Life Tracker

Writer-director Joe McLean's Life Tracker boasts an intriguing premise. When a biotech company reveals that it has developed a method to predict a person's future by analyzing his or her DNA, the news is met with skepticism by the public and press, but nevertheless prompts a slacker documentary filmmaker and his friends to chronicle the process of having their own DNA read. The subsequent revelations threaten to not only upend their own lives but also the world, once the potentially troubling implications of this technology are fully realized. Life Tracker bills itself as a “sci-fi thriller, ” but the thriller tag misses the mark by a mile for this low-budget film that languidly plods along, devoid of any tension or suspense (with bad acting to boot). And that's a shame, because Life Tracker does raise some interesting philosophical questions about the nature of life, death, circumstance, destiny, and free will (or lack thereof, once removed by science). How do you live your life if you already know how it will play out even up to and including the manner and time of your death? Unfortunately, these existential quandaries are lost amidst Life Tracker's numerous drawbacks. Not recommended. (P. Morehart)