Review: Virtuosity Is All About The Villain
- Jun 10, 2018
- 2 min read
The mid 90s were, undeniably, a lawless wasteland of cinema.
Lieutenant Parker Barnes (Denzel Washington), an ex-cop serving time for the brutal murder of the psychopath who killed his family, is trialling a law enforcement virtual reality training program, hunting down the AI known as SID 6.7 (Russell Crowe). SID, an intelligence formed from the combined personalities of dozens of serial killers, inevitably finds a way out, into the real world. Relying on his experience within the virtual world, Parker is put back to work. Catch SID and he goes free. Fail, and he's back behind bars.
Virtuosity is a truly bizarre movie. Between an awful Denzel performance and what might be the most enjoyable Crowe has ever been, it's a mixed bag of confused laughs and just confusion. Seriously, Russell Crowe conducts an orchestra of screams in this movie, it's magnificent. However, when Crowe isn't hamming it up, Virtuosity is less exciting than watching grass grow. Denzel Washington is a great actor, even when he's doing something like The Equalizer, but here there's none of that patented Denzel quality, only a grim, dour performance that's at odds with everything else.
There's not a lot to say about Virtuosity aside from, just watch it, only for Crowe. He's the love-child of Joker and a Terminator (don't ask how that works), a villain so manic in his excess that I didn't want the film to end. Throw in the sub-par visual effects that bring him to life and you've got yourself something truly special.
I don't know how Denzel Washington had a career after this film, actually I do, it's called Courage Under Fire, but like the dumpster fire out the pack of post-Jurassic Park ILM, it's impossible not to watch in awe.
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