Surrogates

Rated PG-13 for sex, violence, language and a bad wig on Bruce Willis
Reviewed by Karl Scott

Surrogates is all about a time in the future where only robots are out and about. People just stay home, sit in a special machine they send out thoughts and directions while their better looking, young, healthy counterpart does all the outside activities. Sounds good to me. Unfortunately someone is blasting the robots with a new stun gun, which fries their innards. Somehow it also fries the innards of the real people at home. This is not good and tends to stink up the apartment.

Bruce Willis is a stay at home aging and bald cop who investigates via his blond wigged surrogate. James Cromwell plays the stay at home really aging and wheel chair bound inventor of the Surrogates. The plot thickens, much like the waistlines of all the stay at home real people. When BW's Surrogate gets fried he escapes the same fate and is forced to go outside and investigate on his own.

Complications ensue. Surrogates is a so-called thought provoker. Fortunately it also is a fair entertainment provoker as well. The pace is terrific. The action scenes are well staged although few in number.

The Surrogates borrows heavily from ideas found in other Sci Fi movies including Forbidden Planet, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I, Robot and The Terminator. They even throw in a serious version of a very funny scene from the Woody Allen film Sleepers. If the above films are to your liking you might like Surrogates. If not send your Surrogate to see it.

For those who have kept up on my past reviews, you know I'm a devoted Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) fan because he is the greatest all time film composer and one of the music giants of the 20th Century. I wrote a review of one of the films he scored (Small Soldiers) for this paper in 1998 and also visited the scoring sessions at 20th Century Fox about a month before the film was released. I also did an article on the sessions. Back in 1987 I had the privilege of working with JG on the production of an album from his original soundtrack to the Walt Disney film Nightcrossing.

If you would like to see all the pictures and read info on those experiences as well as learn a little more about JG's fantastic career, you can visit these two computer links. Also go to the home page created and managed by Englishman Jason Needs to find all kinds of samples of JG's scores as well as lots of video of his public concerts and appearances.

To access the links type in www.jerrygoldsmithonline.com then click on SPOTLIGHT and the next page has the links to the Nightcrossing and Small Soldiers material.

Visit these locations on your own. Don't send a Surrogate.

Rated 2.5 out of 4 reasons to ask "can a Surrogate wait in line for me when the new public health care program kicks in?"

JG web pages and JG music rated 4 out of 4. I am not biased with this rating although my Surrogate may well be.