Cypher

*1/2 - Ok, here’s the deal: some guy brainwashes himself into thinking he is a corporate spy sent to infiltrate another corporation, is then captured and brainwashed into thinking he is a corporate spy infiltrating the first company, captured by them and brainwashed once again into thinking he is a spy for the other company. Meanwhile, Lucy Liu sporting a strange Moe Howard-like haircut (who is later revealed to be his girlfriend) is helping him reverse the various brainwashings, which is actually contributing to him being brainwashed even more (huh?). All this convoluted brainwashing, infiltrating and spying somehow results in the acquisition of a data disc of some sort, which is implied was the whole reason that the main character went through all this in the first place. This disc contains (drumroll, please…) an order to kill his girlfriend which he promptly ignores by throwing the disc over the side of the yacht that they are on, presumably because Lucy Liu is hotter and spicier than an order of General Tso’s chicken. The complex storyline seems like it should be interesting, but actually was pretty dull. The apparently near-future setting was only futuristic in that Lucy Liu flew around in some weird-looking helicopter. Add to that the lame special effects, the unsatisfying conclusion, and an extremely high “huh?” per minute count, and you get yourself a one and a half star movie.