"eXistenZ" (1999) (Existenz (DVD))

Member Name: jbsabbath

Product:	Existenz (DVD)
Date:	18/01/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The bone gun, the sultry Jennifer Jason Leigh, Willem Dafoe and his bio-port machine

Disadvantages: Some crap accents, confusing and befuddled plot

From David Cronenberg, the director of "The Fly", "The Dead Zone", "Videodrome" and "Scanners", comes this mind-cracking sci-fi weirdness.

Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), world-renowned computer game designer, has just created and is about to release a whole new gaming experience known as 'eXistenZ', a virtual reality that might actually threaten the real world due to its almost seductive nature.

The players attach themselves to the fleshy controller via a bio-port at the base of the spine with an umbilical-like cord, which sends them into a dreamlike state and into the virtual world.

But an assassination attempt at the test-screening forces inexperienced guard Ted (Jude Law) to escape with Allegra into the countryside with a bounty on their heads.

The shock of the abrupt exit from eXistenZ may have damaged her controller and Allegra needs to hook up to the system to make sure it's okay, and for that she needs a companion into the virtual world, but Ted hasn't been fitted with a bio-port, meaning that they have to visit Gas (Willem Dafoe), a mechanic with a large spine-gun.

Once inside the strange world, they find themselves a part of a curious plot to destroy a factory that turns chemically enhanced fish and amphibian guts into eXistenZ controllers.

Can Allegra and Ted play to win, and is the world they've escaped from the real reality after all?

The first time I watched this film ten years ago, I found the whole thing terribly confusing, and I can't say much has changed since then even after repeated viewings.

In fact, Cronenberg seems to keep everything totally ambiguous so that he can potter about with 'twists', when in fact these 'twists' just serve to deepen the mysterious fog of confusion that surrounds the viewer.

That's not to say that "eXistenZ" falls flat on its face, because it doesn't, and this is in part due to its strong cast, erotic undertones and wonderfully strange visuals.

The sultry Jennifer Jason Leigh is at the top of the bunch here, playing a suitably tight-dressed, slithering young woman who looks and acts nothing like a video game designer - in fact her obsession with the game is more like her obsession with the two-foot long truncheon she keeps under her bed.

Playing it nervous as the security guard Ted is Jude Law, and this is just when he was coming to prominence as a lead actor, after the excellent "Gattaca" and before "The Talented Mr. Ripley", and so he looks suitably youthful and innocent.

What this film does have is a strong set of supporting actors, including Willem Dafoe as the strange mechanic, Ian Holm as a German technician, and Christopher Eccleston as the man that introduces eXistenZ to its pilot group.

All three of these don't do a bad job, but their parts are sadly quite short and relatively unmemorable - in fact, a gripe to be had is the crap accents Holm and Eccleston put on as they both sound absolutely ridiculous.

The underlying erotic theme no doubt has roots in Cronenberg's strange mind and past filmography, reminding me in places of "Shivers" where strange parasites turned people into sex-crazed loons.

Subsequently, the film does have a few moments that, while not explicit, helps to create a rather strange atmosphere, especially with the close-up shots of the bio-ports, of being plugged in, and other such activities.

And then there's the quite graphic scenes littered throughout the movie, including the slicing open of a large toad, spilling its guts, and someone having their face shot to pieces by a rather cool gun.

In fact, this original gun is probably the best bit of the whole movie.

In a restaurant scene, Jude Law finds himself ordering 'the special', which is a large dish of assorted chemically enhanced fish, and he proceeds to eat and suck dry a variety of bones, bits and pieces.

Somehow, these pieces connect into one another and he constructs a gun made out of bones that can fire his own teeth.

Weird, huh?

Overall, I neither love nor loathe this movie and it's really a case of not really caring to piece it all together, as there is seemingly no reasonable explanation for anything.

It looks like it was made on a relatively cheap budget and is perfectly enjoyable for the head-trip that it is, but there's nothing really fantastic to come out of it.

The whole virtual reality thing has been done better in other movies like "Dark City" or "The Matrix", and this is only different due to its Cronenberg weirdness.

[The DVD can be purchased from play.com for £4.99 including postage and packing (at time of writing). The DVD contains an hour-long documentary, a theatrical trailer, as well as an audio commentary from director David Cronenberg.]

Summary: A strange-looking, yet interesting, take on the whole virtual reality idea.