the plot: World famous video game designer Allegra Geller (Leigh) makes a rare public appearance to test out "eXistenZ," a new virtual reality game. Just as she begins playing the game with a batch of test players, an assassin steps out of the crowd and shoots Allegra with a gun constructed out of bone and flesh. The wounded Allegra escapes with marketing-trainee-turned bodyguard Ted Pikul (Law), and the two hide out in the countryside. When Allegra jacks into her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of "eXistenZ," there's another attempt on her life. Allegra and Pikul see hints of a conspiracy aimed at the game designer, and the pair venture into the game in order to unravel the mystery. But there are secrets in "eXistenZ" that are hidden even from Allegra, and soon she and Pikul are caught up in a shadowy world full of grotesque murders, suspicious characters and shifting allegiances.

why it's good: Lost amid the flood of virtual-reality themed movies released at the turn of the millennium, eXistenZ isn't one of director Cronenberg's better efforts, but it's still a decent film. A little more thoughtful and a lot less flashy than The Matrix, the film doesn't really start to pick up until the second act, when Allegra and Pikul find themselves trapped in a game within a game within a game. It's a shaky meta-fictional house of cards that Cronenberg manages to pull the table out from under without it all crashing down. The game-within-a-game narrative gives the characters a chance to provide some commentary on the performances (at one point, Allegra remarks of another character, "His dialogue wasn't believable at all."), which are, unfortunately, fairly uneven. Of course, all the usual Cronenberg tropes are here-mutated flesh, the sudden appearance of vestigial orifices, a hallucinogenic trip through multiple realities-as are regular Cronenberg players Ian Holm and Robert Silverman.

why you should own it: Dimension Films' DVD is a lame, bare-bones edition. Another version, by Alliance Atlantis, contains commentary by Cronenberg and other crew members but doesn't seem to be available in the United States. Viewers new to Cronenberg's work might want to start here-eXistenZ is a fun and easily accessible film-but longtime fans would be better revisiting classics like Videodrome and Naked Lunch.