Surrogates Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Arriving early for a 7:00 p.m. screening at a local multiplex on Friday, I decided to kill some time by sampling some of the other movies that were playing. Feeling like a criminal, I snuck into Surrogates (a small ship crashing, a very young-looking Bruce Willis), The Final Destination (white racist hung by his own petard), and Gamer (John Leguizamo giving Gerard Butler a pep talk). I stayed no more than two or three minutes at each, about the length of a theatrical trailer, and didn't sit down in any of the auditoriums, which were all pretty deserted anyway. Later, near the end of my selection for the evening's entertainment (Zombieland, a lighthearted comedy-horror blast), I saw a familiar multiplex sight: a half-dozen teens sneaking into the movie. And I started thinking, Why not make theater hopping legal?

My idea: You still must buy one ticket to a movie of your choice, and that's the only movie you're guaranteed to see. But the legal language ("the license granted is for a single viewing at the designated time only") is removed, so if that movie sucks, you're free to wander into another auditorium and check out what's playing there. Or bounce in and out of theaters as you please. And if you want to see two (or three) complete movies for the price of one, you're free to do so.

Would this benefit moviegoers? Sure. This will legalize something a good number of people are already doing. Just like downloading music or movies, pirates will still exist, but a majority of folks are law-abiding citizens who prefer to live within the law. People who've paid $9.50 to see a real turkey may not feel quite so ripped-off if they get to see another movie (or part of one) for free.

Weren't we seeking flashy, content-free teaser trailers for Fame, like, a year ago? Or nine months out at least? That's the sort of marketing generally reserved for event blockbusters, not movies that get dumped into theaters in late September en route to a $10 million opening and -- most likely -- a final gross in the vicinity of $25 -30 million. What happened? Given the bad reviews, perhaps MGM/Sony realized with a few months to go that they didn't have an awards contender or likely crowd favorite on their hands.

On the other hand, I don't know what excuse Disney has for Surrogates, a perfectly serviceable, extremely commercial sci-fi actioner starring Bruce Willis and directed by T3's Jonathan Mostow. Willis actionally doesn't have the greatest track record in opening non-franchise releases, but $15 million for a movie like this is awfully weak; here is an instance where hiding a movie from critics arguably hurt. Overture's Pandorum, also hidden from reviewers, was a less surprising flop, with $4.4 million dollars for the weekend.

Taking top honors for the second weekend in a row was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs , which held up very well; it probably helped that it was really the only family film in the market for the second weekend in a row. The Informant! which did not make big waves last weekend, also held pretty well; it won't do Ocean's business, but should end up as Soderbergh's highest-grossing non-Ocean's film (the current titleholder is Out of Sight with $37 million).

The full top 10 after the jump.

Some science fiction films take us to different worlds or alternate realities, or offer visions of the future. In each of these new worlds, certain new rules apply. Sometimes the rules are pretty simple and can be easily and clearly established, as in Star Trek or District 9. Other times the rules are exceedingly complex and raise a million questions, as in the new Surrogates, which is based on a comic book by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. In this future world, humans can strap themselves into a chair, plug themselves into a bunch of sensors and have complete control of an artificial being, including movement, speech and senses. This artificial being can then go out into the world to perform daily tasks, while the real person is safe at home, never risking getting hit by a car or falling down a manhole.

From there, things get sticky. A narrator explains to us that 98% of the population uses the surrogates, and later a character says something about a "billion" users. Last time I checked, a billion was only about 20% (or less) of the population. Plus, how much do these surrogates cost? Can all the poor people of the world afford them? We do get to see a few things like a surrogate bringing home food for its owner to eat, and other points in which surrogates freeze up while their owners use the bathroom, but just how do people go about their daily lives? Some of the users look like they're in pretty bad shape, sitting in their chairs. Is using a surrogate physically or emotionally addicting? Do their muscles atrophy? Do they take showers? Do they ever get together to have sex? Has the population gone down because of too much surrogate sex and not enough human sex?

Bruce Willis returns to cinemas this week with Surrogates, his first starring role since Live Free or Die Hard. It has been 21 years since the original Die Hard, and it seems as if studios and executives are still trying to make lightning strike twice with Willis as an action hero. Fortunately, Willis' finer instincts keep coming through with some of his quirkier choices between the big-budget blow-em-up movies. And though a casual fan wouldn't know it, he has demonstrated over the years a marked talent for acting. That's right. Bruce Willis is an actor, and a damn good one. It's a shame he has yet to earn a single Oscar nomination, and he could have -- should have -- earned some for the following great performances.

1. Butch in Pulp Fiction (1994)
He shows up 20 minutes in, in a single shot that lasts a full two minutes. It's just Bruce, framed in the center of the shot. The background is lit low and mostly out of focus. He doesn't speak for two minutes; we're listening to Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) speak, but we're looking at Bruce. We're looking at that mug. It's a tough, hard mug, but he knows that Marsellus has his number, so his guard is not entirely up. That look of hard disappointment anchors it. Most of Willis' acting is like that: an invisible stamp of quality that makes everything else around him look good. Then, check out the rest of the film, the way Tarantino's dialogue seems to perfectly fit his mouth, and the brilliant way he pulls off his many non-speaking scenes.

Last week's "Shelf Life" looked back at Carrie, the iconic Brian De Palma movie that introduced the world to movies about terrifying teenage girls, the latest iteration of which is Diablo Cody's follow-up to Juno, Jennifer's Body. In anticipation of the upcoming movie Surrogates, which opens this Friday, we decided to revisit Bruce Willis' last great hit, The Sixth Sense, admittedly less because it has anything other than its star in common with Jonathan Mostow's technothriller than the fact that there are few movies in the last decade as acclaimed and commercially successful as M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 breakthrough. As such, we figured it was time to take a look at the movie that made "I see dead people" a pop culture catchphrase and examine whether it should truly live on as the classic it was originally considered.

The Facts: M. Night Shyamalan and his diminutive star, Haley Joel Osment, became overnight icons with this 1999 film about a doctor named Malcolm (played by Willis) desperately trying to reach a little boy named Cole who claims to see ghosts. Though it allegedly cost only $55 million to make, the film became the sleeper hit of that summer, earning some $670 million worldwide as well as six Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Director, Editor, and Original Screenplay. Meanwhile, the film drew almost unanimous praise from the critical community, and currently enjoys a 85 percent Tomatometer rating. Not to mention its greatest legacy – namely, making twist endings the hallmark (and eventually, Achilles' heel) of its director, most of whose subsequent movies featured some sort of third-act surprise.

Jonathan Mostow is one of the "that guys" of the directing world: you almost always recognize his handiwork, but you're not quite sure who he is, because his films maintain a more assertive sense of themselves than they do of him (and we mean that as a compliment). Although he did some smaller films before then, 1997's Breakdown was his calling card as a filmmaker, and contained all of the elements that would signify something made by him – namely, an interesting idea that was executed with mastery of form and a comfortable grasp on genre conventions. Subsequently he directed the submarine thriller U-571 and Terminator 3, and his latest, Surrogates, is another example of high-concept storytelling streamlined to maximize its entertainment potential.

Cinematical recently sat down with Mostow in Los Angeles for an exclusive interview about the ins and outs of the film, which follows Bruce Willis as a cop investigating a murder in a futuristic society where humankind interacts through android proxies of themselves, called surrogates. In addition to explaining the film's world and surrogates' place within it, Mostow talked about his technique as a director marrying interesting ideas to effective storytelling, and reflected on his expansive career both as a director and producer.

Cinematical: What is the point of the surrogates for the people in this film? How does it revolutionize their lives?

3D animation was the way to go this weekend, with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs taking a wide lead over the three other new releases. Tyler Perry's latest flick surrendered the number one spot but still managed to hang on to third place. Here's the top five:

1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: $30.3 million
2. The Informant!: $10.4 million
3. Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself: $9.8 million
4. Love Happens: $8 million
5. Jennifer's Body: $6.9 million

Three new releases this week, including a teen dance flick and two -- count 'em, two -- science fiction movies.

Fame
What's It All About: Remake of the 1980 classic about a group of young people attending a high school for the performing arts.
Why It Might Do Well: This will appeal to a younger crowd that has probably never seen the original, so for them at least it won't carry the stigma of a remake.
Why It Might Not Do Well: The Fame TV series got pretty dopey in the later seasons and I might not be the only one who remembers that.
Number of Theaters: 3,000
Prediction: $22 million

Pandorum
What's It All About: Two astronauts awaken from hyper-sleep on a ship in deep space with no memory of who they are or what their mission is.
Why It Might Do Well: Looks like a good rollicking creep-fest set in space.
Why It Might Not Do Well: Might two science fiction movies in one week be pushing it?
Number of Theaters: 2,400
Prediction: $9 million

Well, we already knew that Milla Jovovich was going to be back as Alice in the latest installment of Resident Evil, but it turns out she won't be the only comely Zombie-hunter back in the mix. In an interview with Boris Kodjoe (Surrogates), the actor told Blackfilm that he has been hired to star alongside Wentworth Miller and a returning Ali Larter (reprising her role as Claire Redfield) in the latest installment of the zombie-action franchise. Kodje first announced his new job on his twitter account, and so far has been pretty chatty about the production. Not only has he confirmed that Paul W.S. Anderson will be directing (possibly in 3-D), but he also gave us a few juicy plot details.

According to the actor, Afterlife will center on Alice, "...roaming the world looking for survivors and she's wound up in LA, which has been burning for three years. She comes across an LA jail surrounded be these half-dead, uhh... [Zombies] Anyway, she comes across the jail and there's a couple of survivors and she lands on top of the roof and partners up with me to fight the guys that are coming after them. We're trying to get all of the survivors out of the jail to safety." When asked about Miller's role, Kodje told Blackfilm that the Prison Break star will be, "...playing a guy that we actually locked up when we took over the jail because we weren't sure if he was one of them or not. He comes into play as we try to find a way to get out with our survivors" -- and I guess if you need a guy to engineer a jailbreak, Miller is really the only logical choice.

Resident Evil: Afterlife will start shooting in Toronto in the next couple of weeks, and is scheduled to arrive in theaters on September 27, 2010.

Some people might be wowing over Avatar and the blue-skinned peeps, but in the world of science fiction, I always dug what lurked underneath a whole lot more. Adding to the skin is tricky -- trying to make a hideous scar, a bald noggin, or a blue tinge look realistic always seemed a lot trickier than revealing what was trapped beneath the surface -- the robotic limbs ripping through torn flesh, or even the illusion of skin that masked some other sort of ugly truth.

So, while others might muse over the distinct details given to James Cameron's blue-skinned avatars, I can't help but stare at the image to the right from the upcoming Bruce Willis movie Surrogates. (Check out the larger version at Arrow in the Head.) My eyes keep following the teeth as they become hidden under the lips, the whites of the eye usually obscured by the eyelid. I imagine my attraction is due to the fact that while we may not all be robots underneath our skin, take away that outer layer and suddenly we look a little alien.

But still, there's something much cooler about revealing a piece of metallic hardware rather than a human's musculature -- whether it's the cold, hard metal of Terminator, or even special sunglasses revealing the aliens in They Live!

What's your favorite inhuman revelation, where the skin hides something unexpected?

Surrogates
Bruce Willis stars in this futuristic science fiction flick based on a graphic novel. Surrogates are remotely controlled robots through which everyone lives there lives. Regardless of what damage is inflicted on the surrogate, the operator remains safe in his or her home. At least that has been the case, but now it seems someone is actually killing people through their surrogates and Willis plays the police detective on the case. Looking forward to this one when it hits on September 25.

Sherlock Holmes
I've never had much more than a passing interest Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character, but this trailer has got me on the bandwagon. Robert Downey Jr as Holmes? Way cool. Jude Law as Watson? Awesome. Am I reading too much into it or are they trying to make it look like there's some kind of sexual tension between the two? Either way, this looks film will be director Guy Ritchie's Christmas present to the world when it releases on December 25.

9
Not to be confused with another forthcoming film called Nine, this is the second trailer for an amazing looking animated feature about small man-made creatures apparently made of burlap fighting off killer robots in a post apocalyptic world. It comes out on September 9.

Bruno
There's a new trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen's followup to Borat. Bruno is a flamboyantly gay fashionista and as with Borat this film documents his adventures with people who don't realize Cohen is playing a character. This looks really funny and it will be out on July 10.