Surrogates

Surrogates

Starring Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, and James Cromwell
Directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3)
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a drug-related scene
Appropriate for ages 13+

    Set in the future, humans no longer have to leave their homes, but rather they project themselves into young-looking robotic surrogates that can live their lives for them, keeping them completely safe from harm and always looking their best.  When someone invents a weapon that can kill the human owner through its surrogate, the police, led by agent Tom Greer (Willis) must find how to stop this weapon from killing off not only the surrogates, but all of their human owners as well.

    Stealing from films such as Total Recall and The Matrix, the story isn’t entirely original, but none the less still feels like it could have been penned by Philip K Dick himself as maybe one his lesser stories.  The tale is a little preachy in regard to trying to show what we could all be like if we stop getting out there in the real world and spend all of our time behind our computers.  Then again, maybe the preaching is necessary.  

    Future theory aside, what most folks will want to know is the quality of the action, and overall, it’s not bad.  There’s loads of violence, chases, and other miscellaneous action-junkie fodder.  In other words, you won’t need a long attention span to enjoy.

    That being said, some of the plot is a bit confusing and/or just doesn’t make sense.  But by the time you get to the end,  you just want to see how it’s going to go down and how they are going to get to the great trailer moments you’ve already seen (shame on them).  

    The biggest problem with the film is that Bruce Willis seems miscast.  Maybe it’s because he was trying to act tired since he was used to using a surrogate, or maybe because he was tired since he can’t do these types of roles the way he used to.  I like him in the action roles, but this one just didn’t feel right.  It makes me wonder what the film would have been like with a Vin Diesel or a Hugh Jackman in the lead.  B-