Oscars Flick Picks

How do you save humanity when the only thing that’s real is you?

Here is the synopsis of “Surrogates”:

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.

Radha Mitchell and Bruce Willis as surrogates

The premise for the film is not new, it has been covered many times by many authors and film makers, the main difference here being the star, Bruce Willis. We’ve seen Bruce in the role of shop worn, maverick law enforcement officer so many times that we can immediately recognize the role in “Surrogates” and we expect him to end up being the lone wolf type savior that he always seems to be. And that is not necessarily a bad thing because people seem to LIKE Bruce and they WANT to see him in this role. In this movie we don’t recognize that character until over ten minutes in when his surrogate, the airbrushed, toupee wearing, younger Bruce, is destroyed.

It is THIS Bruce, as FBI agent Tom Greer, that gets a hold on the conspiracy to destroy ALL surrogates and return humanity to the world. THIS is the guy we are familiar with, from “The Fifth Element”, “Planet Terror”, “16 Blocks”, “Sin City” and “Unbreakable”, that under appreciated and overlooked expendable guy who just happens to get the job done. HE is what makes “Surrogates” watchable and entertaining!

The critics thumbed their noses at “Surrogates” but does that mean that it is not worth watching? As I’ve stated many times, I rate movies for their ability to entertain, but there are different levels and modes of entertainment so I have to be specific here: “Surrogates” is NOT cinema, nor is it Oscar material. In fact, this movie isn’t even the best of science fiction. What it IS is one more crime/thriller story that has just enough interest to keep the casual viewer engaged for the one hour and twenty-nine minutes that it runs. As entertainment it is middle of the road decent.

Plugged in on a "synth" bed

The plot is so full of holes that my teen daughter could spot them, such as although surrogates don’t feel pain why is it that they can participate in hanky panky? And, as the movie postulates, if a surrogate can only be operated by its registered human why does Tom Greer jump into two separate surrogates that aren’t registered to him? If I let it these things could ruin the film’s enjoyability but, because it is Bruce, I let those things slide, leaned back in my recliner in front of my 42″ flat panel and let “Surrogates” entertain me. I suggest that you do the same.

“Surrogates is worth your time, so I rate it”

Share on Facebook

Challenge Your Assumptions: Rent this DVD

Most of the time my choice in movies is made solely for their entertainment value, but occasionally, and not too frequently at that, I’ll look for something to challenge me, or even to disturb my assumptions of the way things ought to be. And that is the mood I was in when I chanced upon “Sin Nombre”, a Spanish language film set mostly in Mexico. I remembered seeing a poster for this film at the local megaplex and vaguely thinking that it might be interesting, but then it just fell down the memory hole till I found it on Netflix, quite by accident.

What attracted me to the film was the image of people riding on the roofs of railroad cars while trying to reach the border with the USA. But what I wasn’t aware of was the whole story line behind that image, and THAT is why I recommend this movie.

Despite a plot resolution that seems a bit too clichéd and predictable, the film itself is beautifully shot on 35MM film instead of digitally and the actors are fresh faced, young and believable, at least to the eyes of THIS Anglo. But it is the panoramic sweep of the landscape and the quest for a better life that is really the most affecting part of the film.

The plot, in short, goes like this: A young Honduran woman, Sayra, along with her newly found father and an uncle, decide that life would be better in Los Estados Unidos where they have some relatives living in New Jersey. New Jersey!? Well, compared to poverty stricken Honduras the Garden State DOES resemble Paradise Lost so, crossing the Mexican border they climb onto the roof of a freight train, along with scores of other would be immigrants, and begins their odyssey north.

Mara SalvaTrucha Gang Members

But in a parallel plot line young Caspar, a member of the Mara Trucha gang, tries to escape the fate that he sees those around him falling into and jumps that same freight train north. As fate, and predictable screen writing, would have it Caspar meets young Sayra and they become friends, if not lovers as they travel. But because Caspar betrayed his gang “family” he is hunted relentlessly and is sentenced to death by his former mates. Since their reach stretches into the United States Caspar knows that they will eventually find him but, just as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables, he still seeks a new life.

Will the Mara SalvaTrucha catch him? Will Sayra finally reach New Jersey? These questions are finally answered in the last fifteen minutes of the movie. And although the resolution is no surprise it is the journey itself that captivates the viewers in “Sin Nombre”.

I highly recommend this DVD and rate it

About a year ago I came across a review in the Sunday paper of a book called “American Gods” , written by Neil Gaiman, an author I was not familiar with since his genre is mostly Gothic fantasy. Not my typical read, I’ll tell you! But the review was so positive that it caused me to give the book a chance, and since it was out in paperback I purchased it.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

The intriguing premise of Gaiman’s tale is that the gods of European yore, who came to North America with their immigrant believers, are squaring off for a rumble with new indigenous deities: “gods of credit card and freeway, of Internet and telephone, of radio and hospital and television, gods of plastic and of beeper and of neon.” They all walk around in mufti, disguised as ordinary people, which causes no end of trouble for 32-year-old protagonist Shadow Moon, who can’t turn around without bumping into a minor divinity. Released from prison the day after his beloved wife dies in a car accident, Shadow takes a job as emissary for Mr. Wednesday, avatar of the Norse god Grimnir, unaware that his boss’s recruiting trip across the American heartland will subject him to repeat visits from the reanimated corpse of his dead wife and brutal roughing up by the goons of Wednesday’s adversary, Mr. World.

Author, Neil Gaiman

Boy, I’ll tell you, Gaiman did his homework on this one! And for a Brit he sure has the pulse and flow of the American psyche, perhaps because he currently resides in Minnesota and has immersed himself into the mid-American lifestyle. His credits range from DC Comics writer and creator to film screen writing children’s books. Quite a span of accomplishments!

For a more detailed bio, click here.

What really prompted me to post today was a BBC television series bearing Gaiman’s name in the “creator and writer” credits that I rented from Netflix. The series is called “Neverwhere”, an urban fantasy set in, and under, downtown London.

Richard Mayhew is an unassuming young businessman living in London, with a dull job and a pretty but demanding fiancee. Then one night he stumbles across a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her–and the life he knows vanishes like smoke.

Several hours later, the girl is gone too. And by the following morning Richard Mayhew has been erased from his world. His bank cards no longer work, taxi drivers won’t stop for him, his hundred rents his apartment out to strangers. He has become invisible, and inexplicably consigned to a London of shadows and darkness a city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth of sewer canals and abandoned subway stations. He has fallen through the cracks of reality and has landed somewhere different, somewhere that is “Neverwhere.”

Several of the characters appear to be avatars for the areas in which they live. For example, Old Bailey, and old fussbudget of a man dressed in clothes made of pigeon feathers, resides on the roof of, you guessed it, the Old Bailey, the famous courthouse structure. Others are derivative of old monsters we have all seen in film, or read of in books, such as vampires who suck the “warmth” from their victims, rather than blood, or the grim reaper, in this case a pair of relentless torturers who glory in gore.

The plot is a bit convoluted and not too easy to follow, but the proceedings are so interesting that it keeps the mediocre production and effects from distracting the viewer from what is going on, and the characters who populate “London Below.

Door, Hunter and Mr. Mayhew

Presently, there are plans afoot to turn Gaiman’s story into a motion picture to be released sometime in 2009, but as yet I have seen no report of work being done on it. Gaiman, of course is staying neutral on the whole idea: “When it comes to movies, the dead certainties never happen and the things you think are dead come back to life,” he said. “I have no predictions and absolutely no theories. I watch everything that goes on in Hollywood with amusement and occasional trepidation…but mostly amusement.”

But here’s hoping it comes to pass! But in the meantime, take the time to look up the BBC version and give it a try. I think you’ll like it as much as did I.

I Rate “Neverwhere”

Share on Facebook