WARNING: This is a David Cronenberg movie. Cronenberg makes weird movies. Sometimes they are cool, like the Fly, or sometimes they are bordering on sick, like his last movie Crash, about people who get aroused by watching cars collide. Whatever movie Cronenberg makes, they are always different and original. Thankfully, eXistenZ is one of the cool ones. His latest movie has a plot that seems to be another one of those 'what's real and what's not real?' movies multiplying like rabbits this year. But remember the disclaimer: this is a Cronenberg movie.

eXistenZ is the latest video game by creator Allegra Geller (very hollowly acted by Jennifer Jason Leigh). But this is no ordinary game. The world of eXistenZ is in the future, so the game is controlled by a joystick that looks something like an internal organ. You interface directly with the game by inserting a umbilical cord like tube into your 'bio-port,' a small hole in the small of your back. Read into this what you will. Once plugged in, the game takes you to a virtual reality, so you can experience the game without leaving the confines of your own room. At the unveiling of the game, someone tries to assasinate Geller. She manages to escape with Ted Pikul (Jude Law), one of the marketers for the game. The game piece is damaged though, so Geller and Pikul must enter the game and play it through to its conclusion to determine the extent of the damage.

The point of the game is unknown. You play the game, and as you progess, the story becomes more clear to you. Geller knows the game, but goody two shoes Pikul is thrown into something completely new to him. As time moves on, they begin to lose track of what is truly real and what is the game. People they meet outside the game, including Willem Dafoe as a gas station attendent, and Ian Holm as a friend of Geller seem extremely odd, as though they may actually be part of the game. But they're in the game, right? Ultimately, eXistenZ isn't as unique and original as it should have been, because of movies like the Matrix and the Thirteenth Floor. But there is nothing more strange than watching Pikul assemble a gun made out of the bones of an animal he ate in a Chinese restaurant. And hey, it shoots teeth.