eXistenZ
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Movie Reviews of eXistenZ
Movie Review: Psych-fi not Sci-fi
Summary: 5 Stars
When I unearthed a bargain price VHS copy of "eXistenZ" I had no recollection of having even heard of the film. At that price and with a cast that included Sarah Polley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Ian Holm I figured, why not experiment? Unlike most of my video experiments I fell immediately into the story and really enjoyed the film. It is easy to watch and while Polley and Holm have small parts, Leigh is on screen for almost the entire film. Which is probably why she elected to do this instead of "Eyes Wide Shut". Her co-star is Jude Law in what I would rate his all-time best performance.
Although I was very impressed I don't recommend "eXistenZ" for everyone. It could be described as an anti-"Matrix". Not in an intentional sense since they were being made at the same time, but rather in their respective target audiences. So if you seek it out because you really liked "The Matrix", you may be disappointed.
It has a fairly narrow target audience and because of this it was not aggressively distributed in the U.S. and did much better in Europe. Generally those who really connected to "The Matrix" will find it insufficiently manipulative (requiring too much viewer self-analysis and participation) while those who hated "The Matrix" will hate it for being too manipulative. So if you found "Matrix" generally intriguing but did not go ga-gah over it, you should make it a point to check out "eXistenZ".
It is not really sci-fi or action adventure but a psychological thriller (just as "The Hole" is not a horror film but a psychological thriller). It places Kurt Vonnegut's theme "you are what you pretend to be so be careful what you pretend to be" into an allegorical tale of shifting reality. Do we ever actually exercise free will? Does escaping from reality contribute to reality getting worse, in actuality or in our perception? You are meant to internalize this theme and to ask yourself these questions.
My only real complaint is that the final twist (unlike the earlier twists) does not click into place when you first see it nor later as you work backwards to find clues and foreshadowing elements that support this element. Without these the twist is silly and unnecessary. While it does not ruin all that has gone before it seems like just a lame attempt to prepare the way for a sequel.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Movie Review: Highly underrated David Cronenberg movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the future, a special technological and biological achievement has been created called "eXistenZ" which is an organic living cybernetic thing that taps people into a virtual reality video game universe that makes them escape from reality. An inventor woman named Allegra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who created ExistenZ has been targeted for assassination but lucky for her, a security guard named Ted (Jude Law) saves her and must try everything in his power to protect her. However the two must play the game of ExistenZ as they are in a special artificially created world that feels real soon becomes a dangerous game of life and death.
Underrated futuristic Sci-fi/horror/action thriller from famed Canadian director David Cronenberg ("Scanners", "The Fly", "Videodrome" and "History of Violence"). The film co-stars Ian Holm, William Dafoe, and Sarah Polly as it offers an interesting yet smart storyline with bizarreness and of course some neat special effects. It's a gory yet action packed thrill-ride that came out during the same time as "Matrix" in 1999 yet it's almost as good as that movie but it's more of a long awaited semi follow-up to his masterpiece "Videodrome" in the traditional sense. Howard Shore who is also collabrated on Shore's films (Except "Dead Zone") does a fine score in this movie and there's good performances with ideas that make this one of David Cronenberg's most overlooked movies that has gained cult status.
This DVD has only one extra and it's the trailer but that's ok it's still great as it is.
Also recommended: "Tron", "Videodrome", "Scanners", "Blade Runner", "Akira", "Total Recall", "The Running Man", "Vanilla Sky", "V For Vendetta", "Minority Report", "The Fly (1986)", "The Matrix Trilogy", "The Animatrix", "Ghost in The Shell 1 & 2", "Children of Men".
Movie Review: eXinstenZ
Summary: 5 Stars
[Existenz [IMPORT]Forget "The Matrix". Now, really forget it. It's a different movie. "eXistenZ" lives in a world, or really nested realities, all its own. Cronenberg is a master of mixing up reality with non-reality and physical with non-physical. I think one of the beauties of "eXistenZ" is the ugliness of the Virtual Reality world created by Geller's (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) half-mutant amphibian/half plastic game pod. The icky porting into it with an umbilical cord into the spinal column is so Cronenberg. I liked the way he had the characters (and us) believing they were out of the game when they were still in it... those pesky nested realities. It does harken back to some of Philip K. Dick's visionary short stories, as well as Cronenberg's own "Videodrome" (especially with the "Death to..." sequence). I also liked the use of some of Canada's best actors who have since become more well known, such as Don McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie (by way of Sutherland, England), and Sarah Polley. In fact, Cronenberg played a character in Don McKellar's 2000 film, "Last Night", which also starred McKellar, Rennie, and Polley, not to mention Sandra Oh. I liked the way some of the characters in the Virtual Reality did not respond unless they were fed the correct line. That was brilliant, and I have not seen that done anywhere before or since. I also liked the gun made out of a jawbone that fired teeth for bullets. Cronenberg is brilliant. Take a pop over the Amazon's sister site, IMDb.com, and look at Cronenberg's filmography. There isn't a bad apple in the bunch, and you would do well to watch them all. "Naked Lunch" and "Dead Ringers" are just two out of many that would stand out if you liked "eXistenZ".Movie Review: eXistenZ
Summary: 5 Stars
What a wonderful movie. All of the mind twisting about just what is reality anyway? and a feeling for what it's like if you are a videogame character living in a videogame world, where you may have to chop off a person's head to proceed with the game. I love the homage to Philip K. Dick, who beat the reality problem nearly to death in his works (movies made from his stories include Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, Screamers, Imposter (which I haven't seen), and the embarrassing Paycheck). When the main characters in eXistenZ get hamburgers to take to the motel, the burgers come from Perky Pat's, and Perky Pat comes from Philip K. Dick. Residents of Mars, to spice up their boring lives in The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, take a drug and play with their Perky Pat dolls, becoming the dolls and trying to live a Barbie and Ken existence. They know it's not real, but it becomes more real than real. You know that you are viewing a great simulation of reality in this movie when the burgers come from Perky Pat's. This movie would not have been made if Philip K. Dick had not lived, and we are better for both of those events.It also seems to me that people who love The Matrix as much as I do - and there are millions of us - can't help but love this film. I can only attribute this movie's small potatoes performance vis a vis The Matrix to not enough people having seen it. So if one one-hundredth of you Matrix fans out there and all of the Matrix haters one reviewer referred to would rush out and buy this DVD you would make David Cronenberg really rich, as well as one of our finest creators of off-kilter movies.
Movie Review: How did you know my name??
Summary: 5 Stars
What a weird, creepy, bit of fun this is! It is reminiscent of "Naked Lunch" (and why not? Cronenberg did THAT one, too!). The game within a game within a game was Excellent! I find it odd that it was a flop at the Box-Office. I first saw "ExistenZ" the year it first came out on VHS, and enjoyed it immensely. Of course, I'm biased, because I'm a HUGE fan of David Cronenberg's works. Where David Lynch uses a feather floating on air, David Cronenberg uses a sledgehammer (of course, AFTER he has given it his trademark "biomechanical" look)!
Some would say it has a passing resemblance to films such as "The Matrix", but I see it as totally unique. As in "Naked Lunch", we are treated to a trip through Cronenberg's twisted mind, where nothing is as it seems to be. Seeing it through the eyes of Ted Pikul (Jude Law), is this live? Or is it Memorex? Cronenberg leaves you to decide, but for just a little while, when you are treated to another "reality"! Good ol' Ted is being led around by Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the creator of "ExistenZ", the newest VR game to hit the streets. There are others who take exception to this, however, and try to kill allegra. Ted is forced to do things he would not normally do, but he is pressed into protecting Allegra.
This film is just a lot of fun! Oddities abound. The Uh...weapons, are....unique? Ted's rush to build one, at a restaurant is alternately cool and disgusting. "ExistenZ" is a must-see for Cronenberg fans, as well as anyone who would like an intriguing thriller/horror film!