Virtuosity (1995)

Don't Believe the Hype

Best movie ever!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Centre has developed SID version 6.7: a virtual reality entity which is created from the personalities of more than 150 serial killers. LETAC wants to train police officers by putting them in VR with SID, but they must prove the concept by using prisoners as test subjects. One such prisoner is ex-cop Parker Barnes. When SID manages to inject his personality into a nano-machine android, it appears that Barnes might be the only one who can stop him............The film is total rubbish from beginning to end, and Washington allegedly only starred in it because his son wanted him to do it, but to see two wonderful actors star in such exploitative nonsense, you cannot help but love every second of it.Crowe has a mouthful of scenery in every frame he's in, and he appears to be channelling every comic book villain portrayed before 1995. There are elements of The Joker, Simon Phoenix, and even Karl from Die Hard in his persona, and although he's hamming it up to major bacon levels, he's a joy to watch.Washington is playing it deadly serious though, and few quips wouldn't have gone a miss, but it's Washington, and I'd watch him paint a room.The special effects are awful, some of the set pieces are really strange, and the concept of the film, and the way the narrative plays out is just so bonkers, it's actually quite ingenious.Don't get me wrong, Bret Leonard is an awful director, more concerned about the concept of VR rather than actual reality, and this is a really stupid film, but my word, is it entertaining to see Crowe do something so ridiculous.It's the second best film that Washington and Crowe have starred in together.......

I think I might have see this several times over the years.You read synopsis, sounds great. You take a look at A list of actors, wow, great.You start watching it and OK, looks kinda meh, like that Stallone one with three shells. Except that one had cute little Sandra Bullock. This one doesn't. Maybe casting director was gay and had no taste in women. Seriously, what type of guy do women in this film appeal to? Certainly not me.CGI is pretty bad. Looks more like badly done 80's than 1995.Writing was terrible.Not a single memorable scene.Oh, and its anti-white racist. Near beginning there is scene where entire prison is supposedly white guys cheering some racist to kill Denzel. Give me a break. Much more likely scenario would be 90% prison population being black and poor, so usually racist, cheering Denzel to kill the white guy. Thats just what reality is like.Movie sucked.

I would have been happy to give this sci-fi a 6 for creating a gloriously cheesy 90's flick. It is a cross between the Thirteenth Floor and Demolition Man - both of which I found really fun to watch.Unfortunately, the script was lacking and, with the exception of Denzel, the acting was middling at best. Russell unfortunately ruined what should have been the main focus of attention in this film by hideously overacting the VR serial killers persona. You might say he killed the killers character off himself even before the film had reached the 5 minute mark.Worth a watch only if you are a fan of 80/90's cheesy sci-fi.

The reason to watch "Virtuosity" is Russell Crowe, who's in top shape here (women will agree for sure) and clearly having the time of his life. All the scenes where he appears are hilarious, and the way he delivers the dialogue is priceless. Seriously, this is one of the best and funniest over-the-top performances ever seen. Plenty of one-liners and extremely silly plot developments/dialogues will make anyone with a sense of humor laugh out loud. Apart from Russell Crowe, whose talent and joy shine through, this movie is so insanely ridiculous it's awesome. Some of the ideas are actually so preposterous and funny they're original (the "symphony", anyone?). One of the best Hollywood comedies with a Sci-Fi twist.On a side note, another thing that's funny is some humorless stiff people taking this film seriously. Loosen up, will you...