Surrogates
Product Description
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)
Stills from Surrogates (Click for larger image)
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★★★★☆ Good Movie
Thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Was shipped in very good condition and arrived before the stated time. Tis was a very good value for my money.
★★★☆☆ Surrogates - Welcome to the future
The film "Surrogates" when first released in the cinema escaped my attention, and I only really watched it by both coincidence and my own laziness. Picture the scene, you have the movie channel on, it's late, you're tired and you can't find the remote. Rather than getting up to look for it I thought to myself "f*** it, I'll just watch what's on next"; what was on next was Surrogates. Suddenly very vague memories of the times seeing the trailer and thinking to myself "hmm, I should see that" came flushing back and I simply decided to keep watching. Not a particularly engaging or important film, what really captivated me was that this film said a hell of a lot more than I imagined it would about the society that we live in and the way it's going.
Set sometime in the future, humans have decided to lie back and live out their lives as remotely controlled androids built to their specifications. Almost the entire human race decides to live out their lives in these robotic bodies, but a few small reservations of humanity, who choose not to live as robots still exist and, lead by a man known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames), seek to end this abomination. A string of mysterious murders take place where the android is destroyed using a special weapon, which at the same time kills its controller. Called in to investigate these crimes are Agents Greer (Bruce Willis) & Peters (Radha Mitchell).
Agent Greer has a more personal presence on the screen (as he is the star, durr) and it deals with the more personal impacts of living your life in the body of a robot. Agent Greer struggles to reconcile his differences with his wife over the failing relationship with his wife and lack of any human contact between them, as they have only come to communicate via their androids, motivated by the death of their son. The investigation into the cause of the murders comes with a lot of surprises both fairly humorous and genuinely surprising.
The message of the movie was the most interesting element of the whole thing. Sure, there were some great action scenes and Bruce Willis' presence was what really secured this movie's credibility, but it said so much about the way in which society seems to be going. We've become an internet obsessed society, a medium which can allow us to become whoever we want and with games such as "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft" having literally millions of users, they allow for a welcome escapism from the horror or pain of real life. Personally, I would say it's only a matter of something like 100 years at the most and we will be close to the society depicted in this movie.
Starring one of actions biggest legends, the script isn't great, but you can't go wrong with some excellent action and a truly intriguing concept. Buy it, you'll enjoy it. I promise.
Set sometime in the future, humans have decided to lie back and live out their lives as remotely controlled androids built to their specifications. Almost the entire human race decides to live out their lives in these robotic bodies, but a few small reservations of humanity, who choose not to live as robots still exist and, lead by a man known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames), seek to end this abomination. A string of mysterious murders take place where the android is destroyed using a special weapon, which at the same time kills its controller. Called in to investigate these crimes are Agents Greer (Bruce Willis) & Peters (Radha Mitchell).
Agent Greer has a more personal presence on the screen (as he is the star, durr) and it deals with the more personal impacts of living your life in the body of a robot. Agent Greer struggles to reconcile his differences with his wife over the failing relationship with his wife and lack of any human contact between them, as they have only come to communicate via their androids, motivated by the death of their son. The investigation into the cause of the murders comes with a lot of surprises both fairly humorous and genuinely surprising.
The message of the movie was the most interesting element of the whole thing. Sure, there were some great action scenes and Bruce Willis' presence was what really secured this movie's credibility, but it said so much about the way in which society seems to be going. We've become an internet obsessed society, a medium which can allow us to become whoever we want and with games such as "Second Life" and "World of Warcraft" having literally millions of users, they allow for a welcome escapism from the horror or pain of real life. Personally, I would say it's only a matter of something like 100 years at the most and we will be close to the society depicted in this movie.
Starring one of actions biggest legends, the script isn't great, but you can't go wrong with some excellent action and a truly intriguing concept. Buy it, you'll enjoy it. I promise.
★★★★★ An Enjoyable Sci-Fi Action Movie
For better or worse I watched the movie before I read the reviews and what do you know, I really enjoyed it! I had a great time and found myself completely immersed in the story and the action.
I'll agree there were some clichés but not enough to get in the way of my enjoyment of the movie. I am a serious sci-fi fan and this movie did not disappoint me.
If you enjoy sci-fi and appreciate Bruce Willis, then you owe yourself the opportunity to watch the movie and form your own opinion.
After reading some of the reviews I'm almost embarrassed to actually admit I really liked the movie, but that is the fact of the matter, I really did!
I guess this is yet another example of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.
I'll agree there were some clichés but not enough to get in the way of my enjoyment of the movie. I am a serious sci-fi fan and this movie did not disappoint me.
If you enjoy sci-fi and appreciate Bruce Willis, then you owe yourself the opportunity to watch the movie and form your own opinion.
After reading some of the reviews I'm almost embarrassed to actually admit I really liked the movie, but that is the fact of the matter, I really did!
I guess this is yet another example of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.
★★★☆☆ Surrogates - Blu-ray
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.
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."
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.
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.
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