Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Beautiful, moving film.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Film Review: "The Devil's Double" (2011)Here a completely by his leading actor Dominic Cooper, in best form, carrying the picture about the Saddam Hussein's son life style and the story from his inches alike body double the character Latif Yahia directed by Lee Tamahori, granted with a fairly-paced script by Michael Thomas based on real-life memories, brought together to an appealing thrilling psycho-drama, which gets ultimately enriched by the truthfully transcending relationship to the character of Sarrab, Uday Hussein's first lady, portrayed by erotic-striking actress Ludivine Sagnier, who with her laissez-faire acting style and immensely build up chemistry to actor Dominic Cooper, making the "The Devil's Double" a secretly to encounter piece of motion picture entertainment with minor suspense dissatisfaction, when it comes to the story's conclusion, worth the watch nevertheless.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Reviewed May 2012It neither has the subtlety nor the attention to detail one might expect of a biopic and runs along as a thrill ride concocted from the mind of some over-the-top fiction writer where the focus is more on the sleazy and gory details than the emotional side of its characters. But the last word is that it entertains. Uday Saddam Hussein (Dominic Cooper) needs no introduction as his reputation is well documented. What this movie intends to show is the perspective of his Fiday (body double), Latif Yahia (also played by Dominic Cooper). In the monarchical Iraq where eccentric Uday has no bounds to his sadistic ways, Latif a soldier of the Republican Guard is identified and offered a position as his body double without a choice. Uday and his team introduces Latif to an ultra luxurious lifestyle with quite a few tight strings attached. Latif is forbidden to contact his family and soon grows tired of Uday's antics and atrocities. All along, Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier) a mistress Uday is quite fond of gets close to Latif and both dreams of life free from Uday's clutches. One day, Latif thinks enough is enough and does the unthinkable and the consequences are supposed to be history. The script definitely would have taken the liberty of manipulating quite a few facts for dramatic or commercial or fill-in-the-blank purposes and anyone watching the movie for historical accuracy may get disappointed. Where it succeeds is the flamboyance with which Dominic Cooper portrays the eccentric Uday Hussein and the same measured held back performance while playing Latif. Also it induces quite a few comic touches and add in a lot of nudity, vulgarity and gore the elements that are closely associated with Uday and they are the same elements that makes a product commercially viable too. No major incident reported in the history is handled with the gravity of its impact instead takes the spectacle route. Certain facts are contrived and some emotions are just laughable for a biopic, but hey who knows what was cooking in Uday's mind, he might have reacted in the exact same way. Uday was shown mostly as an immature, mindless nut with a lot of comic histrionics and unpredictable temper. There is a pattern here as I have seen a BBC biography on Uday which is handled in the exact same way as this movie, a contrast with the rest of their work. Having said all that, what finally mattered was its ability to grab my attention by bribing me with guilty fun. Do not watch it for serious cinema, there is a lighter side to the worst of elements.

This story that was necessary to tell was told well. I remember both Gulf wars. I remember the atrocities told about Saddam's son, Uday Hussein. Seeing them re-enacted is another thing.I didn't recognize Dominic Cooper from the only other vehicle in which I saw him, Fleming. He was superb then. He was better here, playing these two roles.He showed evil when he portrayed Uday Hussein.He showed compassion and turmoil when he portrayed the double, Latif Yahia.I await the coming release (2017?) of the sequel, The Devil's Revenge, again based on a book by Latif Yahia, but this time also co-screenwriter.

Rating-7/10The Devil's Double is a sinister film which although is that and whole lot more dark with undertones, turn's out to be a just about Good film and one that can make you think but also fear and feel for the characters. I watched it expecting gore and violence and yes you do get it, but I also expected lot's of poor shooting and driving scenes of which there are none and save's the film from a lower rating. So I thought it was just about Good film, and here is why I thought so.Story is firm and as I say it is dark and vicious but not ever scene is torture and gore(although it can seem like it as in certain parts of the film). Domonic Cooper is hard not to talk about in positive terms but we will get to him soon, otherwise from him this film is fairly good and the story holds up well enough to make it a good film to watch. I particularly liked the end because there is a certain thrill from watching well, you will see for yourself if you watch it but let us say the ending is tense at moments.Now to Cooper and what a performance he give's us from this, he play's both the protagonist and antagonist and serves them up delightfully with a kind of madness in one role and a more sophisticated turn with the other. His accent is great and he actually looks like he is from Iraq, let alone trying to make him look the characters. I didn't care the supporting cast and I felt they were pretty much all stale and although supported Cooper well no one came near to being as good as him here.I think Lee Tamahori did a good job here and made the film look nice with all that is going in it like. He used his ever present dark directing skill to master through a story of Latif Yahia(who's experiences are the basis of the film from his book), and bring with it a film not afraid to be called an even higher type of 18 film and touch the boundaries of what is right and wrong in film. The setting is perfect and some great vehicles are seen throughout, nothing to make the film better but a nice thing to look at mid way through the movie. Criticisms come in the way of well unneeded violence in some parts and stale parts in the other which obviously don't make this a bad film, it is good I said but parts can be pointless and for too long in this nightclubs and guards being shot, women being harassed and men threatened, you can't help but feel they could have done something else to freshen up the script and not just have Latif having a bad time.Listen the film is violent no doubt, I won't spoil the death scenes but they make you wince or look away if your of a particularly squeamish nature but all the same it can be the darkest deaths which really bring out a certain side of the character. I think people who enjoy dark drama and little action may just like this, and even more so than I did but nonetheless I feel people will dislike it and get bored with it, but don't expect to be bored just by watching the trailer etc.So overall a just about good film, give it a 7/10 and I think it was falling maybe towards the end but just held on to it's rank here. Go watch it and see for yourself the dark twisted mind of a man, son of a dictator and one who is crazy and sadistic, and his doppelganger.