Denzel Washington And Russell Crowe's Mind-Bending Sci-Fi Movie Deserves Another Look

The premise for Brett Leonard's 1995 sci-fi cop thriller "Virtuosity" is B-movie gold. Denzel Washington plays Parker Barnes, an ex-cop who is currently in prison for murdering a suspect. The suspect in question was a serial killer named Matthew Grimes, who was fleeing after having freshly murdered Parker's wife and child, so one can understand why he was moved to a murderous rage. In the chase, however, Parker also accidentally shot and killed two onlookers, so he was sentenced to life in prison.

"Virtuosity" is set in the near future, and the Department of Corrections has enlisted prisoners to test a new kind of police-training technology. Trainees are put into a complex Virtual Reality setup and asked to virtually hunt the world's most dangerous criminal. If the trainees can capture the video criminal, the thinking goes, they'll be ready to slap the criminal element around for real. As a former cop, Parker is the ideal test subject for the tech. 

The fun twist: the ultra-dangerous V.R. criminal is SID 6.7, a specialized program that was extrapolated from the minds, habits, and pathologies of all the most notorious criminals in history (Manson! Gacy! And the rest!). S.I.D. stands for (snicker) Sadistic, Intelligent, and Dangerous. Sid is played by Russell Crowe, and he savors playing such a cartoonishly evil character. Naturally, Sid has outgrown his programming, has achieved consciousness, and longs to somehow break out of the computer and commit acts of mayhem in the real world. Luckily for Sid, an errant cyberneticist named Clyde (Kevin J. O'Connor) has been developing a new kind of liquid android technology that can take personality programs like Sid and insert them into hastily grown android bodies. No points for guessing Sid will become a killer android in short order. 

This movie is awesome. 

The Clyde character, it should be noted, is duped into creating the Sid 6.7 android by his boss (Stephen Spinella). Clyde thinks he's growing an android of his ideal virtual girlfriend, Sheila 3.2 (Heidi Schanz). The androids in the world of "Virtuosity" aren't so much machines as they are living masses of computerized liquid. When Sid 6.7 gets injured or loses a body part, people can see the bright blue glop on the inside. Sid can reach out toward panes of glass and absorb the glass molecules to rebuild himself. Once Sid is out in the real world, he becomes the sexiest man alive, dressing in slim-fitting, brightly colored suits and strolling through the public with the utmost confidence. Because he is made of every serial killer alive, he looks for whatever opportunities he can to torture and murder. 

Naturally, because Parker was trained on the virtual version of Sid 6.7, he is released from prison to hunt down the real one. He is paired with a crime psychologist played by Kelly Lynch, and they have to track Sid's movements and predict his crimes. A young Kaley Cuoco plays the Lynch character's daughter, and the cast is stacked with notable character actors. Bill Forsythe plays the police chief, and Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher plays the Commissioner. Costa Mandylor from the "Saw" sequels plays a fellow prisoner, and Traci Lords has a cameo appearance as a club singer. The soundtrack was full of bangers by artists like Peter Gabriel, Live, and The Heads (the David Byrne-free lineup of the Talking Heads). There is an awesome scene wherein Sid strolls down the street to the Bee-Gees' "Stayin' Alive," the best use of that song outside of "Airplane!"  

Brett Leonard was selected to direct "Virtuosity" because he had a hit a few years earlier with the V.R.-themed horror film "The Lawnmower Man" (the one Stephen King sued to have his name removed from). The story goes that the original script was so bad that Denzel Washington improvised new lines to give the story new details. Notably, Washington removed a romance that was meant to blossom between him and the Lynch character. 

Critics weren't fond of "Virtuosity," and the film only has a 31% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 36 reviews). Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Washington was the only good thing about it, and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt that the action was bland and uninvolving. Hal Hinson in the Washington Post felt that the film had no new ideas, recycling a lot of old sci-fi tropes to muted effect. Roger Ebert was a rare outlier in that he gave the film three stars, feeling that the sci-fi ideas were intriguing. He wrote that "The movie is filled with bright ideas and fresh thinking, but the underlying story is as old as the hills, right down to a final confrontation on catwalks." 

"Virtuosity" was a financial disappointment, however, making only $37 million on its $30 million budget. A pity because the film is wildly fun. It's bright, brisk, and sports two marvelous lead performances. Crowe, usually operating at the height of his powers, is particularly notable here. If an actor can play subtle and subdued dramatic characters as well as broad, cartoonish villains, it's proof of their talents. Crowe and Washington would reunite to swap their cop/criminal roles in Ridley Scott's 2007 biography "American Gangster." It's good, but it's not as good as "Virtuosity."