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Virtuosity.
Freejack.
Cyborg.
Trancers.
Here we tear apart these and the other scifi genre films of yesteryear.
Or fall to the knees in silent worship of them.
Or be completely uncreative mouthbreathers without any fucking constructive input and just type MEH out and go about our day, fapping to Golden Girls. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I'll start out with the first example I tossed out there: Virtuosity.
Here's a movie that seems to have at one time or another actually had something going for it. Granted, the entire premise is ridiculous, but the cast was decent (even though Denzel seemed to just be sleepwalking through much of it).
The plot is pretty cut and dry, and it really harkens back to the days of the Selleck/Simmonsing in Runaway, at least as far as the ridiculousness of it all goes. Apologies to fans of that movie, as it definitely belongs to part of this discussion.
The narrative unfortunately is all over the place, with certain key elements discarded without any other mention of them, as well as completely random and unexplained character motivations. If there had been less devotion to showcasing a fucking UFC match (if you can call a bunch of dudes in the octagon doing a random sparring session a match) and more time to building the world and its characters (especially Kevin J. O'Connor, The Fichtner, and the dude who lets Sid out), it would have been much more than what it was.
The effects are jawdroppingly terrible, but I like to believe that that is the whole point, especially in showcasing VR and the hilariously unrealistic heights some pinned on the tech at the time. It is obviously a product of its time, but in a fantastically flawed way. Just look at any time that Sid has to regenerate. HE FUCKING CHEWS ON GLASS LIKE M&M'S.
And with that, there is the elephant in the thread. An elephant molded out of a metric ton of ham (that had not yet been eaten by) in Russell Crowe. Fucking hell, what a cartoon. Every moment he is on the screen, he's a latter-day Aussie John Travolta. The walking id schtick worked though, and if anything can be salvaged from the mess that this movie ultimately became, it is Crowe and his performance. Sid 6.7 is the La Vie En Rose of psychopathic VR programs made flesh.
Unfortunately, his foil in Denzel Washington is so fucking boring and grimdark, that there it is basically The Sid Show the entire time. The fundamental problem here is in the weakness of the writing. At the best of times, there is a balance between the maniac and the stoic hero, but here it just seems like one guy showed up to work with a fully-realized persona to utilize from frame one, and the other one just woke up from a Thanksgiving nap and was handed some cue cards from a discarded SNL sketch to read off of. I don't fault Denzel for not giving a shit. Parker Barnes is as 2-D as a Megaman sprite. His backstory is ill-conceived with an even worse execution. Oh, he had a wife and kid at some point? Well, you don't get to see them until the flashback later on. Good call, writerman. The main motivation of his character is in their deaths at the hand of a maniac who know is a part of the personality of Sid 6.7. Sadly, it's buried under so much other stupid bullshit that no one cares about it, and the most empathy that is thrown at the audience is for the dude at the nightclub who gets his purple suit stolen.
There is a world where Ford Fairlane fought Sid 6.7. And that is the theatre in which I want to be right now.
Films such as these, where moments/characters/and especially ideas that intrigue are hidden in the detritus of the rest of the run time, are things to cherish and/or ridicule mercilessly.
In Virtuosity's case, it's a bit of both for me. Definitely a movie to watch drunk on a lazy afternoon.
Freejack.
Cyborg.
Trancers.
Here we tear apart these and the other scifi genre films of yesteryear.
Or fall to the knees in silent worship of them.
Or be completely uncreative mouthbreathers without any fucking constructive input and just type MEH out and go about our day, fapping to Golden Girls. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE
I'll start out with the first example I tossed out there: Virtuosity.
Here's a movie that seems to have at one time or another actually had something going for it. Granted, the entire premise is ridiculous, but the cast was decent (even though Denzel seemed to just be sleepwalking through much of it).
The plot is pretty cut and dry, and it really harkens back to the days of the Selleck/Simmonsing in Runaway, at least as far as the ridiculousness of it all goes. Apologies to fans of that movie, as it definitely belongs to part of this discussion.
The narrative unfortunately is all over the place, with certain key elements discarded without any other mention of them, as well as completely random and unexplained character motivations. If there had been less devotion to showcasing a fucking UFC match (if you can call a bunch of dudes in the octagon doing a random sparring session a match) and more time to building the world and its characters (especially Kevin J. O'Connor, The Fichtner, and the dude who lets Sid out), it would have been much more than what it was.
The effects are jawdroppingly terrible, but I like to believe that that is the whole point, especially in showcasing VR and the hilariously unrealistic heights some pinned on the tech at the time. It is obviously a product of its time, but in a fantastically flawed way. Just look at any time that Sid has to regenerate. HE FUCKING CHEWS ON GLASS LIKE M&M'S.
And with that, there is the elephant in the thread. An elephant molded out of a metric ton of ham (that had not yet been eaten by) in Russell Crowe. Fucking hell, what a cartoon. Every moment he is on the screen, he's a latter-day Aussie John Travolta. The walking id schtick worked though, and if anything can be salvaged from the mess that this movie ultimately became, it is Crowe and his performance. Sid 6.7 is the La Vie En Rose of psychopathic VR programs made flesh.
Unfortunately, his foil in Denzel Washington is so fucking boring and grimdark, that there it is basically The Sid Show the entire time. The fundamental problem here is in the weakness of the writing. At the best of times, there is a balance between the maniac and the stoic hero, but here it just seems like one guy showed up to work with a fully-realized persona to utilize from frame one, and the other one just woke up from a Thanksgiving nap and was handed some cue cards from a discarded SNL sketch to read off of. I don't fault Denzel for not giving a shit. Parker Barnes is as 2-D as a Megaman sprite. His backstory is ill-conceived with an even worse execution. Oh, he had a wife and kid at some point? Well, you don't get to see them until the flashback later on. Good call, writerman. The main motivation of his character is in their deaths at the hand of a maniac who know is a part of the personality of Sid 6.7. Sadly, it's buried under so much other stupid bullshit that no one cares about it, and the most empathy that is thrown at the audience is for the dude at the nightclub who gets his purple suit stolen.
There is a world where Ford Fairlane fought Sid 6.7. And that is the theatre in which I want to be right now.
Films such as these, where moments/characters/and especially ideas that intrigue are hidden in the detritus of the rest of the run time, are things to cherish and/or ridicule mercilessly.
In Virtuosity's case, it's a bit of both for me. Definitely a movie to watch drunk on a lazy afternoon.
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