Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In a future in which nobody leaves their home, instead traveling from place to place in linked-in surrogate robots, it is up to an overworked policeman to solve a crime by leaving his home without a surrogate in this intriguing science fiction thriller starring Bruce Willis. The film is jam-packed with interesting ideas (surrogates prevent accidental deaths; surrogates can be upgraded for extra agility) and the glimpse into a society inundated with this craze is fascinating with obvious parallels to internet avatars and virtual reality programs today. There are some personal identity issues too and the film gets a lot of mileage from contrasting how different the users look to their surrogates. The makeup used to reverse-age Willis is especially remarkable. The thriller plot that develops is unfortunately never quite as interesting as the set-up and the plethora of unanswered questions (particularly regarding the health and fitness of the homebound users) leave an uneasy taste in the mouth, but this is nevertheless an undeniably entertaining ride. There is a particularly good action sequence with Radha Mitchell jumping between rooftops of moving cars; in fact, Mitchell gives the film's most interesting performance as her surrogate is hijacked and she begins to act ever-so-differently and yet without any of her colleagues catching on. Willis has done better before and this is not the sort of film to really maximise his acting prowess. His sadness over his son's death resonates though, and all the more so since the accidental death could have been prevented had the son been using a surrogate.

I've seen this a couple of times now and while its not a perfect movie I really liked it. Its definitely entertaining with an intriguing futuristic sci-fi world where people no longer go outside but instead live their lives plugged into robotic surrogates which they control from their homes.Bruce Willis plays Greer, an FBI agent investigating the first murder in years. He looks really weird at first, bad wig, strange make up but who you are actually seeing is his surrogate. There are some decent action scenes along the way, cool special effects as the surrogates can do superhuman things and Bruce does a good job playing both. Ving Rhames also looks very cool as "The Prophet" the leader of the resistance. I also enjoyed seeing how people could no longer function in the real world, anxiety, wasted muscles etc.Yes there are some plot holes along the way: the movie states in the intro that with the use of surrogates crime (and disease) go down exponentially. My thought here is that crime and crazy behaviour in general would go up because there are no consequences for your actions as you are just sitting at home living a repercussion free existence. They also state that 95% of the world population uses a surrogate. How are the poor affording these? So yes some plot holes but whatever its flaws very entertaining. I also thought the ending was fantastic. 12/7/15

This could have been a really good movie, but it was doomed by fractured characterizations and a terrible script. What the viewer was left with was a below par Bruce Willis action movie plus a great sci-fi premise. The 'world' that was created was very well done, undoubtedly the best part of the film. Anyone familiar with our current virtual worlds and avatars would have felt chills seeing a world that is currently safely inside their computers suddenly brought into real life. Thus this is a very plausible situation. People NOW, in real life, currently sit for hours on end, 'living' in these virtual worlds, 'being' their avatar. Anyone unfamiliar with virtual worlds would be shocked at how close this scenario could be for us in the near future. Besides that, the movie was difficult to get through and I almost gave up many times. And I was never really vested in the characters and bad script. The good news is that real sci-fi is becoming more and more common in movies, which is a great thing for sci-fi fans, for it is a genre which has mostly been ignored or 'pulped', ridiculously, over the entire lifetime of film. Sure, not all films with good sci-fi premises will be good, but at least the genre is opening up. Unless you are a die hard (pun intended) Bruce Willis fan, the only reason to watch this movie is for Ving Rhames (who has way too little screen time) and to check out the world that was created here, which is the only reason I gave it a 6 rating. Without all that, and if this had been a present day cop movie, it would be have been better to turn on the TV and just watch CSI (maybe the best idea, anyway). Oh, and did I mention the ending was completely expected and cliché, and rather truncated? It left me with a rather empty stomach.

In the near future, people use robotic surrogates in place of their everyday life. It started 14 years previously with the work of Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell). Now there is a resistance to their use led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames). Crime has been all but eliminated when the world is full of surrogates. Then people actually gets killed when their surrogates get blasted by a new weapon. FBI agents Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) investigate. He's married to Maggie (Rosamund Pike). He wants to take a vacation out in the real world as themselves but she rather use the surrogates since the lost of their son. One of the victims is the son of Canter who had been forced out of his company VSI 7 years ago and is now a recluse. They uncover a vast conspiracy.The movie creates a fascinating world. It's filled with intriguing ideas. I like where this movie is coming from. I do wonder if the movie is better with society stratified between the poor who live in their real bodies and the rich in their surrogates. Instead it's made out to be a choice depending on your viewpoint. The bigger issue is the robotic acting because ... they're robots. There is something disconnected about the unblinking robots. It does allow for some great action but it mostly leaves me cold. As for the ending, I expect something much more action oriented.