Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Featurette, Cast Video Diary
Director:
Nick Hurran
(Girls Night, Remember Me?, TV: Outside Edge)
Producer:
Christopher Figg
Screenplay:
Nick Fisher
Music:
Rupert Gregson-Williams
Cast:
Justine: Laura Fraser (Divorcing Jack, Left Luggage, TV: Neverwhere)
Jake: Rupert Penry-Jones (Hilary and Jackie, TV: The Student Prince)
Fran: Marcelle Duprey Chas: Luke de Lacey Alex: Kieran O'Brien (TV: Cracker)
Hoover: Natasha Bell
Virtual Sexuality,
from its title, sounded like one of those American teen sex-comedies from the
1980s where the kids would get up to all sorts of unbelievable high jinks
- this time featuring computers - and it was all directed by John Hughes.
Well, it's not. It's a British film with more than a passing resemblence to Weird
Science, but with a twist. The principal character, Justine (Laura Fraser),
can't find herself a date and thinks she is forever doomed to live in Singlesville,
especially after her latest attempt to woo school soccer ace Alex (Kieran O'Brien).
It's left to school spanner and supposed friend of Alex, Chas (Luke de Lacey, who
looks like Britain's answer to Matthew Broderick) to break the news and so they head off
together to a Virtual Reality show at Earls Court. Justine tries out a VR machine that
enables her to do anything from 'trying out' new lipsticks or changing her appearance.
After skipping the point of this and creating an image of her dream man, a freak accident
occurs and Justine's body is instantly transformed into that of Jake (Rupert Penry-Jones)
who she's just put together.
Cue the obvious woman-as-a-man gags as Jake has to endure the boys school locker room, in
which everyone mistakes "him" for being gay when he's really a girl, plus the unwanted
attentions of a man-eating nymphomaniac tanned, bottle-blonde babe nicknamed "Hoover"
(Natasha Bell). Things then take a very bizarre turn when "he" comes face to face
with Justine's best-friend Fran (Marcelle Duprey) and er... Justine! Yes, somehow
she still exists in her usual form, but what will happen when they meet up? Will it bring a
new meaning to the words "to fancy yourself" ?
The picture is mostly top-notch, but there's a handful of scenes which either suffer
a slight shimmering effect or the hazy look that affects a number of Columbia discs.
The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 ratio and is anamorphic, while the
average bitrate is a so-so 4.46Mb/s, occasionally peaking above 7Mb/s.
The sound is also very good but for a romantic comedy, the sound is mainly limited
to some visual cues and decent music from Imani Coppola (Legend of a Cowgirl,
being just one of her tracks on this soundtrack), Touch and Go (Would You)
and Imogen Heap's Alanis-esque Come Here Boy which was due for release in the
UK in July 1998 but seemed to get cancelled at the last minute. The dialogue comes in
Dolby Digital 5.1 for English only.
Extras :
Chapters/Trailer :
The usual 28 chapters are applied here and the theatrical trailer
is also included.
Languages/Subtitles :
Dolby Digital 5.1 in English alone and, surprisingly, no subtitles.
And there's more... :
But not a great deal. The six-minute Featurette is like the sort of
extended trailer that adorns many an Entertainment in Video release, while the
Cast Video Diary is barely more than a minute of some of the cast members
buggering about with video cameras while on the film set.
Menu :
A standard static and silent menu with a screenshot of the front cover
and the basic options.
With a screenplay from The Sun's movie reviewer Nick Fisher, this film is
definitely one for the MTV generation with lots of quick-cuts and onscreen captions
where it's needed. However, if you're like me and you grew up with films like
Weird Science and The Breakfast Club, you'd be better off sticking with
those again and leave Virtual Sexuality to those around the 17-year-old age
of most of the characters, even though most of the actors seem to be on the wrong
side of 20.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
