In the future we won’t have to rely on planes or cars for long distance transport, instead we’ll all just be able to exchange bodies. Need to go overseas in a hurry and can’t catch a flight? Why not just swap bodies with somebody that is already there. Involved in risky work? Why not just exchange bodies with a cheap, souped up clone and save the chance of losing one of your own limbs. This is the reality of Xchange, or at least that’s the reality they are trying to achieve.

Some time in the near future we find Fisk, a high powered ‘corpy’ (meaning business executive I assume) who needs to cross the country quickly in order to get to a business meeting. He exchanges bodies, only to find out that the man who has taken his body is actually an international terrorist, ooh now what is the chance of that? Now, and try to keep up with me here... The terrorist swapped bodies with somebody, and then used that body to swap bodies with Fisk. This means Fisk has to leave the body he was in and enter the body of a cheap clone, leaving him only a matter of days to live. Now insert some foul play and a few dirty sex scenes, and you’ve got yourself another B-Grade Sci-Fi movie that really only puts itself to shame.

The storyline isn’t that terrible, but it isn’t that good either. The entire production of this movie just has that B-Grade stench to it that really makes those corny one liners seem even cornier. The performances are reasonable considering the all-star cast of the best B-grade actors of our generation. Xchange is by no means a good science fiction movie, but then again it isn’t a terrible one either.

The video is presented with an anamorphic aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Being a recent film there are only very limited occurrences of film artefacts. MPEG artefacts are also not a problem, nor is aliasing or shadow detail. Grain is almost minimal, except for a few of the background shots which don’t appear as sharp and clear as most of the foreground work. Edge enhancement is quite noticeable, which is a real shame considering it really shouldn’t have a place on DVDs these days. Apart from this the rest of the transfer is quite good. The colours are clean and vibrant, and the majority of scenes (excluding the above mentioned background shots) are sharp, clear and without any major fault.

The sound is presented in a less than flattering Dolby Digital 2.0. Running at 256Kb/s there are no major flaws with the sound transfer, but there is nothing terribly exceptional about it either. The dialogue is clear in all parts, and there are no audio-synch problems. A Dolby Digital 5.1 channel transfer really would have improved how this movie stood audibly, but alas, no such luck.

The extras are HUGE... On this one we have a theatrical trailer... yup, that’s it, nothing else, I hope I didn’t get your hopes up like I still do every time I wait for those pretty looking animated menus to load. I know that is a sour way to end this review, but so be it.

Overall however Xchange is a reasonably pleasant movie to watch. The transfer isn’t great, but it is still enjoyable to watch. The movie itself leaves a little to be desired, but then again I didn’t expect it to be great either. Xchange shows how good (or bad for that matter) a relaxing, no-brainer science fiction movie can be. If you're bored one rainy day at home and feel like some B-grade science fiction, then check it out, otherwise I’d recommend you stay well clear of this one.