I actually had some hopes for this adaptation. The original short story on which this adaptation is based was from John Varley's creative peak period, and was funny, clever, inventive, and even moving. It is, in fact, a classic of the Sci Fi genre, which why PBS ranked it along with "The Lathe Of Heaven" as deserving of exposure to a wider audience. And the PBS adaptation of "Lathe" was actually decent - not mind blowing or anything, but watchable and understated and patient in the way it developed and used the ideas from the story.
And Raul Julia was a brilliant actor. There are movies in which the Julia shines like the surface of the sun ("Kiss Of the Spider Woman"), and he is (was) almost always the most interesting actor in any movie he appears in. So I had hopes that this wouldn't suck.
But ODATMB takes this potential and wastes it. While the story is funny and smart-mouthed and satiric and gets in and out quickly after riddling its targets with dozens of sharp-witted barbs, the video adaptation just lumbers along like a bad soap opera. Lines of dialog and exposition that seemed so clever on the printed page just fall flat here. Blame for this falls squarely on the director, who doesn't seem to be able to keep up the snappy pace and rhythms of the story, or get the supporting actors to inhabit the characters or invest them with any charisma. Especially egregious are some really crappy performances by minor actors, walk-ons and extras that simply drag the movie down several notches. Don't know if the blame rests with them, or (again) with the director for not insisting on keep doing takes until they came up with better readings of their lines. Julia himself is still a live-wire and a fire-hose of energy, but he's out there all alone with no acting support.
Also to blame are the dreadful video and special effects - especially lame are the documentary stock film sequences which have Julia's voice-over trying to tie the grainy footage with the sci-fi elements of 'doppling'. It's a cheap trick and a cheap attempt to do an end-run around the need to depict the central concept of 'doppling' into a specially prepared animal as a vacation from the pressures of life in 'the future', and it doesn't work at all.
And the whole 'Casablanca' tie in just lies there. The one good thing about it is that if any modern actor could do Bogart properly, it might well be Julia. The thought of him actually being in a remake of 'Casablanca' generates practically the only good-will I felt for the movie.
I can't bear to give anything with Raul Julia in it a '1' (not even the movie version of 'Street Fighter'), so I give it a '2' out of 10. Maybe a 2 1/2 for making the attempt in the first place, and for recognizing a great story.
Poor John Varley. Maybe there is something in his style of story telling that just doesn't translate well to movies and screenplay..."Millennium" was another great story that completely fell apart in the film version. Who can say???