Review of eXistenZ (1999) by Alexander A — 28 May 2008

Reviews of David Cronenberg's "eXistenZ", John Singleton's "Rosewood" and an early look at Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg.

[b]eXistenZ (1999) - 4.5/10[/b].

Director - David Cronenberg.

Starring - Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm, Willem Dafoe, Don McKellar, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie, Christopher Eccleston.

Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Allegra Geller, the world's greatest game designer. Her new invention called eXistenZ, taps into a person's central nervous system, transporting the gamer into the game and another reality. Allegra, with her latest creation, has achieved rock star status, so people want her dead. After an attempt on her life during a gaming seminar, she flees with "bodyguard" Ted Pikul (Jude Law). The film flows in and out of reality where you don't know what's real and what's a game.

Admittedly I'm not a huge Cronenberg fan. A few of his pictures I like, but I don't view him as highly as a lot of my RT friends. His 1999 film [i]eXistenZ [/i]is another that just didn't work for me. Perhaps my lack of love for computer games doomed this film from the start, but with this cast I thought it was worth a view. I'm sure Cronenberg is trying to raise a bunch of philiosphical questions with this film, but quite frankly I didn't care what was real and what was in fact a game. I didn't care about the characters, grew tired of all the game jargon, and to be honest didn't think it really distinguished itself within the Sci-Fi genre.

[b]Basketball Diaries (1995) - 4.2/10[/b].

Director - Scott Kalvert.

Starring - Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Micheal Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, Bruno Kirby, Juliette Lewis, Ernie Hudson.

Loosely based on the memoirs of writer/singer Jim Carroll (best known musically for his hit "People Who Died"), [i]Basketball Diaries [/i]stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a teenaged Carroll. Jim is a gifted basketball star, talented writer, and a heroin addict. He and his buddies which include Mickey (Mark Wahlberg) are bent for destruction; stealing, hustling and dealing drugs.

A potentially interesting story descends into a rather typical tale of one young man's addictio battles. The cast is more impressive than the screenplay or direction, but even they can't save this mess.

[b]Rosewood (1997) - 5.5/10[/b].

Director - John Singleton.

Starring - Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, Don Cheadle, Bruce McGill, Michael Rooker, Esther Rolle, Loren Dean, Catherine Kellner.

In 1923 a small black town in Florida was wiped off the map by an angry mob of whites from a neighboring community. The incident was fueled by a false claim of rape by a white woman in the other community.

The horrible acts in [i]Rosewood[/i] are factual, but director John Singleton does something curious to this powerful true story. He creates a fictional hero in the character of Mann (Ving Rhames). All of the other main characters are based on actual people who lived (or tragically died) during this event, but Mann was entirely the creation of Singleton. A strong, silent "John Wayne" type action hero inexplicably put into the film to save the day. Perhaps this was done to bolster the box-office, but it severely detracts from the film. In fact it starts out as one of the most powerful indictments against racism that I've seen. The real characters certainly give Singleton plenty of material to work with, from the educated Sylvester (Don Cheadle) to the white grocer with a conscience (Jon Voight). What we see is savage, but real. And then Singleton turns it into an action flick which really takes this film down several notches. Too bad.