Self/less: When a dumb movie takes itself seriously

Self/less, if you couldn't tell from the preposterous title, is a deeply silly movie that takes itself very, very seriously.

The premise is interesting enough: A dying man (Ben Kingsley) undergoes a procedure to save his mind by ditching his failing body for a shiny new model (Ryan Reynolds, you could do worse). But, the lofty ambitions, trite messages, half-hearted allegories and over-the-top caricatures make director Tarsem Singh's (The Cell, The Fall) latest a misguidedly campy experience.

Here, the dying man, Damian (Kingsley), is possibly the worst person in the world. In the opening scene, he destroys a young competitor who is aiming to encroach on his real estate empire. Damian, you see, is extremely wealthy and powerful. He's "the man who built New York from the ground up" and he can ruin another's life before lunch, almost for sport.