existenz: cronenberg's best or just videodrome with rimming?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

they could call it videogamedrome!

― ethan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

best ever because it totally threw plot out the window !

― anthony, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

come on, don't pretend you don't love the rimming.

― ethan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's good but not as good as Scanners. greeeeyyruuueyyyaahhhovveiii *BOOM!*

― Michael Bourke, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh i so loved the rimming but i think my gay sex refrences are bcoming predictable.

― anthony, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I thought it was utter crap. A friend told me that was because I wasn't intelligent enough to understand it, which is utter crap too.

― toraneko, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

great flick!! rimming was bonus!! so was the Chinese food restaurant in the forest!!

― shinystuff, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

they showed rimming?

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Pink Phone! Blood splashing out of life/umbilical/game controller cable onto patent-leather pumps! not his best but lord it put a pash for jude law right up my bioport.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i want a pink phone, that was nuts. how about the supporting cast? the guy from shallow grave, willem dafoe, ian holm, the great chinese waiter guy, sarah polley finally not looking like she stepped off the back of some uk folk record that robin would own. mrowr.

― ethan, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh okay, maybe it wasn't such a bad movie after all. Visually I liked it by the storyline was CRAP. There was a snogging scene of some sort that I liked.

― toraneko, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eXistenZ is formidable because it is a viciously playful film, just like the game it depicts. the game is what is important. i like to believe such a biotechnology will be available someday in the future, i find the possibility frightening but somehow absurdly grandiose. humanity plugged on a fake reality in which every human being lives an artificial life within the realms of a biovideogame. so ironic.
isn't willem dafoe one of the greatest of his generation, even in such roles?

― simon, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

speed two: CRUISE CONTROL!

because it was a cruise ship, ha ha!

― ethan, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I liked it a lot. I really was thinking "that's one crap accent" and "what's with the Chaplin humour in a Cronenberg film?". Loved the Prada style clothes, the empty ski-resorts and...Jennifer Jason Leigh looks like a fox. Also the first ending when she starts to transform scared me shitless for some reason.

Isn't there going to be a new Cronenberg film soon? I forgot the details.

― Omar, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Isnt he making Basic Instinct 2? Honestly, thats what I heard.

― Michael Bourke, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

there was rimming in existenz - where? maybe they didn't show it on the Oz version...i want more rimming. crash was very sexy though - i was in Bs As when I saw it, walked around getting hardons for cars for weeks after.

― Geoff, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"the guy from Shallow Grave" = (sigh) Christopher Eccleston. Did anyone (UK) see Mr Eccleston's beard in 'Strumpet' Sunday night?

― Ellie, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It isn't Croenberg's best - the 'virtual reality' storyline already felt a bit old hat by the time the movie came out - but can you think of a 'major' director who has made fewer duds? 'Shivers', 'Rabid', 'The Brood', 'Scanners', 'Videodrome', 'The Dead Zone', 'The Fly', 'Crash', 'Dead Ringers', 'Existenz' - I mean, what a filmography! I have not seen 'M. Butterfly' or 'Fast Company' (his two non-genre movies), but only 'The Naked Lunch' counts as a stinker as far as I'm concerned (but boy was it a stinker!!)

― Andrew L, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

best "chinese restaurant" scene evah haha: rae insisted we went for pizza instead!!

hmm, but the rimming passed me by also

― mark s, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i liked naked lunch just because it was a purely visual representation of the novel (loosely adapted, sure) and threw away a lot of the bullshit that annoys me about it to just go all out for the gigantic bug buggery. and peter weller, what an underrated actor!

ellie if you want to talk about christopher eccleston in this thread please do, i think he's great.

― ethan, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dude, there was all kinds of bioport rimming.

Is eXistenZ the only futuristic sci-fi movie to take place in the countryside?

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What about Farenheit 451? Where's Robin?

― Nick, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's a Classic. Cronenberg's second best, next to Crash.
I mean, Jennifer Jason Leigh! The mutant amphibians in the trout farm! The gristle gun! Sarah Polley!
Shame about Ian Holm's accent though.

― DavidM, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The end sucked. You know it to be true. The loogie Mssr Cronenberg hocks in your direction gets stretched waaaay beyond the snapping point. Which feels quite "intentional" and everything but still. Less a plot than several stages of rearrangement. Like a video game rewriting itself or the virus in JJL's pod. There have been other movies somewhat in this vein (House of Games) whose payoff has been exhilarating (though House Games' deception relied on a mastermind, a Wizard of Oz behind the works, a master plan -- and that's why eX's ending feels wrong cause the whole movie HASN'T relied on a secret hand at the wheel and then all of a sudden it DOES - i dunno; call it the "Who Shot J.R." syndrome)

p.s. Cronenberg relies on our charity with the diegetically-appropriate "wooden acting"

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven months pass...

i think cronenbergs best is probably dead ringers

― s trife (simon_tr), Thursday, 10 October 2002 07:33 (twenty-three years ago)

''I have not seen 'M. Butterfly'''

That's a really good one but just becuz it defies belief that it was based on an actual story. its hard to go wrong with a story like that. Jeremy irons is perfect too as a repressed French bloke.

I enjoyed existenz. and crash was even bettah!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:27 (twenty-three years ago)

i agree with Tracer, the ending really let it down and in turn flawed the whole film. There are some cool bits in it though, including the Chinese restaurant.
I liked the factory where he worked, it reminded me of Rupture Farm from Abes Odyssey.

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Existenz is ruined by a tired idea and bad ending.
Scanners and The Fly are great because of their blend of trashiness and trademark Cronenbergian weirdness.
Crash is interesting but dull.
The Naked Lunch works just because it's so damn weird. I haven't read the book.

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I have to see naked lunch (i'm also abt to start reding the book tonight: its under the bed right now). i luv to see how the ornette/howard shore soundtrack works with the film.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 10 October 2002 09:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Crash is ace but the writer, Ballard, is a bit predictable, no?

I found Videodrome in a videoshop in Hawaii. It's out of print (you can't access the extras) but they still had a copy. I think both Existenz and Videodrome are fantastick.

― nathalie (nathalie), Thursday, 10 October 2002 10:02 (twenty-three years ago)

so do i!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 10 October 2002 10:26 (twenty-three years ago)

ha wait til you see his latest one, "spider". i have never felt so underwhelmed in my life.

― bob zemko (bob), Thursday, 10 October 2002 13:38 (twenty-three years ago)

eXistenZ is great but Dead Ringers is easily one of my all-time favorites.

― Andy K (Andy K), Thursday, 10 October 2002 13:43 (twenty-three years ago)

1. Videodrome
2. Dead Ringers
3. Existenz
4. Scanners
5. The Brood
6. The Fly
7. Naked Lunch
8. Crash (seriously, what the fuck? I usually like Spader, too, but this was just so boring. No color, no action, to few sexy people and too much ick. Which is to say that car fetishization doesn't click with me personally.)

I've never seen Rabid or Shivers, and I'm not really interested in seeing any of the rest.

― Dan I., Thursday, 10 October 2002 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Spider is out?!?!? Cronenberg is one of my faves, gotta look this up right away!

― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 10 October 2002 16:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Also the fact that two people say "Crash" is boring amazes me. Boring? The acting is deliberately low-key, yes...

― Sean (Sean), Thursday, 10 October 2002 16:57 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

I haven't seen enough Cronenberg. But the scene where JL shouts 'Existenz is PAUSED!' and flumps straight down like a happy corpse is fucking HILARIOUS.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 10 May 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

are we still in the game?

― stevem (blueski), Saturday, 10 May 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Spider wasn't very good. :(

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Saturday, 10 May 2003 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked Spider, and I was pleased to see Cronenberg doing something a little different.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 10 May 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

REVIVE!

Cos I just watched Existenz for the first time and found myself LOVING IT WHOLLY. I'm a total sucker for films like this though.

What is Spiders? I know it not.

Who is Sarah Polley?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 10:46 (twenty years ago)

I wuv this film. I saw it the night it came out in a big cinema which was totally empty. May 1999. Few weeks later: 'Teh Matrix' had a queue round the block. Go figure. 'Spider' was DC's last film, w. a Fiennes and Miranda Richardson, and Gabriel Byrne. Set in East London's trendy halfway-house scene. I liked it well enough, but it's a bit pat next to 'eXiztenZ'.

― Miles Finch, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 10:51 (twenty years ago)

Who is Sarah Polley?

doesn't she play the blonde girl in Doug Liman's 'Go'?

― Stevem On X (blueski), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

yeah. she's canadian. also she was in the remake of 'dawn of teh dead'.

― Miles Finch, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

I heart eXistenZ. Everything in it is funny! I especially like how Jude Law's character wears his shirts buttoned/zipped up all the way and how his accent reverts back to English every time he yells.

Spider was pretty grim. I admired it and Miranda Richardson was amazing but I don't think I'll want to watch it again for a very long time.

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

She was also in CBC family mush Road To Avonlea.
And she had a short lived career as an activist till she got called out publicly by the minister she was waging war on and was also a Oxford (or was it Cambridge) dropout.

She was indeed in 'Go'.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:04 (twenty years ago)

Also one of the leads in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

she likes the scottish socialist party.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

She likes any thing with the word Socialist.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)

well, she likes the scottish socialist party.

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

she's also in Exotica, and that other Atom Egoyan flick about the bus accident.

― Snappy (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

i love teh cronenberg.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

http://www.ugo.com/movies/david-cronenberg/images/existenz1.jpg

http://users.skavt.net/~mrudolf/film/2007/existenz.jpg

― am0n, Friday, 27 June 2008 01:55 (seventeen years ago)

n_n

― wilter, Friday, 27 June 2008 01:56 (seventeen years ago)

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2779/existenz5ze1.png

― wilter, Friday, 27 June 2008 02:00 (seventeen years ago)

oh i so loved the rimming but i think my gay sex refrences are bcoming predictable.

-- anthony, Wednesday, October 10, 2001 8:00 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Link

― some dude, Friday, 27 June 2008 02:02 (seventeen years ago)

this is on cbc right now.

― LaMonte, Friday, 27 June 2008 04:13 (seventeen years ago)

wha willem dafoe is in this. like whoa

― LaMonte, Friday, 27 June 2008 04:28 (seventeen years ago)

What was the deal with that dragon bug thing anyway?

― Sparkle Motion, Friday, 27 June 2008 05:34 (seventeen years ago)

william gibson syndrome
if you can already see the future coming, try to not write about it, because within five years you'll be both boring AND wrong

― El Tomboto, Friday, 27 June 2008 05:46 (seventeen years ago)

I just rewatched this a few days ago, solely to see the two-headed dragon-bug thing, because there was one tiny CGI shot of it running that -- in a theater, in 1999 -- seemed like mind-blowing awesome. (Ten years later, it looks like an average quarter-second cutaway shot, though still more impressive than that new Brendan Fraser center-of-the-earth movie.)

Some of the semi-jokey game logic in this is great, or great enough to keep you watching despite having no hold whatsoever on any real plot thread. What's surprising to me is that even after all that, the ending does work. But it works a bit too quickly, like "oh so here's an explanation of and conclusion to all that, k thanx bye," which doesn't exactly resonate.

This can also be filed in the "bad things happen to Sarah Polley / Jared Leto" film bin. Someone should sort out the percentage of roles in which Sarah Polley is subjected to grave physical injury.

― nabisco, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:30 (seventeen years ago)

this is kind of a trifle. it's diet videodrome. but it's still pretty entertaining.

― latebloomer, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:33 (seventeen years ago)

i love this movie

― s1ocki, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:35 (seventeen years ago)

you really have to watch it as a comedy

― s1ocki, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:35 (seventeen years ago)

Just wait for eXistenZ: Vice City

― nabisco, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:37 (seventeen years ago)

i'm waiting for the wii version!!

― s1ocki, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:39 (seventeen years ago)

i love that bone-gun thingie

― latebloomer, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:40 (seventeen years ago)

i remember really liking this, but i ain't sure i want to rewatch it.

― remy bean, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:41 (seventeen years ago)

Ha, you have no idea how much I'd like to see a version of this movie where the game design is all Nintendo platform style. Like Jennifer Jason Leigh eating mushrooms and turning into a giant, Jude Law climbing vines, and replace all "mutated amphibians" with Yoshi.

― nabisco, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:41 (seventeen years ago)

i think the actual Super Mario Bros. movie was a lot trippier, tbh

― latebloomer, Friday, 27 June 2008 17:43 (seventeen years ago)

i think this is d-cro's best movie.

― banriquit, Friday, 27 June 2008 18:04 (seventeen years ago)

this movie is great - not as good as Videodrome tho

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 27 June 2008 18:40 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

I've been horribly, horribly, trying to remember the name of this film for ten years.
My father video taped it when I was a child, and I snuck a look whilst the family was out - bad, I know, but whatever.
I'm soooo glad Wikipedia helped me find the name ^^'
Now it can stop bugging me.

PS: Loved the film. Hence the mild obsession with finding it's name ^^;

― Marduk, Sunday, 2 May 2010 21:19 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

"It hurts, I think it's infected."
"It's not infected, it's excited. It wants action."

― it's time for the fish in the perculator (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 7 May 2011 02:13 (fourteen years ago)

"That wasn't me, that was my character. I would never do that."

― it's time for the fish in the perculator (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 7 May 2011 02:51 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L304A3KSh0

― ledge, Saturday, 7 May 2011 11:24 (fourteen years ago)

great movie with at least a handful of all-time classic lines

"I'm very worried about my body."

― "Hungry clouds swag on the deep." — William Blake (bernard snowy), Saturday, 7 May 2011 11:27 (fourteen years ago)

Love Cronenberg, don't like this.

Maybe it is time to give it another chance though.

― Radio XL1 (S-), Saturday, 7 May 2011 11:33 (fourteen years ago)

this is my fave cronenberg, fo sho

― kind of like Madonna and the gays (history mayne), Saturday, 7 May 2011 11:35 (fourteen years ago)

two months pass...

Love Cronenberg. Didn't like this.

Gave it another chance last night though.

Still didn't like it.

Did enjoy the 'DEATH TO THE DEMONESS...' shouting though. And the rimming obvs.

― owenf, Saturday, 30 July 2011 10:22 (fourteen years ago)

severely hampered by Jude fucking Law

― owenf, Saturday, 30 July 2011 10:22 (fourteen years ago)

This movie may feature the best use of intentional bad accents ever.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 30 July 2011 12:18 (fourteen years ago)

four years pass...

Sudden horrified thought that this movie is far more prescient than I suspected.

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 14 June 2016 00:02 (nine years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.