Bruce Willis is back to his action hero roots, and Disney is aiming to hunt down the top spot this weekend to challenge "Cloudy" with the opening of 54-year-old star Willis starring "Surrogates," the biggest budget film of the year for Disney Studios' adult-oriented Touchstone label, which previously released romantic comedies "The Proposal" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The $80-million sci-fi thriller blockbuster is adapted from the Top Shelf graphic novel of the same name by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele in 2005, a rough mystery about technological addiction.
Following a six-year absence, the director Jonathan Mostow is back in theaters with a much smaller property and a fraction of his "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" price tag, which made more than $430 million worldwide. Mr. Mostow is no stranger to filming cyborgs, his film is a clever blend of familiar elements and more inventive fare, including the unique premise and some quirky effects.
Welcome to the future! How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you? "Surrogates" is set in the not-so-distant future, where human beings stay at home and send robots out into the world as their surrogates in daily life. Desperate to avoid the perils of everyday living, humanity has turned virtual reality into actual reality. When the genius creator of the surrogates is murdered, FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave the safety of his own home for the first time in years and survive in the real world. Like most of the world's population, Greer has two halves: His better-looking surrogate is controlled by his stay-at-home, somewhat grizzled, real self. The Stepford-pretty robots have helped eliminate crime and racism, but things get complicated when surrogates begin dying and their hosts being dying too.
So "Surrogates" is meant as pure science fiction, right? Wrong. The filmmakers and futurists behind the movie say they're aiming for an only slightly enhanced version of present-day trends. The film has a solid and pretty original premise, a well-chosen cast and the special effects are top-notch and the visual look of the film is excellent.
Following a six-year absence, the director Jonathan Mostow is back in theaters with a much smaller property and a fraction of his "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" price tag, which made more than $430 million worldwide. Mr. Mostow is no stranger to filming cyborgs, his film is a clever blend of familiar elements and more inventive fare, including the unique premise and some quirky effects.
Welcome to the future! How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you? "Surrogates" is set in the not-so-distant future, where human beings stay at home and send robots out into the world as their surrogates in daily life. Desperate to avoid the perils of everyday living, humanity has turned virtual reality into actual reality. When the genius creator of the surrogates is murdered, FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave the safety of his own home for the first time in years and survive in the real world. Like most of the world's population, Greer has two halves: His better-looking surrogate is controlled by his stay-at-home, somewhat grizzled, real self. The Stepford-pretty robots have helped eliminate crime and racism, but things get complicated when surrogates begin dying and their hosts being dying too.
So "Surrogates" is meant as pure science fiction, right? Wrong. The filmmakers and futurists behind the movie say they're aiming for an only slightly enhanced version of present-day trends. The film has a solid and pretty original premise, a well-chosen cast and the special effects are top-notch and the visual look of the film is excellent.
This movie looks really cool - the premise is certainly interesting. I'm intrigued by the implied ramifications of cloning.