Julie and Jack director James Nguyen's second No Budget feature, Replica is a 2005 "sci-fi romantic thriller" film about the dangers of human cloning as well as his "tribute" to Alfred Hitchcock's classic Vertigo.
Joe, the typical Nguyen Computer/Software Salesman hero, has recently undergone an organ transplant using cutting edge nanotechnology, but is still suffering through a sales slump at work. Fortunately, all he needs to get his sales groove back is to start a relationship with an attractive blonde, in this case Dr. Evelyn Tyler, one of the co-founders of Therapeutic Technology that gave Joe the new kidney in the first place. Sadly, just as their relationship seems to be solidifying, Evelyn is killed in a hit and run accident. The bereft Joe is stunned when he comes back from Evelyn's grave to see a woman eerily similar to her, named Claudia, and he soons becomes obsessed with her as well. But Claudia has a secret that will turn Joe's world upside down...
Shot for just $7,000 and produced so cheaply he had to rely on cheap greenscreen backgrounds to stand in for all of his sets, Ngyuen was dissatisfied with the final product and shelved the film without ever intending to release it. It likely would have stayed unreleased had Birdemic not become a surprise midnight movie sensation in 2010, leading to the director developing a cult following. Due to the financial success RiffTrax's financial succes with their alternate commentaries for both Birdemic and Julie and Jack, they eventually approached Nguyen and arranged for Replica to have its first official worldwide release through their digital distribution service in January 2017, followed up by their inevitable abusive commentary version in February 2017.
This film provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Biology: While the film is dealing with speculative cloning technology, it doesn't seem to understand even the basics of human biology.
- Big Damn Heroes: The detective at the end comes in and shoots Dr. G dead before he can shoot Joe.
- Creator Cameo: James Nguyen in his most autobiographical role yet, as he's playing... a software salesman!
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: Claudia is Joe's replacement love interest... except given the title, it shouldn't be terribly shocking that Claudia turns out to be a clone of Evelyn. And just like in Vertigo, Joe makes her over to look like Evelyn.
- Downer Ending: Joe and Claudia manages to stop Dr. G's illegal cloning lab but Claudia is shot dead by Dr. G thanks to Joe's bumbling ineptitude.
- Dull Surprise: The actors in general are a particularly wooden lot, incapable of delivering even a mildly strong reaction to the events happening around them.
- Fanservice: Naturally we get to see another "bathing suit sex scene". Naturally, it is just as uninspiring as the one in Birdemic is.
- Large Ham: Dr. G. Compare Joe and Claudia, who show the emotional range of wet cardboard.
- Leave the Camera Running: Do you love long pointless shots of parking, walking, and the front of Nguyen's house?! Well you're going to LOVE Replica!
- As is practically the director's trademark now, he appears to have never done second takes on any of his shots and thus multiple flubbed lines are present in the film.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Characters keep acknowledging each others' contrived dialogue and motivations, and Claudia makes a living acting in low-budget independent films and hoping to be noticed...
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Claudia probably wouldn't have gotten shot if idiot hero Joe hadn't decided to wrestle for the gun with Dr. G. He doesn't even succeed in getting the gun away from him, leading to him needing to be rescued anyway AND Claudia dying.
- Meaningful Name: Dr. G, who also likes to name pretty much everything after himself (bragging at one point that he wants to sell his own wine, "G Wine"), explains what the G stands for and gets one of the biggest unintentional laughs in the film.
- Mood Whiplash: About halfway through, Evelyn dies in a sudden car accident. Joe mourns for about ten seconds, then it's back to romance until the climax.
- Mythology Gag: A rather confusing one, as early in the film, Julie and Jack plays on television... except later in the film, aspiring actress Claudia claims she's trying out for Julie and Jack despite the film apparently already existing.
- No Indoor Voice: Joe.
- Police Are Useless: Why in the world is the detective wasting time interviewing everyone that knew Evelyn about her hit and run? Apparently the cops even did a full autopsy and reported on semen being found in the corpse to her boyfriend because... that would prove what exactly? They already know she was killed in a car accident. If they suspect she was murdered via car crash, there was no reason to find out who she was sleeping with!
- Even though the cops are also pretty stupid, there's actually no reason for Joe and Claudia to try and blow up the cloning lab themselves. They can just call the cops and have them arrest Dr. G... since that's exactly what happens at the end of the film anyway.
- Regional Riff: A rather uncomfortable one playing over Joe and Evelyn's date to an Asian inspired gazebo. Fortunately it doesn't go so far as to use the infamous Oriental Riff, but it plays just obviously enough to make the viewer nervous.
- Shout-Out: More clumsy Hitchcock references abound when Joe and Claudia spend time at a wax museum exhibit of Grace Kelly.
- By now, Tippi Hedren should really get her lawyers on Nguyen using unauthorized footage.
- Kim Novak is used the same way, because again, this is a rip-off of Vertigo.
- Christopher Reeve's estate must be thrilled to know he was used posthumously without his permission.
- Stalking is Love: Just like Vertigo, Joe stalks a duplicate of his recently deceased girlfriend and manages to get into a relationship with her. However, unlike Vertigo, we are not meant to find Joe a supremely creepy screwed-up person.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The opening title card sets the film in "the near future" to try and explain the proliferation of nanotechnology in what is otherwise 2004.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Joe makes his feelings clear: cloning people is evil. Claudia agrees despite being a clone herself.
