eXistenZ (199).

[Neville]

Wow. Just seen this one, and it's a riot. Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law star in this weird sci-fi movie from David Cronenberg. Leigh plays a videogame creator in the near future, where people actually live the games through biological implants. When a person plays the game, the biological implant overrides all senses, inmersing the player in a compltely detached reality.

Leigh is attending a presentation of her later opus, eXistenZ, when she is attacked by "realist" terrorists, who oppose the use of any kind of reality-altering device, and together with Law, who plays a security agent, they run away. Soon they decide that the answer to all their questions lies in eXistenZ, so they both enter the game, and almost inmediately they lose contact with the real world.

It is an amazing film. It is similar, in concept, to the "Matrix" movies, but plays quieter and with a lower profile. The plot twists, for instance, don't have the function to disorient the viewer, but to add new layers to the plot, and Cronemberg's signature "quiet" style makes everything look even more strange. Add to this a clever script (bu Cronemberg himself) that reflects quite faithfully the behaviour of modern videogames (when inside eXistenZ, both Law and Leigh act as if they were playing an evolved graphic adventure) and that Leigh pulls an mazing performance and you have one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen recently.

Why not, maybe I should try "Videodrome" now. I'm ashamed to say I've never seen it.

Oh, and chinese food won't ever be the same after watching this movie. Be warned.

[Shadowphile]

Videodrome will pale by comparison.....

[Mofo Rising]

I disagree with Shadowphile, but only because I think VIDEODROME is a fantastic movie.  It's main problem is that it is pretty dated now, but the ideas behind are still pretty fresh.

I watched eXistenZ on a recommendation, and enjoyed it thoroughly.  I'd been avoiding it, but now I see I was foolish to doubt Cronenberg.  Hopefully I can see A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE before it leaves the theaters.

[Fearless Freep]

I enjoyed eXisenz, for the most part, but found that it felt like a) there was some visceral stuff simply for effect  that didn't really move the movie or was really not needed and b) the twist ending felt tacked on, again for effect.  If you're going to tack on a twist like that you should be able to work it backwards and say 'oh, yeah...now I see', but that seemed more like laziness to get a twist then really well thought out

[dean]

I also enjoyed eXistenZ but I'm with Mofo Rising on this: Videodrome is the better film [well for me at least]  And yes the twist seemed a bit tacked on.

But that chinese restaraunt scene was great!!

Is it just me or are quite a few of us on a Cronenberg binge at the moment?  I went to the video store last week with the express purpose of renting Spider, and like the forgetful fool I am, I rented The Fly, Dead Ringers, The Blob Remake and Battle Royale 2 instead, then got home and kicked myself for forgetting Spider...

I saw a trailer from History of Violence and thought it looked interesting enough.

It was funny though, Ed Harris' character kind of reminds me of Starr off the comic series Preacher:

[Neville]

The best part of it is that I'm not exactly a Cronemberg fan, because some of his later stuff seems to me too obscure, but I thoroughtly enjoyed this one. I find particularly amusing that so many young directors fail to do convincing depictions / adaptations of the videogame experience, yet this man who is well over 50 portrays so acurately. I'm looking forward to "A history of violence" as well.

And Jennifer Jason Leigh was awesome, is been some time since I watched her in such a good character. Her role is a part distant, part femme fatale character, and her constant changes in mood were very well achieved.