Virtuosity

This film is just plain silly. It catches Denzel Washington in one of his rare ultra-violence impulses (like Training Day). Newsflash: Washington is a premier actor wasted on a simple-mined character that just about second-rate actor in Hollywood could have played.

However, the hilarious, over the top performance of Russell Crowe as a cyborg gone berserk is a combination of Max Headroom and the rogue robot in Blade Runner. He steals the film, but cannot rescue the lame script and corny dialogue. Of course, being 30 years old, the film is a bit dated from a scientific standpoint, so we must accept the science that was available in 1995. Entertaining at times.

You can't help but like Crowe's gleeful portrayal of a schizophrenic nano-bot serial killer in this ridiculous film, and with futuristic fascists, pervey programmers and a bucket loads of virtual reality cyber nonsense, this should really be a winner in the style of The Demolition Man or the Robocop series. But where other films in the genre have used such tools as wit and plot to keep the more intelligent of the viewers amused, this film, um, hasn't.

The script is terrible. The acting (excluding Crowe, who only gets away with it thanks to a camp smile and some fortunate direction) is wooden. And the plot is illogical and frustrating.

So finally, after decades of futuristic scientists proclaiming that virtual reality will someday be here, it's here - sort of. Hollywood's always been a midwife for technology between the science industry and the common man, and in the area of virtual reality it's given us "Johhny Mnemonic" and this actioner, starring Denzel Washington.

Basic plot is this: The police have been using virtual reality as a training method, to test recruits. Before they use it on real cops, though, they draft crooks out of prison to act as guinea pigs. This is where Washington comes in. A former cop (how convenient), Washington's been rotting in jail for years. So the cops ask him to volunteer to be a part of the experiment, and of course he agrees - but the computer he's going to be downloaded into has other plans. The 'virtual' cops are supposed to face this tough criminal in the system, you see, but the computer's decided to combine all of the nasty characteristics of famous real-life killers - and then download itself into a real, sentient being (Russell Crowe). And of course it's up to our man Washington to save the day.

So there you have it, folks. It's a standard cops n robbers plot moved ahead a few centuries to take advantage of modern technology. Of course, it's set in the future, which here is portrayed as busy, grimy, a bit crime-riddled.. Hmm, a lot like the present, come to think of it, and not very inventive. And the effects are nothing special, either; you'd think with virtual reality being the centerpiece you'd see some dazzling special effects. Not really.

The cast is good, and Crowe turns in a solid (if a bit hammy, but most bad guys are, aren't they?) performance. Washington is no better or worse than usual, which means the real culprit is the script here. Do yourself a favor and wait for a two-for-one night at your video store to see this one.

..you know you're in trouble.

Russell Crowe is joyfully over the top as an escaped criminal from cyber-world. He makes the most of it, and its a good thing, too, since the rest of the people onscreen are so deadly boring that his coming to 'our' world in order to destroy seems like a good idea.

Denzel is at his most humorless and looks silly in a leather cop outfit - he looks like he's going to a Halloween party thrown by Ian McKellan. He is recruited to find Sid 6.7, who was inexplicably brought to this world by evil little Stephen Spinella, and kill him. Denzel had confronted Sid 6.7 in cyberworld and they didn't exactly share a laugh. Sid is many criminals all in one body, and by no small coincidence, one of them killed Denzel's wife and child.

Its very violent and even sadistic and you've seen it before, and if you didn't, you didn't miss out on that much. Crowe is a like "The Terminator" but with better clothes. Denzel is like Linda Hamilton who was equally one-note. Kelly Lynch is along for the ride, along with Louise Fletcher, William Fitchner, Kevin J. O'Connor and William Forsythe.

3/10, all for Rusty's chewing of the scenery. Someone had to keep the audience interested, so he did more than anyone else involved.

The first great film for Russell Crowe, and a very interesting film to say the least. Cyber culture is rarely ever depicted in movies, but this was one of those films which brought some of these underground tendencies to light. What was even more interesting was how evil Sid 6.7 was. Crowe did an excellent job of portraying the demented cyber villain. I especially liked Denzel Washington, who always manages to be believable in his role when he doesn't try to be a ‘soul brotha.' Granted, the cinematography was pretty average as well as the music, but then again, the performance of the two main stars really made this film a winner.