Review of Virtuosity (1995) by James S — 05 Nov 2009

Today Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are regarded by some as two of the finest actors on the planet. Back in 1995 however, they seemingly had no qualms about signing up for this kind of sci-fi nonsense.

Taking numerous elements of The Lawnmower Man, The Running Man and Robocop, this is a thriller which hung on the notion that virtual reality suits would really take off. They didn't, which only serves to make the film seem even further redundant.

Denzel is the convict who is testing a new type of VR software designed to train policeman, offered a full pardon when computerised bad guy Russell makes his way into the real world. It's extremely daft but it's peppered with a good amount of violence for the gore hounds and Crowe and Washington are both good enough actors to always be worth watching. Crowe seems to be having a wild time as the psychotic Sid 6.7.

Sadly what is shaping up to be an entertaining if some what ludicrous movie pushes the silliness button too hard and a bunch of Crowe's scenes enter the realm of pantomime which undermines his character and the tone the movie had been beginning to build.

The lack of story starts to become apparent and without any real motive for Sid 6.7 being loose in the real world the movie begins to unravel rather quickly. The ending is tense if a little predictable and Virtuousity finds itself in that all too popular club of movies which disappoint as there seems to be a good movie fighting to get out from beneath the bizarre comedy scenes.