Really Surprised!

Admirable film.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I just had to write a review of this film because every sci-fi fan mistakenly believes that 'The Island' 2005 was plagiarized from 'Parts: The Clonus Horror' 1979. Well actually both films were remakes of 'The Resurrection of Zackary Wheeler' which puts them both to shame.The plot: Leslie Neilson stars as TV reporter who just happens to witness the fatal car accident of Senator Zachary Wheeler, whose in line to be elected the next US president.The plot moves at a fast pace and Neilson is immediately fired for reporting a false story. The mass media, government, and industry are all covering up Zachary Wheeler's car accident and apparent death. Neilson isn't taking this lying down and is determined to find the truth no matter how many men in black agents are chasing him.Meanwhile Senator Wheeler awakes in a private super secret hospital with only minor injuries. As we know from the other films, the hospital's miracle secret is clones. By cloning Zachary Wheeler they have enough spare body parts to keep him alive for as long as he's useful.Much to the surprise of the Illuminati shadow government the Senator isn't grateful he's sickened by their illegal cloning project and also very upset to learn what everyone else in the free world already knows, America isn't a democracy. An Illuminati commission of government and industry manipulates all aspects of human life. Their cloning project is just another aspect of their well established power. Wheeler is only a senator because they will it. He will only be elected the next president because they will it. And now he's only alive because they will it and he benefits them.As Wheeler recovers and wrestles with the moral dilemmas of absolute power corrupting absolutely he sparks love with his nurse and the two debate the moral issues. Clearly she's a Jezebel.The other 50% of the film is everyman Neilson outwitting the army of government agents after him. Think, 'North By North West.' 'The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler isn't going to win any award for production quality but the screenplay is very solid and fast paced. The acting is also outstanding from both Neilson and Bradford Dillman as Wheeler.This is a must see and proves the evil cloning conspiracy story actually started out great. It was 'Parts The Clonus Horror' and 'The Island' which mucked it up.

Worth seeing, if you are into speculative fiction dealing with clones. I agree with the few other reviews here about the merits of this film. The clone concept was original in film, and had been seen on television a year earlier in Boswell's "Timeslip" TV series (1970).This film is worthy of interest mostly for the ideas presented and because of its descendants in the genre: Coma (1978), Clonus (1979), The Island (2005). I have only seen such poor camera-work done in the worst of B-movies, however. No prizes here for visuals, which are remarkable for their lack of art or ability. Seriously, the average person with a cellphone camera and no training could do as good or better job at framing a scene. The acting is serviceable, TV-style of the period, and fans of Leslie Nielsen will enjoy an early performance from him.This review is not a raving recommendation. Serious SF fans and film collectors will not be disappointed to have Resurrection in their collections. Others should steer clear.

TV reporter Harry Welsh happens to be a witness to a car accident involving the US Senator Clayton Zachary Wheeler. Welsh see this as a good news story, but after taking him to the hospital and getting ready to broadcast it. The senator has suddenly disappeared and has been taken away to a secret hospital in New Mexico. No one believes Welsh and for not detracting his bulletin he is fired, as news came in that the Senator was on a fishing trip. So decides to go ahead and investigate, because he knows that it was the senator he saw half-dead in the car crash. When Wheeler finally comes around, he learns of the new medical technology governed by an elite group, which involves cloning people, and using these identical (but empty) vessels to harvest the organs for important transplants.What a cheap little unknown gem! I picked up the video at a pawnshop, and when I decided to give it a look. To my surprise the video was still in its packaging, despite the video cases roughed up look. Before the likes of some medical thrillers involving Michael Crichton's "Coma (1978)" and such, this one does seem way before its time and a blue print for those paranoia medical thrillers. The concept behind the film definitely stands up more so today, because of touchy issue of stem cell research. For such low budget restraints it relies more so on story telling by developing a riveting mystery, clever ideas and moody characters. While the action here is very little and extremely dry, it doesn't foil some well placed tension that's sustained by such simple diversions (like fleeing) then anything explosive. On show are raw camera-work and quite a distant, but more often an energetic and high pitch music score that resembled that the golden age of cinema. Make-up for the clones was well conceived and they did provide some startling images. Pacing can get rather stodgy and you call it a rather colourless display, but where it mostly counts, Director Bob Wynn and co have done a fine job with what they had to work with here. At least when it does slow down it gets straight back into it.The technically well-defined script (that dabs in a touch of sharp wit) goes into thorough detail about the ethics of such power governed by political influence. Where this technology can easily be corrupted and how life is a privilege, where everybody deserves a choice. No matter if these clones can't think on their own behalf, they still can breath, which counts for something. While extremely chatty, they're just so many interesting facets, conspiracies and questions in this thought-provoking material. It could have turn into a shoddy and daftly mess, but the theories thrown up are plausibly integrated. After thinking it might lead to something big. It pretty much leaves you in an insecure state (as there's no real conclusion), which can annoy if you're looking for answers. The performances aren't anything special and for some could be too blunt, but I thought Leslie Nielsen in the lead as Harry Welsh gave in a focused and likable turn. Bradford Dillman as Senator Wheeler, Angie Dickinson as Dr Diana Johnson and James Daly as Dr Redding were more than reasonable.At best it's conventional film-making, which simply sticks to its strengths.

Elements of COMA and THE SIXTH DAY here, basically the moral, social and scientific implications behind cloning. Perhaps even more relevant today given the arguments being bandied about in the public forum for and against stem-cell research.Dying Senator Zachary Wheeler is whisked into a government-funded and hushed-up medical facility in "no questions asked" Mexico for "treatment." Reporter Nielsen smells a story - the "scoop" of the century as it turns out!Without giving too much away, the basic premise turns out to be assembly-line cloning for random organ donation or whatever spare parts are needed - remarkably similar in ethical background to the entire stem-cell debate.Thinking persons' sci-fi.