| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Bruce Willis | ... | ||
| Radha Mitchell | ... | ||
| Rosamund Pike | ... | ||
| Boris Kodjoe | ... | ||
| James Francis Ginty | ... |
Canter
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| James Cromwell | ... | ||
| Ving Rhames | ... | ||
| Jack Noseworthy | ... |
Strickland
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| Devin Ratray | ... | ||
| Michael Cudlitz | ... | ||
| Jeffrey De Serrano | ... |
Armando
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| Helena Mattsson | ... |
JJ the Blonde
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Michael Philip | ... |
Uniformed Cop
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Danny F Smith | ... |
Victim
(as Danny Smith)
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Brian A. Parrish | ... |
Hard Hat
(as Brian Parrish)
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People are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates -- sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. It's an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don't exist. When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery. Written by Touchstone Pictures
I first viewed Surrogates upon its home format release and positively found it very ordinary. Viewing it again, with focus and in solitude, it proved to be a far better experience.
The action scenes are what you would expect for a multi-plex appeasing popcorner, loud, colourful and owing great debt to modern technology. Yet to dismiss this totally as one of those easy money making blockbuster movies is most unfair.
Surrogates oozes intrigue, even if it doesn't quite deliver on the smartness written on the page. The idea that in the future robotic alter egos can carry out our everyday mundane functions is cracker-jack, and it opens up a whole can of berserker worms.
This is not merely an excuse to have Bruce Willis running around exploding surrogate robots, as much fun as that is of course, there's a deeper emotional core pulsing away as Willis fights the good fight to make sure being human is not cast aside like a thing of the past, that as flawed as we are, hiding away in a surrogate is not the answer.
This axis of the story is beautifully realised by the plot strand involving Willis and Rosamund Pike as his wife, with both actors doing fine work to give it the required emotional heft. It may ultimately lose itself to a standard conspiracy plot, but there's intelligence within to make Surrogates a better film than it first appears. 7/10