When one such bot (Ambyr Childers) becomes self-aware and escapes, the movie turns into a routine actioner, complete with a dopey musical score and cheesy 🌺photography. That’s a shame, because a better director could have made “Vice” as sharp and entertaining as an early Schwarzenegger film🍎.