BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Micransix Crappy film

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

denis888 Rarely are there movies so blatantly poor, weak, so openly disgusting, so terribly sickening, so awfully designed and so shabbily executed. I watched this pile of gross dross in utter disbelief asking myself, really, is that it. Is this some sort of a well-known filmmaker who managed to bake this raw, abominable deviation, which is at once sick, vomiting, ugly, shabby, shallow, silly, bland and vapid. Jennifer Jason Leigh seems to be totally bored and she rarely raises above a jaw-breaking yawning fest, while Jude Law is just a boring dude with no merit. Ian Holm is merely a joke here, while Willem Defoe astonishes with his shoddy poor performance. Seems like the crew wanted to create the most anti-aesthetic, anti- tasteful, anti-beautiful film and my, did they manage. All those killing scenes are so livid and dull that a feeling of throwing up evokes promptly. My advice for all of you - run away from this dross and shame. The moral is lost in unnecessary violence and the message is so hid that nobody even dares (or cares) to find it.

Anonymous Andy (Minus_The_Beer) From the brilliantly twisted mind of director David Cronenberg comes "eXistenZ." What is "eXistenZ," exactly? A new male enhancement product? No, rather, it's a reality enhancement product; a new type of video-game/virtual reality experience, to be even more specific. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the programmer of said video game, while Jude Law plays her hapless protector and our surrogate as the audience. The further down the rabbit-hole Law's character goes, so too do we, until we are left dizzy and without words to describe what we just saw.Early in the film, our characters are on the run from somebody who wants to do away with this ground-breaking technology. They'll have to deal with a creepy Willem DeFoe character and deadly spores along the way, while still finding time to explore their new reality and test their limitations. Cronenberg's film pretty much hits the ground running and doesn't allow us the chance to catch our breath as it levels up. Because this is vintage Cronenberg, of course there is plenty of gooey grossness to go around, the least of which are the "portholes" that allow would-be gamers to plug in. Those crushing on the lovely Leigh may find themselves feeling somewhat conflicted about whether the "porthole" exploring is sensual or nausea inducing. Plot-wise, the film draws comparisons to other late '90s tech- thrillers like "Dark City" and "The Matrix." Heck, even the DVD box- art states that "eXistenZ" "makes 'The Matrix' look like 'Child's Play.'" Well, I don't know about all that, seeing as how I personally don't ever recall seeing a killer doll dodging bullets in that movie, but no matter. What sets "eXistenZ" apart is that it is less focused on its dystopian future and more focused on our present quandary in balancing technological advances with good old down-to- earth human experience. Like the best Cronenberg films, "eXistenZ" has a lot to say about that subject, but doesn't bludgeon or bore his audience with it. Trade the giant placenta-like sacks of skin in this film for the latest iPhone, and it's safe to say that "eXistenZ" was ahead of its time, to say the least.

Mr_Ectoplasma Set in a presumed near future, "eXistenZ" follows Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a game designer who has invented a revolutionary virtual reality game in which subjects are plugged into an alternate reality via ports inserted in their spinal columns. After an assassination attempt is made on her during a volunteer participant game launch, she and Ted Pikul (Jude Law), a meek PR agent who has been assigned as her body guard, find themselves on the run in the countryside, where reality and the virtual world of eXistenZ coalesce as they plug themselves in in order to salvage the game.It had been years since I'd originally seen this film, and I recently re-watched it as an adult with some extra years in me, and the film was in some ways stranger (and in others more logical) than I had remembered it. "eXistenZ" is a magnificently surreal exploration of virtual reality with notes of Cronenberg's signature body horror and all the makings of a trippy sci-fi exploitation flick.Fans of science fiction, head trip horror, and Cronenbergian splatter will find plenty of enjoyment to be had here. The film's ominous opening frames the surrealistic, ambiguous shifts in and out of reality that make up the last two third of the movie. I feel that some of the disappointment audiences had with the film (both upon its original release and over the ensuing years) has been due to mismatched expectations; for as much of a sci-fi thriller as this is, it's also extremely talky and dialogue-driven. This gives room for some very interesting and nuanced performances, specifically from Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose acting is calculated and simultaneously free-flowing. In retrospect, Jude Law seems miscast here to me to some degree, although he does succeed in drawing out the beta-male elements of his character that evolve into moments of legitimate confrontation as the film progresses.The special effects here are not over the top, and actually are rather minimal; most of the fantastical whimsy of the film comes from its labyrinthine distortions of events, virtual gameplay, and performativity of the self in both tangible reality and the matrix that is eXistenZ. The finale of the film is understated and shockingly macabre, and, though not as inventive as you may expect, is cleverly constructed and in many ways remarkably dour and nihilistic.Overall, my revisiting of this film was quite an experience; for first-time viewers, it is likely to be even more so. Jennifer Jason Leigh's nuanced performance is reason enough to give the film a viewing, but there is plenty more in way of thematic material, surrealism and hyper-realism, and maddening existential questions that Cronenberg frames through a matrix of science fiction and utter weirdness. The film has held up surprisingly well over the years, and is as engrossing today as it was nearly twenty years ago. 8/10.

Chris Merrick The idea of this movie and the way it was put together to take the audience on a inception like ride was amazing, although it has a couple of things that could have made it much better.To start off, the thing about this movie that really brought it down in my eyes was the acting, and line delivery. The acting was sub- par, it wasn't not bad, but it definitely was not good. Some bits just felt really fake and unbelievable, a lot of the actors reactions to situations, especially in the last scenes, just felt very unreal, as if they weren't really trying, and the director wasn't being firm enough with the actors about how he wanted them to be.The second point was the script, some parts of it just seemed really strange, or unnecessary. The sexual-tension between the two characters made the movie feel comedic and silly at some points. Obviously having two attractive young main characters, there is going to be sexual tension, but the way it played out seemed unrealistic. I think the director did intend for some parts to be comedic, but it really distracted me from what I think the director made me want to feel.The last point is the game devices, it was just plain weird. I don't understand why the director couldn't have made it an electronic device. It was another one of those things that just made it feel strange, strange can be good, but this was just an unnecessary strange.Now for the good parts. This movie really makes you think, and it grabs you from the start. It makes you question how real is this reality we are living in, could it just be a game? Are we just actors in a simulation, playing our role for this lifetime? When a director can make an audience think things life this, I love it.The way the movie takes you through the whole story is really interesting, it takes random turns, it confuses you, makes you wonder what the hell is going, on. But in the end, it all comes together.Honestly, it's hard for me to say much more without spoiling anything. I highly recommend this to anyone into existential themes in movies. Try to ignore the flaws, and let the movie take you on it's journey.