When the sci-fi motion flick “Virtuosity” was first launched in the summertime of 1995, it opened to blended opinions (although some critics, most notably Roger Ebert, sang its praises) and modest field workplace. It was the type of mid-range studio programmer (it got here from Paramount beneath the Sherry Lansing regime) that got here out with reliable frequency in these days, a film loved by some however rapidly forgotten by most earlier than it left theaters to make manner for different style movies like “Desperado,” “The Tie That Binds,” and “Hackers.”
Trying again now, studio slates like those Lansing oversaw — launch schedules that made room for an abundance of medium-budget comedies (“Clueless”), thrillers (“Primal Worry”), sci-fi movies (“The Relic”) and grownup dramas (“No one’s Idiot”) in between large-scale blockbusters like “Mission: Unimaginable,” “Braveheart,” and “Titanic” — appear way more diverse and artistically fruitful than they did on the time, after we by no means knew such vary was in any hazard of disappearing. It was straightforward on the time to take films like “Virtuosity” with no consideration as a result of there all the time gave the impression to be so many like them coming down the chute.
Fortunately, an beautiful new 4K UHD version from boutique bodily media label Vinegar Syndrome provides “Virtuosity” the respect it all the time deserved. Viewing it now, the film’s affect and prescience are extra apparent than ever. The premise of Eric Bernt’s screenplay feels eerily related in various methods: within the (then) near-future, regulation enforcement brokers are educated in digital actuality by interacting with AI-generated criminals. When a type of criminals (Russell Crowe in a gleefully unhinged early efficiency) manages to interrupt freed from the pc and develop into manifest in the actual world, disgraced cop Denzel Washington is launched from jail to trace him down and cease him.
“Virtuosity” was directed by Brett Leonard, who was briefly the go-to man for technologically oriented thrillers due to the large success of his VR-themed “The Lawnmower Man” in 1992. Whereas his and Bernt’s imaginative and prescient for “Virtuosity” seems to be again to some sci-fi classics in enjoyable methods — like Snake Plissken of “Escape From New York,” Washington’s character is let loose of jail with an implant designed to kill him if he doesn’t end his task — it largely seems to be ahead, and in so doing introduces concepts and imagery for which later movies would develop into rather more well-known.
The important thing movie on this regard is “The Matrix,” which got here out just a few years after “Virtuosity” and, consciously or not, lifted a big variety of its tropes from Leonard’s much less well-known film. Proper from a gap subway station scene by which varied non-player characters populate the simulation Washington’s character is chasing Crowe by way of, the visible and conceptual similarities are apparent; the minimal variations between the NPCs parallel the presentation of the “brokers” performed by Hugo Weaving in “The Matrix,” and the kineticism and quantity of the violence seems to be ahead to the Wachowskis’ movie.
The gadgets by which characters hold and shake whereas within the VR world are additionally extraordinarily near the pods the heroes of “The Matrix” discover themselves related to, and the fusion of retro-industrial design with futuristic VR know-how is one thing else the 2 movies have in frequent. Which isn’t to take something away from “The Matrix,” a movie that had extra assets than “Virtuosity” in addition to larger philosophical ambition, and which takes its motion sequences to a extra revolutionary degree than “Virtuosity” does even in its greatest moments. However let’s give credit score the place credit score is due — “Virtuosity” went there first. It walked in order that “The Matrix” might run.
Not that “Virtuosity” was the one movie taking part in within the VR sandbox on the time; Kathryn Bigelow’s “Unusual Days” (most likely the best of all VR films when it comes to following by way of on the know-how’s ethical, philosophical, political, and technological implications) got here out the identical 12 months, and the 12 months earlier than Barry Levinson and Michael Crichton’s sexual harassment drama “Disclosure” even performed round with an eccentric VR sequence.
The place “Virtuosity” was actually forward of its friends was in its conception of AI; the sequence by which we see how Crowe has been “taught” by having the profiles of Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, and quite a few different legendary villains fed into his system feels extraordinarily of the second — not 1995 however this second, when moral concerns about how AI corporations train their techniques are a continuing subject of debate.
And “Virtuosity” plugs into present points and anxieties even in sequences that don’t have anything to do with know-how; a information program inside the film incorporates a debate about immigration that feels prefer it might have been taken verbatim from the age of MAGA. All of this makes “Virtuosity” really feel each timeless and well timed; Leonard and Bernt have been tapping into issues so elementary to American tradition and the human situation at giant that their ostensibly escapist thriller works it doesn’t matter what period you’re watching it in.
The Vinegar Syndrome 4K UHD launch is the right option to revisit the movie, or to find it for the primary time. Except for an immaculate switch that completely preserves the textured, vibrant cinematography by Gale Tattersall, the disc boasts hours of additional options which can be all terrific and supply distinctive insights into the movie’s making, reception, and which means. A brand new audio commentary by Leonard in dialog with Cinematic Void programmer Jim Branscome is especially wonderful, as Branscome skillfully elicits nice tales from Leonard whereas offering simply sufficient of his personal pointed observations to complement the director’s reminiscences.
The disc additionally incorporates a vigorous observe by movie historian Walter Chaw that locations the film in a wide range of contexts, and there are a number of interviews delving into the movie’s writing, particular results, casting, and different subjects. Vinegar Syndrome’s bundle additionally comes with a booklet addressing “Virtuosity” from an attractive array of views together with its relationship to the launch of Home windows ’95 and its place amongst different Nineteen Nineties sci-fi films like “Demolition Man” and “Existenz.” “Virtuosity” might not have gotten the credit score was due in 1994, however 31 years later the curators at Vinegar Syndrome have lastly rectified the state of affairs.
The “Virtuosity” restricted version 4K launch is now obtainable from Vinegar Syndrome.