Sunday, October 4, 2009

'Surrogates' Review


A factory where surrogates are created. Watch the trailer: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/surrogates/29481/main
>>The reviews haven't been so hot for Surrogates and I can see why. Saturday was a rainy day and not a good one to take Mom outside so the Mrs & I decided to see this Sci-Fi movie starring Bruce Willis. Whether or not you're a Willis fan, I give him a lot of credit for not only working in big films but for taking small roles in small films that need his name for financing and gives him chances to stretch his acting chops. Unfortunately this movie isn't one of them. Surrogates's premise is that one can stay home to let your brain get hooked up to a robot who takes your place in the working world. It can be a copy of you or an improvement in looks which is what most people want.
>>Willis plays an agent investigating the murders of surrogates and learns that their operators also died at the same time by having their brains liquified. These dual deaths aren't supposed to happen and we soon learn that Willis with the fancy hairdo and younger looks we met in the beginning.is a surrogate for the real bald one who gets beat up a lot and looks like shit for the second half of the movie. No vanity here on his part; perhaps another chance to get into a character or to show the dicotomy of the two Willises. We later learn that his hot looking partner portrayed by Rahda Mitchell is really a plain looking gal and his plain wife is also a better looking surrogate. We eventually learn that almost everyone in the movie has a surrogate. You need a score board to keep the characters and plot clear.
>>There's the usual action scenes we expect in a Willis action film that are enhanced by the barrage of neat special effects. Willis discovers the reason behind the killings and he's outnumbered as usual in his movies, but this is a Willis action flick (think of the Die Hard films) so you know he's gonna be a one man army who will triumph in the end. Surrogates is not a bad movie and is doing OK at the box office, but it grows tiresome and word-of-mouth might bring on its early demise. Willis is too dour and seems bored except when he does emote on occasion to get his wife's attention so we know he's really human. Even a good character actor like James Cromwell who plays the reclusive inventor of the surrogates, is wasted with not enough screen time. A better Sci-Fi movie with Willis is 1997's The Fifth Element: http://videodetective.com/TitleDetails.aspx?publishedid=975491&st=Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition, The (2005)
>>Mom would have been confused with the story and our consensus was 'Eh'.... Wait for the DVD.

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