I was able to watch this on HULU streaming movies.I had seen this years ago and remember that I enjoyed it, so was anxious to see it again. Today the benign tropical storm Cindy passed through so it was a good day to stay inside. While I remembered the broad gist of the story and some funny complications most of it was pretty fresh to me.Michael Keaton is Doug Kinney working for a big building contractor in Los Angeles. He has a wife and two kids, loves his family, but more and more finds that he doesn't have enough time for everything he wants and needs to do. A scientist, a geneticist, observes Doug's frustration at a job side, pulls him aside, and introduces him to his #2. An exact clone, a procedure the geneticist has pretty much perfected over the years.Out of options Doug agrees to have an exact clone made of himself, complete with all memories. This clone has an additional advantage, he is just a bit more assertive and confident than Doug and immediately starts to be more effective on the job.Soon Doug takes on many other activities while his #2 is working the main job but Doug still runs short of time. So he has another clone made. Number 3 is a bit different also, he is more sensitive, more domestic, with some effeminate characteristics. All playing on the idea that, much like making Xerox copies, each one is a bit different from the original.Then the big surprise comes when one of the clones makes a clone of himself and a big deviation occurs, #4 is very goofy and strange in a number of ways, #2 and #3 begin to affectionately call him "Rainman." Andie MacDowell is really good as the wife, Laura. But the main reason to see this is the acting of Keaton. He has to play 4 distinctly different roles and he does it masterfully. SPOILERS: All this causes friction between Doug and Laura, disappointed she moves away for a while, not knowing she had been dealing with 4 different Dougs. In her absence the 4 Dougs do all the home renovations he had promised her, and he wins her back. In the end Doug #1 gives the other three a car and they take off East, ending up in Miami, Laura never finds out about them.

Let me start with the obvious: this film is of it's time. It's slight, whimsical, wish-fulfillment fun. There is no great need to place too much faith in the science, which in fact is part of the fun also. Who would've thought that cloning might be like photocopying, crossed with vacu-forming? Basically Michael plays an over worked construction executive who is trying to balance work and his family. He clones himself when me meets some weird scientist who explains it all. Then everything pretty much gets obvious from there. Michael Keaton does very good work presenting very different personas, well distinguished from each other, while retaining their sources in the original character's makeup. Andy McDowell's just along for the ride, but fills her role well. It's really an adult comedy, Keaton is very good at the sharp dialogue and asides, a child might be mystified by much of what passed, while laughing uproariously at the visual humour.This is thin material, the humor growing mostly from mistaken identities. But Keaton and MacDowell have marriage problems to work through, which they do with only minor histrionics. As a "serious" look at marriage problems, it's almost believable. And one of the jokes has a punchline that's nearly as good as the infamous one in "The Thin Man". This is a comedy and it will succeed at making you laugh. The story and content is a bit deeper than the average comedy so it has dramatic tones here and there, but never without Keaton's trademark goofiness. To change anything in this movie would leave it less funny, too dramatic, or both. It is perfect the way it is - clean, simple, funny and endearing.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

In order for a story to be entertaining for me, it must be believable. Meaning it cannot have immense plot holes.I could not get past the first 30 minutes of this movie. The story begins about a man who apparently has no other choice then to work a job that he apparently is so good at that he has to work 7 days a week/20 hours a day with crap pay doing what appears to be a managerial position for a construction company. Really with his experience he can't find something better? Maybe not. I'll forgive that.But next, on a job, he runs into a doctor that has figured out how to make perfect clones of people. I have no issues with the idea of cloning technology. However, after this point is where I have huge issues with the story. First of all, this doctor offers to make clones of him so he can get more time. Was this technology not patented? If so, everyone would know about it and it would not be something new. If not, why would it not be patented? And even if it was not patented, how did they hide this technology from the government??? Governments would be immensely interested in this technology (let's clone the perfect warriors). Governments would be very interested in keeping the technology from getting out as well probably.Apparently this new super technology is cheap enough for some middle class smuck to afford? New technology is usually when it is the MOST expensive, not inexpensive. They would be marketing this to the most wealthy people, not some smuck working a dead end job.Sorry, I just can't watch crap like this. I guess there are a lot of people that like crap though.

We all know the situation, where we have too much to do. We can also imagine the buzz in a family where one person build houses and the other sells it.So the idea of making clones is very good. And when you have a good actor like Michael Keaton - there are potential.However, the film is dumb. The main character talk to a doctor, who miraculously is able to make a clone with perfect memory in matter of hours.From there the film is dumb. A man clone himself, without telling his wife, not even just stupid, but under current rules illegal. He have not specific plan to keep it secret. Just letting his close live in a space the family don't use and let the clone do his work.And of course it goes crazy, as the clones (yes, more than one) cheat on each other and makes a mess of all.Typical "I am so stupid, I do not consider my actions" and have to be sooo funny in the awkward situations that occur.Add a little more brain, make it more believable and please no doctor that do discount on clones of the week - it could have been great.