VIRTUOSITY and THE NET
Film reviews by Theodore Potter
Copyright 1995 Theodore Potter
And so, two more "cyber movies" invade theaters--VIRTUOSITY and THE NET--really, two more formula action/thrillers. There has been such a saturation of action pictures in the last few years that their plots seem almost irrelevant; the better ones are distinguished by their style and the performance of the actors. With this in mind, VIRTUOSITY is easily the better ride, as THE NET seems satisfied in simply turning the same ol' screws and plugging in old cliches.
Denzel Washington and Sandra Bullock each start off as The Sympathetic Action Hero, the '90's version of the cocky do-it-all Stallone/Schwarzenegger type we were treated to in the '80's. Washington is Parker Barnes, an ex-cop now doing time in a way-too-futuristic-for-1999 prison (the obsession with the end of the millenium is getting ridiculous!). Denzel has to Come To Terms with the murder of his family. Bullock plays Angela Bennett, a computer virus specialist who has to Come To Terms with growing up without a father, with a mother who can't remember her, and with her own social phobias. They're both likeable, sympathetic characters, but the general blandness of THE NET makes it easier to feel the screws being turned on you.
Kelly Lynch and Dennis Miller are Washington's and Bullock's sidekicks, respectively. While Lynch's character is there to essentially move the plot along, Dennis Miller does his very best to inject some fun into the lifeless "Net". Every scene he was in had me grinning, but of course, he is dispatched all too quickly by the villains and the editors.
As anyone who's seen a James Bond or Star Trek movie knows, these movies sink or swim on the strength of their villains. Russell Crowe makes a real splash with Sid 6.7, a virtual reality simulation who comes to life to have his brand of fun with Denzel. Sid is a real charmer, even while carrying around the combined personalities of some 200 killers, Hitler and Charles Manson to name a couple. He knows exactly which buttons to push on Denzel, and in turn the audience. Crowe has real fun in the role (look for an Elvis leg shimmy in the climax of the nightclub scene), while still turning in a multi-layered performance where a lesser actor might have played it as a one-note.
There are at least three different villains in THE NET, watering down the already predictable chase sequences. (The obligatory merry-go-round chase is here, in fine form.) If the script actually allowed these "professionals" to eliminate Bullock's character (who comes across a disk which could foil a corporate conspiracy, if you really care) as swiftly as they dispatch the other nonessentials, the movie wouldn't last fifteen minutes. However, they're prone to what Roger Ebert calls The Fallacy of the Talking Killer, where the hero is at the villain's mercy, but the villain procrastinates just long enough for the hero to figure out what's going on and find a way out.
Neither of these pictures belong with the year's best, but VIRTUOSITY wins out on its style and street smarts, while THE NET almost succeeds in making the computers more interesting than all its human counterparts combined.
VIRTUOSITY : RECOMMENDED
THE NET : NOT RECOMMENDED
-- Theodore Potter tpotter@ix.netcom.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews