eXistenZ
User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 24 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24

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  1. Groundfisher
    Jul 16, 2004
    5
    I quite like Jude Law but in this movie he showcases what might be the most unconvincing American accent ever committed to film. It was painful to listen to. Despite what others say, I thought Leigh was an unconvincing game developer. The end of the movie - the shootout scene - looks as though it was shot in my backyard using christmas tree lights, flares and an 80s disco smoke machine. The strength of this movie is the ideas it is built around. For me, it was good for provoking discussions about some of the topics raised, but not discussion about the movie itself. All in all, a dissatisfying movie. I'd recommend it to irrepressible computer game players, students of Technoculture, and fans of psychedelic drugs.… Expand
  2. ChadS.
    Oct 2, 2004
    10
    What David Cronenberg does here is remarkable. "Existenz" forces you to look at William Gibson's "Neuromancer" from another perspective. When Allegra (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) and Ted (Jude Law) "jack" out, they're still in the game. They're still characters. In "Neuromancer", Case jacks out and he's supposedly out of the computer, and back in reality. What "Existenz" does to the reader of Gibson's seminal novel, is make them view everything as a simulation. There doesn't seem to be any representation of normal people in "Neuromancer" (as noted by my professor in class today), which only adds to my belief that the book should be re-read within the context of Cronenberg's film. Because if you were writing characters for a game, why would you bother with boring ones? "The Matrix" is solid sci-fi, but "Existenz" has ideas and visuals that will make you stop and say, "Whoa!" … Expand
  3. EggsisTense
    Feb 6, 2006
    10
    One of David Cronenberg's best and most underrated films. It's playful, knowing, funny, sexy and gross-out. What more could you want? Jennifer Jason Leigh is at her sexiest and coolest here - a charming, fey, untrustworthy heroine; and Jude Law is perfectly cast as the nervous, passive bodyguard reluctantly caught up in her dangerous world. Great fun for all Cronenberg fans, and a genuine modern cult classic. Highly recommended.… Expand
  4. AdamA.
    Sep 26, 2007
    10
    This movie is one of the best films I've seen. Totally original. Great cast and performances. Killer story and great direction. Totally creepy. So many great scenes.
  5. PatC.
    Jan 7, 2004
    6
    Video games are not political, they are far more important.
  6. YoonMinC.
    Sep 29, 2003
    9
    Cronenberg is far from my favorite director but his films such as Dead Ringers and Naked Lunch deserve respect. An almost clinical stylist using cinematic devices like gadgets which could as easily be torture weapons as medical instruments, Cronenberg pries into our interior and pulls out foreign objects and scutinizes them like specimens in glass jars. Unlike Lynch, Cronenberg never overwhelms us with the irrationality swirling beneath our facades; he studies and experiments with it in the manner of a rogue scientist. eXistenz is one of his best, not to mention one of his most accessible and satisfying. It probes how biology fuses with technology ever more closely with advancement in both. More radically, it shows how even politics becomes subsumed within this new order. Will the world be just a big ongoing videogame, a never ending dream? On a far smaller scale yet endlessly more fascinating than Matrix and Dark City. … Expand
  7. CharlieW.
    Mar 24, 2006
    7
    This movie made me scream at the end for its pure weirdness... I don't know whether I like it or not... *twitch* *twitch*
  8. BlancoA.
    Jan 14, 2003
    9
    This is one tripped-out movie, but definitely held my attetion until the end. Check it out on cable....
  9. ChrisP
    Feb 12, 2005
    10
    This movie was amazing. The ending left you with a spine chilling line. "Guys... Are we still in the game?"
  10. JoshC
    Nov 20, 2006
    9
    Cronenberg's best film since Dead Ringers. This film ends a decade long slump of duds and near misses. This movie returns to his greatnes of the 70's and 80's and stops pandering to smug critics like J. Hoberman. This film is for the fans.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 29
  3. Negative: 2 out of 29
  1. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Corliss
    80
    Like the virtual game he plays on us, the film is weird, it's addictive, and Lord, it's alive!
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  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    Because of the potential of the idea and Cronenberg's reputation as a film maker, it's a real disappointment to watch eXistenZ fall apart the way it does.
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  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    60
    Its name, the film's title, is pronounced "eggs is tense" and meant to have a whiff of the philosophical, even if its intellectual ambition seems mostly limited to spelling affectations.
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