Genre: Sci-Fi
Length: 1h 37m 0s
Director: David Cronenberg
Tagline: Play It. Live It. Kill For It.
Plot outline: Allegra Geller, the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, eXistenZ with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul, who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective. Summary written by Kenneth Chisholm {kchishol@execulink.com}
Comment: "eXistenZ" - the title is the most imaginative part of this film. Before I reveal spoilers, below, let me say to all. If you don't watch the entire film, and see the revelations in the last scene, then you don't know anything about the story. It is one of those kinds of films, that uses a gimmick at the end to explain everything. Many "reviewers" didn't watch the whole film, so thier comments are ridiculous. SPOILERS - Do not read any further if you have not seen the film yet. The film starts with what appears to be a command performance by new virtual reality game inventor Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who is going to personally bioport a group of 12 volunteers into her new game. When she walks the very first time, we see what appears to be "jerky" movements, our first clue that we may not be watching reality. Then, an audience member has smuggled in a gun, made of bone and gristle, and that shoots teeth. Second indication that we may not be watching reality. And, when Ted Pikul (Jude Law, in a "pickle"?) carries and drives away Allegra after she is shot, they meet a man named "Gas" (Willem Dafoe) at a station and see a two-headed creature crawl up the gas pump, and we now are positive that what we are seeing is not supposed to represent reality. That "Gas" installs Ted's new bioport with a dirty mechanic's tool is just to further convince the duller viewers that they are already in the virtual reality game. In the end, we see that Allegra was not really a game inventor, simply a participant, as was her accomplist, Ted. We see that the "biopods" were inventions of their imagination, they are wearing more conventional plastic and electrical gaming appliances. We learn conclusively that at the start of the film, we see participants after they had already begun the game. The bioports, the gristle guns, the strange creatures, were all creations of their imaginations within the "game". When it ends, Allegra and Ted really do shoot the real game inventor. An interesting film, but it has to use the gimmick. If we had known for sure who was who at the beginning, it would have been a pretty dull movie. The only interesting part is that it makes us guess what is going on. And, if Ted and Allegra really wanted to kill the game inventor, did they really have to experience the game first? I think not, but it would have been a 5-minute film otherwise. Conclusion - an interesting experiment, and fairly entertaining, but nowhere near as innovative as Sci-Fi films like "Back To The Future" or The Matrix", just to name a couple.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
Country: Canada
Language:
Subtitels: No ()
CDs: 0
| Quality: | Video (?x? @ ?.?? [[unknown] ?kb/s]) | Audio (?Hz ?bit ? chan. [[unknown] ?kb/s]) |
| Actors: | ||
| Jennifer Jason Leigh | as | Allegra Geller |
| Jude Law | as | Ted Pikul |
| Ian Holm | as | Kiri Vinokur |
| Willem Dafoe | as | Gas |