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They Cloned Tyrone sees Fontaine (John Boyega – Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker) living in a run-down apartment with his mum, dealing drugs on the side – including some he sold to Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx – Spider-Man: No Way Home More Fun Stuff Version), who’s complaining about the quality.
However, one day, the former manages to annoy the wrong people and finds himself shot full of holes, to the point where few people recover from it. But to his surprise, he wakes up the next morning, gets up, chats to his Mum and heads out for the day… but, how?
That’s also a question Mr Charles is asking, who’s surprised Fontaine is still alive, yet has no recollection of already having visited the day before. Well, it’s not quite The Man Who Haunted Himself (classic 1970 Roger Moore film!), but there’s elements of films like Swan Song and Us, and the repetitive nature of Groundhog Day.
Unfortunately, the premise is a very well-worn idea, and so all we’re left with is a lot of people firing guns, and shouting at you for two hours. Plus, the usual, constant 500 words-per-minute chatter from Foxx, which gets old very fast.
As such, when it came to scene of people laughing uncontrollably – and hinting at the reasons for this, I wonder if either that was a red herring, or a plot point left unfinished amongst the bloated script and running time for a film which could easily have been cut down to an hour-long poor Black Mirror episode at best.
Halfway through, Kiefer Sutherland (Rabbit Hole) turns up as the guy who’s called “when a big mess needs to be cleared up”. His character may as well be called Kiefer Sutherland Shouts A Lot As Usual. For once, he does not shout “Dammit!” when things don’t go his way.
The film image on They Cloned Tyrone also has a gritty look to it, for no apparent reason. I see from Wikipedia that they were trying to ape the ’70s-style of Blaxploitation films. If so, well done, and have a cookie. It made no difference to the end result.
Let’s hope this Tyrone doesn’t get cloned into a sequel(!)
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
They Cloned Tyrone is on Netflix from July 21st, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 119 minutes
Release date: July 21st 2023
Studio: Netflix
Aspect Ratio: 2.20:1
Score: 2/10
Director: Juel Taylor
Producers: Jamie Foxx, Charles D King, Stephen “Dr” Love, Tony Rettenmaier, Kim Roth, Juel Taylor, Datari Turner
Screenplay: Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor
Music: Pierre Charles, Desmond Murray
Cast
Slick Charles: Jamie Foxx
Fontaine: John Boyega
Yo-Yo: Teyonah Parris
Nixon: Kiefer Sutherland
The Preacher: David Alan Grier
Issac: J Alphonse Nicholson
Biddy: Tamberla Perry
Big Moss: Eric Robinson Jr
JuneBug: Trayce Malachi
Crutches: Shariff Earp
Frog: Leon Lamar
DJ Strangelove: Joshua Mikel
Cleanroom Suit Guy: Ryan Dinning
The Deacon: Swift Rice
Ree-Ree: Megan Sousa
Split Ends: Charity Jordan
Bespectacled Tech: Austin Freeman
ADR: James Moses Black
Himself: Big Boy
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.