Virtuosity (1995)

Denzel Washington Week: Day 1Nothing says the 90's like Virtuosity, a big hunk of circuit board sleaze and cheese that is so of it's time that it's hard to watch it these days without believing it to be some kind of spoof. Re-reading that sentence it sounds like I was making some kind of underhanded compliment, which I suppose is a better outcome for a film to arrive at than some. It could have gotten stale or dated in a bad way. Well it's definitely not stale (it is dated though), in fact it's one of the liveliest flicks from back then, thanks mostly to a ballistic characterization from Russell Crowe. Crowe is Sid.6, a virtual reality program molded from the personalities of several different serial killers and designed to basically wreak havoc. This is exactly what happens when he escapes, or rather is let out by one of the maniacs at the research centre (Stephen Spinella). Sid is now flesh, blood and roughly 200 pounds of extremely skilled, remorseless killing material, running wild in the unsuspecting streets. The head of the Institute (William Forsythe) has the brilliant idea to recruit ex-cop whack job Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington) to hunt Sid down and destroy him. Barnes has a bleak history with artificial intelligence, one that has left him with a cybernetic replacement arm and a huge chip on his shoulder. This is one mean, mean spirited film, as we are subjected to a manic Crowe as tortures, murders and maims innocent civilians with a grinning cavalier cadence the Joker would applaud. He's off his nut here, something which clumsy bruiser Crowe rarely gets to do, so it's a rare and extreme outing for him. Washington is perpetually angry, ill adjusted and violent here, and the lengths he goes to destroy Sid are almost as bad as his quarry's homicidal antics. The cast is stacked with genre favourites, so watch for Costas Mandylor, Kevin J. O'Connor, Louise Fletcher, Kelly Lynch, Traci Lords and a weaselly William Fichtner. The special effects... well what can I say, this was the 90's and they look like a computer game that's been drenched in battery acid, then souped up with caffeine. There's brief homages to video games in fact, and the opener where Crowe is still inside the program is fairly creative. I don't know if the creators of the film were trying to say something about the dangers of virtual reality, but whatever it was, it's sort of lost in a hurricane of unpleasant shenanigans that are admittedly entertaining. One thing that's evident is that anyone who makes a computer program with the persona of one, let alone a handful of murderers is just begging for an incident. I suppose that's the point here though, the catalyst for the whole deal. Crowe and Washington are great though, both down and dirtier than their characters in the next royal rumble they'd share, Ridley Scott's American Gangster. Fun stuff, if you have a strong gag reflex and don't take yourself too seriously.

It's not a blockbuster, true. However, it's far from "yawn-inducing spawn of Lawnmover 2" and other futuristic crap about nano-technology and cyberspace. There are plot-holes, but show me similar movie without any. Indeed, the plot is not mind-wracking: an omnipotent killer (R.C.) from cyber-space, created for cops' training by some secret government organization, breaks loose, and only an imprisoned ex-cop (D.W.) whose family has perished in an explosion from another terrorist, can stop him. D.W. has been much blamed by other reviewers for giving "wooden" and "flat" performance, which is rather unjust. He delivers what's expected of him: a positive hero, tortured by memories and own guilt, being used by the government that promises him freedom if he stops their creation.However, for those that love action, there is plenty of this to keep the excitement levels raised. Our brilliant villain uses the analogy of music to give an "artistic" touch to his heinous crimes. The two main actors give a remarkable performance of extreme mockery from Russel, and black rage from Denzel. Because of the well treated source material, the quality of acting, and set design I think it's worth it.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Normally I am against remakes: Robocop (1987) is far better than its 2014 remake. Actually the weakest point of Virtuosity is the technical limitation of CGI in 1995.This movie has a very interesting and original SF theme. It deals with one of the best villain created in movies, even more interesting than Terminator (1984) which was a machine-created cyborg, while SID 6.7 comes from a human programmer whose creature is about to be destroyed. Furthermore SID is capable of self upgrading: a very fun moment is when SID understands where he needs to go in order to achieve the widest audience. There are other weak points along the plot. It is not clear the reason why only Parker can chase SID 6.7 and why the SWAT officers chases him instead of the killer. Anyway I had a lot of fun with Russell Crowe's psychopathic killer android and Denzel Washington's ex-cop ex-convict hero.7/10

If you ever want to see a capable actor horribly overact watch this film. The actor I'm referring to is not Denzel but Russel Crowe. He plays an Evil AI program brought to life as a silicon-based human. Boy oh boy is this movie silly, everything is meant to look hi-tech but it all looks old and decrepit (CRT monitors, bulky computers, over-sized VR-Headsets, laughable 3D OS interfaces, plastic holographic cubes,...). Denzel does his best to look and act serious in what he must have come to realize is an awful mess. The plot is a typical 'cyberthriller', something the 90s had plenty off (Johnny Mnemonic, the Net, hackers, Lawnmower Man,...) but this here movie must be the worst off the bunch (I think, because some of the other were pretty ridiculous too). Strangely enough I wasn't bored, it's like disaster tourism, it all quite horrible but you can't look away :)