I hope this doesn't dissuade people from reading my review, but I am going to primarily talk about Existenz on this disc. I am currently watching Malevolent as I type this and it's decent, kind of like a tv cop movie but starring La Bamba. As for B Monkey, I am not a huge Asia Argento fan, and the movie didn't do much for me. It's about Asia being an Ex thief who falls in love with a very straight laced guy. He gets pulled into some of her crazy ways and by the end you don't know if this couple will make it through.Both of the other films are OK B movies, but nothing that will blow you away, or make you think the way Existenz does. I kind of wish they at least put other Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk/Biopunk films on here with Existenz. But oh well!
Existenz revolves around Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays a game designer who is on the run from a group of people in society who feel that making virtual reality games, or even playing them is detrimental to ones health & connection to the real world. It has a lot of undertones of what is real, and what isn't. The movie throws quite a few hints and plot twists and it will definitely keep you interested and thinking until the very end.
I wouldn't call this movie completely Cyberpunk due to the way the gamers jack into the game, which is through a very weird looking "flesh pod". They literally take an umbilical cord and plug it into a port directly in their spines. Sounds weird? This is Cronenberg, didn't you realize he loves mixing machines and human parts? =)
Overall without getting too far into the film as to not ruin anything, it is a great ride. And I was pretty happy with this Blu-Ray upgrade, even though it really could stand on it's own merits.
Video Quality: B (I thought all the movies looked fairly well, but Existenz looked like a nice upgrade from the DVD I own. Standard fare for these 3 or 4 movies on 1 disc that Miramax/Echo Bridge likes to put out.)
Storyline(s): Existenz: A+ , B Monkey: D, Malevelont: C.
Audio Quality :C (A little on the low side, and only 2.0 not 5.1 or anything like that.)
Aesthetics: C (The cover art is alright, but a little cluttered as usual with these set releases by Miramax/Echo Bridge.)
Price: B (It's worth it purely for Existenz, but I would say a $9.99 range would be a better pricing for these three films.)
Extras: F (None, I also love watching movies with subtitles. And sadly these aren't on the disc either
=(
Overall: B (Existenz is the gem of this group, the others are just eh films in my opinion. If you enjoy a good sci fi film with a deeper meaning and some thought provoking visuals then you owe it to yourself to check out this film.)
*Update 1/4/13 So I was right about to sell this copy of Existenz with the other movies and pick up the solo release that just recently got released. Thinking to myself, wow a solo release! It must look and sound so much better because of having more room on the disc and dropping those other films off, I was half wrong. After reading through a forum about the solo release it seems the picture quality is actually WORSE on the solo edition of Existenz, while the sound is better and has 5.1 implemented I believe. Where this release is just 2.0 stereo. I however do not have some crazy sound system, so I would rather have the nicer picture quality. I just can't believe the bit rate is worse on a single disc release, I would recommend getting this version over the solo disc in my opinion. Thanks!
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