"Virtuosity" represents familiar ground for director Brett Leonard. He dealt with virtual reality in the astonishingly awful "Lawnmower Man". This time, the special effects are more elaborate and successful but they are not state-of-art, even for a 1995 movie. The plot is also ordinary: how many times has a special man been sent to stop an almost unkillable murderer. However there are two twists to the formula: the first one is that the killer is a virtual killer, the second one is that he is played by Russell Crowe.
In 1995, Russell was "virtually" unknown. Right now, he is one of the most important actors in Hollywood, next to Mel Gibson, Kevin Spacey and his co-star from this movie, Denzel Washinton. What makes Russell an unusual choice for this role is that beside being incredibly good-looking (all that his Sid 6.7 would have needed), he is also tremendously talented (look at his Oscar nomination for "The Insider"). But it is his talent that gives Sid 6.7 life. He plays his character with a complete over-the-top flamboyance, which makes him even more interesting that Denzel Washington. Russell has a lot of fun in creating Sid.
The other performers mediocre or bland. Denzel Washington is boring as the hero, and the usually impressive Louise Fletcher is completely forgettable as L.A.'s Attorney General. A huge mistake was Kelly Linch. Her character doesn't do anything important, except just to be in the way of the two main characters. She is indeed the mother of the little girl, that Sid uses ultimately in trying to kill Parker Barnes (played by Washington). But it could have been any little girl. Linch gets so little character development that we couldn't care less for her.
Overall, the movie is entertaining, but only because of Russell Crowe. 7/10.
