Category Archives: Three Stars

Surrogates (DVD)

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After watching the trailers for Surrogates, I couldn’t decide whether this was just another rehashed, tired sci fi plot or whether it had the potential to take these familiar elements in a new and unique direction. The movie came and went in theaters without as much as a whimper, but as many people know the time a film spends in theaters isn’t always indicative of the quality of the movie. Surrogates recently arrived on DVD and I decided to check it out. I went in with little to no expectations and sadly I still wound up being dissappointed.

The film starts out very promising with an amazing introductory credits sequence. The opening credits feature a bit of a montage that brings you up to speed with the whole technology behind surrogacy. Surrogacy is when humans use a matrix type chair to control their robotic counterparts, whom they use for all of their interactions in society. The technology was originated for military use in which soldiers could command their robotic counterparts to fight their battles for them, successfully reducing the number of human casualties in wars. Perhaps the single greatest benefit of surrogates is that there is no risk to the human operator. If the surrogate is damaged or destroyed, the operator is left unscathed. In the future, humans have become entirely dependent on surrogates. People have become overly reliant on using their surrogates to go out in the real world and basically live their lives for them.

Not all humans support the use of surrogates. There is a faction of humans who refuse to use surrogates, seeing them as an abomination. They choose to be segregated from ‘mainstream’ society, choosing to live on the outskirts in “human only” areas. When someone starts murdering surrogates, resulting in their individual owners dying as a result, Detective Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is called in to investigate. What starts off as a fairly original take on a familiar premise soon turns into an exercise in uninspired repitition.

While the opening credits showed quite a bit of promise, what follows is a predictable, murder by numbers mystery that is easily given away within the first hour of the movie. There are a few plot twist, but nothing to really make you care about any of the characters. The movie features Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, and throwback villain James Cromwell. Not many will recognize Cromwell by name alone, but once you see his face you’ll immediately identify him with one of his previous “conspiracy” characters. In fact, his character here is incredibly similar to the character he played in the also similar and far superior ‘I-Robot’. Its a pity that Cromwell has been used so often in these type roles, as once he shows up you already almost instantly suspect him of wrong doing. Overall, the acting in this film isn’t bad, but the movie is just the mediocre sum of a bunch of mediocre parts.

I didn’t expect this film to be life changing or anything in fact I had the bar set relatively low. Unfortunately, the movie was way below my already low expectations. Maybe it is because I have seen so many other films with similar ideas that have been executed so much better than Surrogates. I would only recommend this as a rental if you are really looking for something to watch. If not, you may want to wait until it finds its way to cable unless you have a surrogate who can sit down and watch this movie for you.

Where the Wild Things Are (Theaters)

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What a disappointment! I was probably 7 or 8 when I first read this book, and I remember letting my imagination take me to new heights with what I would do if I were among “the wild.” So when my 5-year-old son enthusiastically reached for this book, I was excited about reading it to him. Obviously, when the movie’s trailers were released, my boy was really looking forward to October 16th.

This movie is depressing, somewhat morbid, and a little intimidating for children. The book had me thinking that Max was sort of forced into another world by his own imagination after being unruly and for misbehaving towards his mother. The movie tends to dig a lot deeper into emotional and psychological realms where little kids may have a tough time receiving the message or the point of the story.

In one scene, Max sees a pile of bones and asks the Wild Things, “Were those other kings”?

He certainly supposed that other naughty children had come to this strange new land, but the thought of them being killed and eaten by the monsters was way off my preconceived notion about the movie. I thought that scene was a little too bizarre for my son to understand.

Quite the contrast from what I concluded about the book, this movie takes at least 3 stars for its costumery, its characters, and its sets. But I wouldn’t bet on children (younger than 10) enjoying it very much. I do, however, love the soundtrack.

Fighting (DVD)

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At first, the trailers for Fighting didn’t interest me at all.  Being a huge MMA fan, I feel that movies like this tend to serve as ammunition for detractors of the sport. While the action depicted in the movie is nowhere near what goes on in the world of sanctioned MMA, the general uninformed public can easily be misled to believe the two are quite similar. When the movie arrived on DVD, I decided to give it a shot.

Although the title gives away most of the movie’s plot, Fighting is actually a decent flick.  Shawn McArthur, played by Channing Tatum (GI Joe, Step Up) is a hustler living on the New York streets trying to make money to survive.  After a group of thugs tries to rob him, Shawn successfully defends himself by fighting his way out of it. This catches the eye of Harvey Borden (Terrence Howard), a street hustler who also happens to be connected to an underground fighting ring. Harvey later approaches Shawn to fight, with the proposition of making big money. As Shawn racks up victories, we discover more about each character that reveals they may not be who they seem at first.

The plot is pretty standard and predictable, however there were a couple of minor developments that caught me by surprise. The acting is fairly solid. Tatum does a decent job here and he manages to tone down his swagger just enough to become a likeable character. Terrence Howard is great in this movie as well, however it is a performance we have seen before from him, and perhaps done better by him. Howard is an amazing actor when given the right push, however he doesnt really have much opportunity to flex his acting muscles in this film. Zulay Henao, who plays Shawn’s love interest in the film, looks amazing.  I don’t remember her acting ability to be anything outstanding, but her ability to look hot definitely deserves to be mentioned.

Fighting isn’t anything groundbreaking, but if you’re looking for a rental to keep you busy for an hour and a half it is pretty solid. It’s not a bad flick and it proved to be more entertaining than I thought it would be.