Plastic is sexy!

Today I went to see Surrogates, and I kind of liked it, but not really. It's the kind of movie that makes you wish there were more movies like it, more sci-fi thrillers, so maybe some of them could actually be good. It's enjoyable enough, but there's very little originality to it. The basic concept of mechanical human surrogates is pretty interesting, if a little silly (everybody can afford life-size robots? Really?). It's been done much better in David Brin's Kiln People and many other books, with much more depth and much more interesting ideas. There are a few moments in this movie that make you think there could be more to it than pretty shiny robots, like the look Bruce Willis' wife (in her surrogate) gets when she bumps into the real him in the hallway, and takes a second to realize it's not his surrogate, but most of it doesn't stray too far from the old sci-fi-whodunit formula. They did a really good job with the surrogates, a really pretty mix of makeup and CGI that truly makes them look like perfectly designed constructs. They even got rid of Radha Mitchell's signature mole, the one on the bridge of her now, between her eyes. And then there was the "real" her, and for those brief scenes they managed to make her "ugly", which in Movie World means that her skin looks like a regular person's skin, her teeth look normal, not straightened, her hair doesn't look like she just stepped out of a hair salon, and her posture is just as crappy as everyone else's. Real people really are horribly disgusting. When they finally start making and selling robot-girlfriends that are lifelike enough to take out on dates and bring home to meet you parents and stuff I'm totally going to be first in line. And the weirdest thing about the movie? The gorgeous (and Jewish, sort of) Elizabeth Banks gets an executive producer credit in the opening titles! I wouldn't mind getting a robo-girlfriend who looks like her, if you know what I mean. And I do mean that I'd like to put my peepee in an animatronic puppet constructed of metal and latex that sort of resembles the lovely Miss Banks. Oh yeah. That's pretty damn hot.

Bruce Willis' new plastic face

In other news, I've finally started reading a new book, after a really long time I've been too lazy to pick one up. Since July I've only read three books! Lazy Ben. So today I started reading Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and so far it's pretty good. I hate getting reader's block. There's this short story I've read once in an old sci-fi magazine about a guy whose job is to give book recommendations. This woman comes to him and says she has serious reader's block, that nothing can hold her attention anymore. So he gives her this Stephen King book, and she really doesn't like the idea. A few days later she calls him up and tells him that it was one of the stupidest things she's ever read, but the point was that she actually read it. So maybe this tale of a Jewish comic book duo can help me get to some heavier stuff later on. And by heavier stuff I mean KW Jeter's Glass Hammer. Only 615 more pages to go!