[Movie 255 / Day 272]
Set in an alternative present where nobody leaves their homes and everybody lives their lives through surrogate robots, FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is given the task of investigating the first homicide in years when a break away sect who believe the surrogate program is evil seemingly get their hands on a weapon that has the power to kill the operator through the surrogate’s controlling link.
The robots are not necessarily an accurate representation of their operator; and the more expensive models are capable of super-human strength; both contribute to a feeling that the movie has taken lots of little bits of other sci-fi movies (notably Gamer and the Terminator franchise) and mixed them all up with a pinch of Die Hard.
The twists, such as they are, are quite obvious and the sting is slightly removed from the tail as a result. I also had a problem with Tom Greer’s appearance in the movie; whenever we see anyone in real life we get to see just how polished their surrogate is while they are sitting in their stim chairs, unwashed and covered in zits. Not so for Tom however, he looks pretty cool in real life and nowhere near as pasty as the other characters that haven’t left their houses in years.
Still, it’s an enjoyable sci-fi actioner with plenty of interesting moments to keep the story ticking along nicely. Worth watching even if isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff.
Rating: 
[ IMDB rating: 6.8 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 88 mins ]