My Review of "They Cloned Tyrone"

They Cloned Tyrone is a Netflix exclusive movie that came out in 2023. It's a pretty slick film that has a lot of style and personality. Though a lot of its plot actually remind me of a 2002 comedy called Undercover Brother. I only recognize this because I loved Undercover Brother. This is done in a more serious tone but the themes are there.

The movie starts off with a character named Fontaine. He's a neighborhood drug dealer that everyone seems to be afraid of. One of the guys crosses him the wrong way and he shows him why everyone fears him. All he cares about is getting the money that's owed to him.

One of the people that owes him money is a man named Slick Charles. Slick is an older neighborhood pimp. He owes Fontaine money but he's been trying to skirt around it. One of his prostitutes, Yo-Yo, has recently quit and he's really hit hard times.

Fontaine of course comes to find Slick in a seedy roach motel to collect his money. This goes eerily wrong as Fontaine is followed by the guy he taught a lesson in the beginning of the film. As a result, Fontaine was shot dead in the middle of the motel parking lot.

The next morning Fontaine wakes up to simply follow the same routine that he usually does. Only this time he remembers the night before. He thinks it's just a dream but when he talks to Yo-Yo and Slick they find out that he's not supposed to be alive.

Fontaine gets them to follow him as he retraces his steps for the day before. What they discover is that Fontaine did die and the new Fontaine is a clone. There's a huge conspiracy cover up that they have to figure out. This story gets bigger and bigger as they discover new things about the conspiracies.

The reason why I find this closely related to Undercover Brother is that it is very similar. In Undercover Brother the man is planting mind control to black neighborhoods using stereotypical things that black citizens use. In this case we have the food and the hair styling products.

This movie does a bit of a swerve later on but ultimately it is still quite close to the groundwork of the previous 2002 film. I still liked what they did with this movie. The added intrigue and mystery aspect of the movie kept me on my feet and engaged as the film unveiled its onion layers.

I thought that there were some missed opportunities in this movie but they would have thrown this movie on several tangents as well. I would have been interested in the psychological element of knowing that your life is inconsequential. Do you follow the same path as usual or do you play out your bucket list?

There were some weird decisions throughout this movie as well. Why wouldn't they wipe certain things out of their heads if they have so much control over the clones? It's like they were inviting the clones to fight back against the company. Also why would Tyrone continue to buy lottery tickets if he knows his path is already set. He knows he's stuck in that town forever.

Overall, it was a really fun movie that I would recommend. The ending is a really fun one that I think was a result of research groups. I thought there was still a ton of untapped potential to this movie and maybe they'll make some sort of sequel because of its popularity. As it stands I have to give this one an 8 out of 10. Thoroughly entertaining and worth a second viewing.