Surrogates (our 1000th post!)

From the desk of The Movie Snob

Surrogates (C+). Disposable sci-fi/action fare starring Bruce Willis (Bandits) (good grief -- this is the first Bruce Willis movie I've seen in like 8 years). The premise is certainly interesting. In the near future, no one ever leaves the house; instead we plug into a computer network and use very realistic androids called surrogates to go out and do everything for us. Naturally, the surrogates tend to be rather better looking than their human owners; moreover, there's no requirement that your surrogate be the same age, race, or sex as you are. Anyhoo, there's a shock to the system when two androids get gunned down and, despite "foolproof" safety systems, their human operators die at the same time. Willis, who's an FBI agent, follows the clues to a reservation of "Dreads," humans who view surrogates as abominations and refuse to use them, and beyond. When his own surrogate gets destroyed, he has to pull his pasty, out-of-shape self out of his chair and do some literal footwork to find out who is behind all the shenanigans. The lovely Rosamund Pike (Die Another Die) plays Willis's wife, and Radha Mitchell (Henry Poole Is Here) plays his FBI partner.

Oh, and they used exterior shots of the Bank of America building in downtown Dallas as the headquarters for the sinister corporation VSI. Cool!

And that, friends, is The Movie Court's 1000th post. How about that?