Month: September 2009

In the near future, a new invention has taken over the land, the concept of the “virtual self” where the user can remain at home and by cybernetically connecting to a robot body that can safely interact with the outside world. These “surrogates” act as an idealized avatar in the outside world with the benefit of the host user never being hurt or killed in anyway. Soon though, a murder is committed that not only takes out the surrogate but also kills it’s user, and now FBI Agent Tom Greer has been called in to investigate the case.

Surrogates is the latest comic book to movie adaptation, based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, and it’s the newest movie from director Jonathan Mostow, who’s previously given us films like Breakdown, U-571 and Terminator 3. And it’s a lot of fun…

I’ve not read the graphic novel so I can’t say really how well it compares to that, but what’s here presents a lot of very good ideas, and though this seems to have been somewhat compressed (the running time of the film is right around 90 minutes), overall it’s story is pretty complete. It’s got a great look to it, especially with some of the more artificial aspects of the surrogates themselves, and the action in the piece is pretty darn compelling.

Bruce Willis plays Tom Greer, and it’s a pretty good and deep performance from Willis where he basically serves double duty as both his real world self and his surrogate, and the differences between the two are pretty well done on his part, with him being more bold to action when in his surrogate body and a lot more pensive when he’s forced to be his real self in a world populated by surrogates. He’s backed up with a good cast including Radha Mitchell as his partner, Boris Kodjoe as his FBI superior, Rosamund Pike as his completely disconnected wife, James Cromwell as the inventor of surrogate technology, Ving Rhames as a character called The Prophet, leader of an anti-surrogate society, and Mostow regular, Jack Noseworthy playing the initial murderer. Everybody does a great job, with me having to give props in particular to Rosamund Pike as Greer’s wife.

There really is a lot of good ideas at work here and I just wished the movie had been a little longer to explore some of that more- one of those ideas included the process of how all licensed surrogate users are all interconnected into a central system which is constantly under observation- when two of the users decide to venture a little further into illegal territory, this central base sees the action and immediately procures a warrant that lets them just as immediately shut down those users- pretty fascinating stuff to see how the justice system works with this…

Even though I wish there was more here, this still delivers a pretty good viewing experience. I know I had a great time seeing Bruce Willis back on screen and giving a top-notch performance. Surrogates is very much recommended…

In the early 90s, a transnational corporation ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) was investigated by the FBI into matters of price-fixing around the world (primarily around the use of the amino acid lysine in food production) and all of that came about through one very big whistle-blower by the name of Mark Whitacre, a very big wheel within the company who sees himself as saving the company in the end, but who has way more going on than either ADM or the FBI knows at the start of this…

The Informant! is the latest movie from director Steven Soderbergh (one of my personal favorites) and he’s got something here that’s really unique that takes it’s swings at both corporate greed and personal ambition, all through the eyes of a guy who’s pretty likable, but makes you question him more in just what the hell was he doing? It’s a dark comedy that’s actually pretty briskly paced, but with a lot to chew on still be it’s end. Now when I say “comedy” with this, don’t necessarily expect this to be something that delivers big laughs, but more smiles and chuckle at watching it’s events unfold…

The events themselves are pretty dry, and not necessarily something that you’d think would make for all that a compelling film, but what makes them work on film though are some pretty compelling performances and a really brilliant score from composer Marvin Hamlisch, who handles this just like he did with some movies he did for Woody Allen back in the day.

And the performances are terrific. Matt Damon takes the lead here as Mark Whitacre and no one has ever seen Damon like this in a movie before, his Whitacre is a smart and passioned guy, but as revealed through commentary voiceovers throughout the action, not necessarily as prioritized as he should be. His wife, Ginger, played by Melanie Lynskey (who was the “other” girl in Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures) does a real nice job as being Mark’s support and in some ways the gateway to the paths that he takes here. And it’s really nice to see actor Scott Bakula as FBI agent Brian Shephard, a guy who really wants to do the right thing, but who gets just a little too emotionally involved with his subject in the puruit of this case. With the exception of Damon, this cast isn’t exactly typical for a Soderbergh movie and also includes such people as Joel McHale (best known for E!’s The Soup), comedians Rick Overton and Allen Havey, and yeah… there’s The Smothers Brothers in roles as well.

Now this is based from a book, and I don’t have any idea just how close to the book it is, and right at the start, before the credits even roll, they tell you that they’re monkeying with some of the situations for dramatic effect, and when it ends up being something that’s just this entertaining, that’s fine. It’s a very well done and well made movie with a real top-notch job from Matt Damon and it offers a lot to chew on… very much recommended…