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Surrogates
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$29.99
$13.71*
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| Part No: | B002UZCJ8Y |
| Manufacturer: | Touchstone Home Entertainment |
| MFG Part: | DISD102159D |
| Customer Rating: | 3.5 / 5.0 |
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Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others surrogates. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/26/2010 Starring: Bruce Willis Run time: 88 minutes Rating: Pg13
Intriguingly scaled more along the lines of a good sci-fi short story than a steroid-enhanced action picture, Surrogates proposes a variation on spectatorship-run-amok. In the near future, human beings need no longer leave their homes: mechanical surrogates, similar in appearance (but younger looking, fitter, with fewer wrinkles and more hair) can move about in the world on the user's behalf, following commands and absorbing physical wear and tear. A cop (Bruce Willis) begins investigating a mystifying case of a user who died when his surrogate got blasted by a fancy ray-gun in the street--that's a definite violation of the company guarantee. In the course of a trim, sub-90-minute running time, the Willis character himself is forced to enter the mean streets in his own flesh-and-blood version, not his surrogate, a move that puzzles both his wife (Rosamund Pike) and partner (Radha Mitchell). In the movie's scheme of perfect surrogates and digitally-smoothed faces, the grizzled humanity of Bruce Willis comes blazing through; what a relief to see a battered human in the midst of the beautiful people. Director Jonathan Mostow ( Terminator 3) gets the world right, but one waits in vain for a fuller picture of the effects of this surrogate population, or a deeper study of the creator (James Cromwell) of the technology, or a reason to get involved in the rebel leader (Ving Rhames in a fright wig) and his reservation populated by defiant non-surrogates. Sprinting along as it does, Surrogates doesn't find time for these presumably crucial details, and the result feels just a little skin-deep. --Robert Horton
Stills from Surrogates (Click for larger image)
| Surrogates - Blu-ray | 2010-07-27 | 3 / 5 |
| Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames
Running time: 89 min. PG-13 - 2009
What if you never had to leave the safety of your own home but still got to experience every day life through a robot? The answer, along with certain problems that arise, is the plot to this movie. Once again Bruce Willis does a fine job as a detective who has to figure out who it targeting the surrogates. The movie, which is based on a graphic novel, errierly depicts what society would be like without face to face interaction and the problems it causes. Surrogates is sci-fi action flick with a twist of drama.
See it. |
| "Get ready to live your life without any risk or danger." | 2010-07-12 | 3 / 5 |
| How pervasive is technology? How desensitizing is it? How frightened and paranoid are we now of everything? SURROGATES takes our obsession with online chat rooms and progresses it to something even more subversive. In the near future, a technology is developed in which we don't even have to leave our homes to enjoy a "full life." Instead our minds inhabit robotic doppelgangers and these puppets assume our careers and interact - or is it interface? - with our friends and associates... who are also puppets. In the near future, to live remotely, vicariously, is the safest and vastly preferred option, never mind that it's so... sterile.
Not everyone buys into this surrogacy. Surrogacy-free zones dot the landscape peopled by a maverick society which would rather breathe the good air and feel that warm sunlight on living skin. Surrogates call these folks "meatbags." The movie opens with a surrogate being destroyed by a sort of "overload device" and the mind linked to it fried like eggs sunny side up. Or was the brain liquified in its skull? I can't remember, but the result is the same. The hammer drops when it's learned that the victim is the son of the scientist who invented surrogate technology. And can the meatbags be that far behind when suspects are lined up?
What kills me is that, in this film, people have found a new and really rude way to disengage from a difficult conversation, simply by turning off their surrogates. This is even more jarring than when someone hangs up the phone on you.
In this cold new environment, illusions are created so conveniently, like it ain't no thing. Blemishes are handily erased. A hairy fat man could be a svelte young woman. A nerdy Caucasian lab scientist could be a strapping black lab scientist. Bruce Willis could be Bruce Willis with a fuller head of hair. SURROGATES is adapted from a graphic novel, and that's a plus for me. Bruce Willis plays FBI Agent Tom Greer who investigates the baffling murder mystery... and Bruce Willis in these sci-fi action roles is always an incentive for me to tune in. Willis has earned massive, massive good will from me via his work in THE FIFTH ELEMENT and 12 MONKEYS alone.
Bruce finds himself in a film touting one of them ambitious concepts but, as ever, what really draws me in are the humanizing elements. The sci-fi premise rocks, yeah, but it's when Tom Greer is forced to venture out in the streets in his very own bruised-up flesh that I really edged up on my seat. It isn't really until he's mingling with the robot mannequins that it sinks in just how much of an alien beast this surrogacy society has become. Willis has acting chops enough that he easily conveys that emotional hurt and horror brought about by a past tragedy (which I actually thought unnecessary) and by his ever growing disconnect with his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike). Maggie would rather spend all her time in her surrogate body and live a happy life of illusion. And over time Greer and his wife have grown emotionally detached. And then, of course, Radha Mitchell would hurl that parking meter at him... No wonder that, later, when Agent Greer is faced with a life-defining choice, you're never quite sure which way he would tilt. Ultimately, it's Bruce Willis's grounding presence which salvages this movie for me.
Agent Greer eventually uncovers a diabolical plot to purge the world of surrogates, not that I cared about any of that. Because by that point I'd grown disenchanted with a plot which bogs down and is ultimately lifeless and done by rote. SURROGATES soon becomes just another sci-fi action thriller, when it could've been more than that, when it could've been, for example, another BLADERUNNER. And the murder mystery? It's pretty easy to finger the man hiding in the shadows, manipulating events. On the good side of the ledger, I do appreciate the little touches the actors commit to in their surrogate roles. Whether it's with a look or a gesture or a pose, a subtle something to suggest that certain stiffness and artificiality. I thought Rosamund Pike was particularly phenomenal at this. But it's really weird nowadays to see Bruce Willis with a healthy coif. |
| Main plot is original, subplot is not | 2010-07-05 | 3 / 5 |
| Bruce Willis is known for two types of movies. The first type are the shoot-em up action flicks as typified by his Die Hard franchise. The second type are the thinking movies, the ones that mark him as a good actor who knows how to pick original roles. Examples of the latter include The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and now this 2009 film that slipped under most people's radar; Surrogates. The movie's premise is simple enough, in the near future, much of mankind live their daily lives thru human-like robots known as surrogates. The main plot of the movie revolves around a series of murders, the politics behind them, and the attempts to solve them by the cop played by Willis. And like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable, the movie's climax involves some surprising twists. Hence the movie is a mystery-suspense thriller with some action scenes behind it. The movie is futuristic, but not really in the science fiction genre as the technology displayed in the film is probably achievable within a decade or so.
The only drawback to the movie is its main subplot, which revolves around the failing marriage between the characters played by Willis and actress Rosamund Pike. It seems many of Willis's serious movies features a subplot of marital distress. This was present in the Die Hard movies, Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Armageddon, and now this film. This subplot has been repeated too many times, and could have been done better for this film. Outside of this critique, this was a good film that moved quickly and did not drag. |
| Something different | 2010-07-03 | 4 / 5 |
| | At first I thought this would be a typical big special effects action movie, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was much more subdued than I thought it would be and I really liked the movie. The basic setting of the movie is a near-future society in which people can connect to robots and and live vicariously through them. This is portrayed as being very positive, especially at the beginning of the film. However, the conflict arises when an FBI agent becomes involved in investigating a murder in which a robot was destroyed and its operator was killed as a side effect. Without revealing a lot of the plot, I'll just say that this plays out somewhat like a sci-fi police action movie, but although there are action scenes and good-guy-has-to-save-the-world scenario, all of this is quite subdued and tastefully done compared to many current big action films. It sort of provides a background to the movie rather than being the eye-catching focus. Because of this, the movie becomes a thought-provoking exercise in which you imagine what such a society would be like and you consider some of the ramifications. Even Bruce Willis, who plays the main character is somewhat more subdued than in some of his other action roles. He does a good job with this role and it's kind of fun to see him as his surrogate version with hair and a younger look. I think this movie is especially thought-provoking not because we might soon be using robots as surrogates in life, but rather because we already substitute different forms of technology for real-life experience. In a way, participating in on-line discussions, having avatars, texting and working remotely from home are somewhat like having surrogates. While this kind of technology can open up many opportunities in life, it can also diminish our humanity and isolate us. I think this is one sub-text of this movie. In any case, do check this movie out. You will be happy you did. |
| A flawed but ambitious film | 2010-07-01 | 4 / 5 |
| There are not a lot of original elements to Surrogates, but I argue that there is a fantastic and creative presentation of those elements. The film immerses the audience in a future fantasy world where robots act as surrogates for real people. The real people are in darkened apartments or condos, logged on to a global virtual reality network. Meanwhile, their too-beautiful and too-perfect surrogates are going to work, dancing in clubs, meeting people, and doing all the things humans--with all their flaws--used to do on their own in front of real people. There is no crime and there is no racism, because everyone is gorgeous and cannot get physically hurt...or can they?
This social networking criticism would be silly and would alienate the audience if there wasn't a sense of humor attached to it. I particularly like the idea that not everyone's robot is top-of-the-line, because not everyone can afford the best. This is exactly what has been going on in the real world for nearly a decade now: All of those gadgets and phones that have been pushed on people have truly exposed those who indentify themselves via material status and those who consider gadgets to be tools that aren't significantly different from a hammer or a vacuum cleaner.
The film reminds me a little of Demolition Man in its ability to immerse the viewer. While Demolition Man was not a great movie, there were tireless details in the background that made the world of the film come alive. Surrogates does this as well: Background characters will say something or something will happen that is incidental to the world the film portrays, but if the same thing were to happen in the real world, we would find it quite peculiar, indeed.
Much of the success of this film relies heavily on Bruce Willis (character name, Tom Greer). He is eternally John McClane, the modern cowboy from Die Hard. And he's just as watchable now as he was twenty years ago. Rosamund Pike's portrayal of Greer's wife, Maggie, is almost too good for this film. She represents the dark sadness of a life lived vicariously.
I find that Surrogates can be forgiven for its obvious message, because it tells that message so well and also remains quite entertaining. The blend of action of social commentary worked well enough for me, even if I knew the ending within the first twenty minutes. |
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