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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
eXistenZ (1999)

eXistenZ (1999)

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Released 2-May-2000

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Science Fiction Theatrical Trailer-2
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1999
Running Time 93:06
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By David Cronenberg
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jude Law
Ian Holm
Don McKellar
Callum Keith Rennie
Sarah Polley
Robert A. Silverman
Christopher Eccleston
Willem Dafoe
Case Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI $39.95 Music Howard Shore


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Spanish
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Hungarian
Norwegian
Swedish
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), an innovative creator of virtual reality games for Antenna Research, is testing her latest product – eXistenZ - with a small group of people, but as the game begins Allegra is attacked by an assassin that is intent on killing her and destroying the game. The assassin is stopped, but not before he wounds Allegra.

    Forced to flee and go into hiding, Allegra enlists the help of a young assistant, Ted Pikul (Jude Law). After finding a safe place to hold up, Allegra turns her focus back onto her eXistenZ game. She is worried that it has been damaged, and the only way to confirm what damage has been done is for both of them to plug in and play it. This is where the lines between reality and fantasy become unclear.

    It's now your turn to plug into eXistenZ. Are you game?

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is excellent, and is easily of reference quality.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness, shadow detail and colour are all perfect.

    Pixelization or graininess was non-existent on my big screen, which is always welcome and extremely impressive.

    No low-level noise was noted. There is some minor edge enhancement present in a couple of scenes but it is not at all detrimental to the picture quality.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. The lack of aliasing in this transfer makes it a pleasure to watch. I cannot remember seeing even a single occurrence of aliasing. I'm sure if you looked hard enough you would be able to find one or two occurrences somewhere, but really... Only three tiny film artefacts were seen during the movie.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This is a magnificent audio transfer, and is also of reference quality.

    There are only two audio tracks on this DVD; English and Spanish. The default is the English Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/sec soundtrack and this is the one that I listened to.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout the movie, with only one of Jennifer Jason Leigh's lines being hard to understand, however this was more likely to be the actor's fault rather than the transfer's fault.

    No audio sync problems were noticed with this transfer.

    Howard Shore's musical score is excellent. It enhances the movie's mood and adds to the on-screen action beautifully.

    The surround channels were very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects. Precise sound placement within the sound field were the norm rather than the exception, putting you right in the midst of the action at all times, not just during the action sequences. Hold on a minute... eXistenZ is paused… Sorry, just had to check that I wasn’t still inside the game.

    Using the Sony 725’s internal Dolby Digital decoder, there was almost no .1 channel usage. It could only be heard or felt during the loudest parts of the soundtrack. As an experiment, I plugged the .1 LFE channel into one of the stereo mix-down outputs on my DVD player (which are derived from the 5.1 soundtrack). I immediately heard and felt a dramatic difference. I found that the subwoofer was not only extremely active during the loudest parts of the movie but it was also quietly rumbling away adding extra bass to the whole soundtrack. This left me with two possibilities, one the .1 channel is poorly integrated or two that the Sony's .1 channel decoder isn't doing its job right. I'm am more inclined to believe the second as I have experienced this problem before, so after saying all that, here is my appraisal of the .1 LFE channel usage: the .1 LFE channel is used to subtly add bass to many scenes, and is quite active during the dramatic sequences.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    The extras are limited to two Theatrical Trailers and Talent Profiles for the Cast & Crew.

Menu

    The Menu is not 16x9 enhanced and has a still picture of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, similar to that on the cover. The menu selections are; Languages/Audio Setup, Subtitles, Scene Selections (28), Extra Features and Play Movie.

Theatrical Trailer (2:02 minutes)

    The eXistenZ theatrical trailer quality is good. It is presented in full screen 1.33:1 (4x3) format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo 192Kb/s soundtrack.

Other Theatrical Trailer – Gattaca (2:27 minutes)

    The Gattaca theatrical trailer is of very good quality. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, non-16x9 enhanced, with a Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s soundtrack.

Talent Profiles

    This section contains Filmography Highlights & a short Biographies for; David Cronenberg (Director), Jason Leigh, Willem Dafoe and Sarah Polley.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;     The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;     Yet another easy choice. With the innate superiority of PAL over NTSC and more extras on the Region 4 disc, I would strongly recommend the Region 4 version.

Addendum 29th April 2000:

Canadian Region 1 version:

It has been brought to my attention that there is another Region 1 version of eXistenZ available, in Canada. It boasts not one, but three audio commentary tracks; Director - David Cronenberg, Cinematographer - Peter Sushitzky and Effects Supervisor - Jim Isaac, plus a 50 minute behind the scenes documentary called ‘The Invisible Art of Carol Spier’.

If you do not mind the loss in picture resolution associated with the NTSC format, then this version would definitely be the way to go.

Summary

    A very enjoyable movie, visually and audibly engaging, presented on a pristine transfer.

    The video quality is excellent, and is easily of reference quality.

    This is a magnificent audio transfer, and is also of reference quality.

    The extras are limited to two Theatrical Trailers and Talent Profiles for the Cast & Crew.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Paul Williams (read Paul's biography)
Monday, April 24, 2000
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-725, using Component output
DisplaySony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SV919THX
SpeakersFronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1)

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