Surrogates (Movie)

Cover of Surrogates

Surrogates came out last year on September 25th, 2009 and is directed by Jonathan Mostow. The film stars Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, and Ving Rhames. When I first seen the trailers for Surrogates I was really impressed, but after hearing so much negativity about the title I decided to skip out on this one. I should know by now not to always go by what others say, but in a time of tight money and movie prices at all time highs I really don’t feel like gambling with every movie that comes out. Needless to say the movie is now available on Netflix’s streaming service which I am already a member of so with nothing to lose I decided to watch it this past weekend.

In a nutshell the story takes place in the near future where people live their lives out through remotely controlled machines known as “surrogates”. If these machines are damaged, or destroyed the end-user feels none of the effects and just wakes up and buys a new machine. Since the invention of surrogates crime has gone down, and the world is doing well. Not everyone buys into using surrogates and these groups of people settle into reservations for humans only. Meanwhile a rash of crimes start to break out where “surrogates” are being destroyed and their operators along with them. We follow the exploits of Willis’s character Tom Greer and FBI agent investigating the murders, and trying to deal with an uneasy marriage to a wife unwilling to be seen outside of her surrogate.

I love movies that take place in the future because you can have a lot of fun with the story and technology as it isn’t based on a time period that has taken place yet, and this movie does a great job at creating a believable setting. It also does a good job of getting you to think if our reliance on technology is always the best thing, other movies have done this as well but it definitely prompted debate between me and my girlfriend who I watched it with. Overall I enjoyed it for what it was, while I can say I’m glad I didn’t go see it in the movies that is not a putdown in any way, it is certainly watchable on TV and is a good 90 mins of entertainment, it’s just not up with spending money on food, parking, and movie tickets, but not much really is lately in my opinion. It is available on Netflix’s instant streaming, and at this point is probably playing on cable or on demand so I say if your into future and technology films check it out.

The Expendables

I went to see a matinée for this movie which has been out since August 13, 2010. The Expendables was directed by Sylvester Stallone, and stars a whole bunch of action stars from the last couple of decades. We have Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, David Zayas, Steve Austin, Gary Daniels, and Cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The plot revolves around an elite group of mercenaries who are hired by Mr. Church(Bruce Willis) to go to the fictional island of Vilena in order to overthrow a brutal dictator. That’s about all there is to the story, and I expected nothing more going into it.

If it weren’t for the star power of the film myself like others I’m sure wouldn’t have even bothered going to see it, but you’d have to be lying to yourself if you never wanted to see all these guys in one film. There is absolutely zero story in this movie, what little there is I found myself not even giving a crap about. I didn’t even care for most of the characters in the film, and couldn’t tell you any of their names except for Stallone as Barney, and Statham as Christmas, these two had a good chemistry together and were certainly the shining stars. When one of the characters is killed off about half way through the film I found myself not even caring. Another thing I found this movie lacking was any feeling that these characters were ever in any real danger, they are all so powerful and pretty much unstoppable compared to those they are fighting whose sole purpose is to get killed in a variety of ways like target dummies.

Enough about the negative and onto the positive. For one these stars may be a little aged but they could all probably kick any of our asses with just one of their chiseled hands, and that’s where this movie really shines. The action sequences are some of the best you’ll find, though totally unbelievable there’s nothing better than watching our team take on a small army with all sorts of explosives and weaponry including Crews’ repeating shotgun with explosive rounds. Even though it was brief it was great seeing Schwarzenegger back on-screen and his conversation with Stallone was really funny. In conclusion this is not a film you really need to see in theatres but if you catch it as a matinée a good time can still be had. It is at the very least worth a rental, and if you go into this movie not expecting much story but a lot of action you’ll be satisfied.