Shooter, Surrogates & The Devil's Advocate

I like the idea of Shooter. We should just name films with exactly what they're about. Shooter, Fighting, Snakes On A Plane. You know what you're getting, shit vaguely polished into a story about the title. So with this one you've got Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne mode. He's tough, like some kind of secret sniper tough. But then his partner died, so he quit and grew a questionable beard and lived on a mountain. Then he gets recruited to stop an assassination attempt on the President. The he gets framed for said assassination. If you've ever seen a Steven Segal movie then you know what's going on here. Apart from maybe the great moment where a man falls through a window with a dog on his arm. Still, cool explosions and it's nice to see Danny Glover.

Surrogates is one of those high premise sci-fi movies that no-one goes to see at the cinema and are destined for late night TV reruns for years to come. The most off putting thing about the film is the surrogates of the title which are robot versions of people which you control via a bed/computer system. The acting of these varies from wooden (which would seem appropriate) to realistic (such as Bruce Willis' FBI partner). This is confusing at times but luckily Bruce Willis is bald with stubble to show he's not a robot. Anyway, it's good throwaway rubbish. Not worth going out of your way for but there's certainly worse films to watch (see above).

I remember watching The Devil's Advocate when I was younger, drawn in by the promise of violence, swearing and nudity. I was of course, not prepared for Keanu Reeves' ass which ironically was the most natural thing in his performance. Some scars never heal. It's Grisham meets King in terms of story, one which builds nicely before reaching a climax of such absurdity you become unsure if you're still watching the film you started with. Luckily Al Pacino is mental and makes the film watchable throughout even with the hammy ending and outdated cinematography (only George Lucas still does those screenwipe cuts).