”Surrogates” should be watched at home

Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Starring: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike
Release Date: 9/25
Rating: C-

Jonathan Mostow’s latest film has a great premise, but the director does not deliver on its promise.

“Surrogates,” adapted from a comic book series of the same name, shows a world where people never leave the home. People are able to live through surrogates, a robot that is basically a better-looking version of its human counterpart.

When the murder of a person’s surrogate causes the operator to die as well, Bruce Willis is brought in as a floppy haired detective.

Willis’ alternate body is pretty creepy. The actor has been going with the clean dome for years now and seeing him with a junk wig is striking. These surrogates are supposed to be better looking, but the older, grisly Willis is much more effective.

 People are supposed to remain safe when their surrogates are harmed, so the murder puts every one on edge. To solve the case, Willis has to leave his home and surrogate for the first time in years. Somehow his body is not a flabby mess, but it is the future so maybe there is some hot new supplement to keep people healthy without being active. This dilemma is not addressed.

This is the film’s main hang up. So many questions related to the use of alternate bodies are not approached. Mostow goes straight for the action-film cliches of shootouts and car chases instead of delving into the sci-fi complexities. Mostow is a serviceable director, but is not the filmmaker to take on this story.

“Surrogates” is not a bad film. It is a perfectly fine rental or lazy afternoon TBS flick. The action is fun, quick and clean and few others run an action film like Willis. The biggest flaw with the film is all of the futuristic elements that are never explained, which makes it nothing more than rental fodder. If anything, seeing Ving Rhames rock dreadlocks in a small supporting role is worth the viewing.

Mostow’s main goal was to give these bald actors the chance have some hair for the first time since 1994.

Next time out, Mostow needs to focus on delving deeper into his source material rather than helping out his bald buddies.

Luke McCormick can be reached at
536-3311 ext. 275.