Surrogates with Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames on BluRay/DVD January 26 - Movie Review

When you need an action hero - who ya gonna call? That's right - Bruce Willis. Known for the Die Hard series and countless other action flicks, Willis now lends his he-man talents to the sci-fi film Surrogates, which is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on January 26, 2010. While Surrogates did not fare too well with theater reviewers, I found it thought-provoking and not lacking in action.

Stars Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames and Rosamund Pike

Bruce Willis stars with Radha Mitchell (Silent Hill), Ving Rhames (Mission Impossible), James Cromwell (Spider-man 3) and Rosamund Pike (An Education) in a futuristic look at world where robotic surrogates stand in for people who operate their surrogates by remote control devices and live life vicariously through their surrogates. These surrogates are perfected versions of the population who go out in the "real" world, and face the dangers of life while their operators remain safely at home.

Surrogates Synopsis

While murder rates and other crimes have plummeted, a segment of society has turned against the use of real-life avatars and developed robot-free zones, led by a mysterious man known as the Prophet (Ving Rhames). When a college student, who is the son of the original inventor of surrogates, is murdered by the mysterious destruction of his surrogate, FBI agent Tom Greer (an enhanced Bruce Willis) and his partner, Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell) are called in to investigate. When Greer's surrogate is destroyed, he is forced out of his apartment for the first time in decades to continue the investigation.

Choosing a Virtual Existence over Reality

Surrogates deals with a problem our society is already facing - how easy it is to disconnect from reality in favor of a virtual existence. Perhaps I would not have liked Surrogates so much had I not already been observing the effects computers, the internet, gaming, and virtual friendships have had on people around me. I have friends who prefer spending their time gaming, texting and emailing, rather than having real relationships with real people. I have also previously written about the bad effects that avatars and pseudonyms have had on people who can engage in more aggressive behaviors such as cyber-sex or making incredibly insulting internet comments, because it's all virtually anonymous. It is not hard to imagine a world where people withdraw even more behind the safety and anonymity of computer screens and robot avatars. However, the type of virtual behaviors I have seen online would lead to more crimes if acted out through surrogates, not the dramatic reduction in crimes the movie shows.

Unplug and Reconnect

Surrogates makes a bold statement about how disconnected we are becoming as we spend more time online and less time interacting with flawed real people like our families, neighbors and communities. Much like the Matrix series did, Surrogates invites the viewer to unplug and reconnect.

Hiding Behind Avatars & Pseudonyms - License for Bad Behavior?

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