Plus One

Winding up with some screwy combination of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dawson's Creek, and an old Jerry Springer episode, director Dennis Iliadis becomes a victim of his own creative ambition with this teen-comedy/romance/sci-fi thriller. Plus One opens with a look at the flagging relationship between laconic teen hunk David (Rhys Wakefield) and amateur fencing star Jill (Ashley Hinshaw). In short order, Jill dumps David after she catches him locking lips with a rival fencer, and David later makes the fateful decision to attend the mega-party of the year hoping to make up with Jill. And that's when everything begins to go seriously wrong: as luck would have it, a meteorite from outer space lands in the vicinity of the party. Soon, the snotty rave-dancing mob of upper-middle-class teen revelers begin to notice doubles of themselves—doppelgangers who mimic the partier's own actions with about a half-hour lag, only it soon becomes clear that these doubles will incrementally get to the same temporal point as the humans they're doubling. Unfortunately, while the film's stoner humor initially clicks and the romantic angle holds up well, the sci-fi-horror concept never quite lives up to its full shock-value potential. Plus One only reminds us of what we already know from earlier cheapo B-horror-sci-fi movies: nothing good will ever be brought to by errant meteorites from space. Optional. (M. Sandlin)