I like a lot of things about "Nirvana" - the ambiance, the soundtrack, most of Lambert's performance, the central "quest" of his character, and the general depiction of a future world in which most human meaning and connection has been subsumed by virtual realities.I don't rate it as high as I might for a couple of reasons: 1) The actual depiction and rationale for Solo's abrupt shift to self awareness isn't convincing at all, and neither is the depiction of the game itself. Seriously in an age of immersive games like Skyrim and Crysis, or even World of Warcraft (for the 90's), who would want to play a dreary game like this? (It is kind of clever that Solo reminds me so much of Mario). If you want to see a real depiction of an immersive VR game that you can believe would seize the collective imagination of a huge worldwide audience, watch "Avalon".2) Some of the smaller roles aren't acted, depicted, or scripted very well ("Joystick"? Really?). I will gladly admit that some of this might be an issue with the dubbing in English, but I have to respond to the movie I saw, not whatever it was like in the original Italian - this is why I always prefer to hear the original voice acting and read subtitles if I can.3) Let's face it, the screenplay just drags in spots. I can sympathize with the balance the director had to maintain between mood, ambiance, and action, but I don't think the end result was as good as it could have been for about half the scenes. Again, the gold standard for me in this kind of subject is "Avalon", which is equally moody and full of discussion and ambiance and empty silences, but never drags.Still, if you want an "art house" movie version of "The Matrix", this might be worth your time, and you might disagree with my reaction to the movie's pacing and some of the dialog and end up enjoying it more than I.

It was about 20 min into this movie that I realised what I was seeing. I was astounded that anyone could make a movie like this. To imagine "awakening" in such style and with such passion is amazing. The movie deals with homosexuality, deformity, grief, relationships, drug use, the power of the state, sexual depravity, overwhelming desire, delusion with an uplifting beat like some kind of Nirvanic Angel, skipping through and over the pit falls of life with a grin and a spliff hanging from her mouth.There are so many spiritual motifs running through this movie that if you are not that way inclined the main storyline of spiritual liberation, could easily be lost and judging from the mixed reviews has been lost.If you have a practice you will recognise a lot of what's going on here. If you have no practice but an inclination you may find that this movie will open your eyes a little. Perhaps enough to look deeper.By far this movie is superior to the Matrix which is often quoted as a Buddhist movie. I have never seen Nirvana listed on the Buddhist movies to see list but it should be right up the top, mainly because it's context is the life we all lead, technology, drug use, desire. Everything that a romp through the Tibetian landscape doesn't do.

This little movie which flirts with the idea virtual reality gaming is a delight to look at but has an underwritten script. I would never expect anything intelligent or original from a B-movie, but Nirvana was neat. While there is certainly room for more dimension on the pages, everything in the frame, is of perfect dimension (or quality). This film has a colourful portrayal of the future, which plays with several different kinds of computer graphics, not to mention some other good quirks, like talking houses, alarms, and a computer game character who gains self awareness and has the ability to talk to his player. It's all fun and delightful. the dubbing is occasionally distracting, but I guess that depends on the manufacturer of the DVD copy. I just felt that there was a bit more room for story. The energetic climax, seems to zip by too quickly and the movie ends on a somewhat flimsy note. I think I can say I enjoyed this movie for what it was, It just needs more.

Christophe(r) Lambert heads an international cast in this 1997 French-Italian(?) co-production. While the movie doesn't have the big budget a Hollywood blockbuster would have had, it still manages to create an interesting & convincing near-future world. Actually, it's one of the few films that really manage to create a decent cyberpunk setting; right now, I can only think of "Nemesis" which was a pretty good effort, and then there's always "Blade Runner", of course...As for the acting in this movie, it's always tough to rate the level of acting when the movie is dubbed, but all in all I'm not complaining. Lambert is good, and Diego Abatantuono (sp?) is interesting as the sentient game character Solo - and kind of appropriate, too, since he has the physical look of a real-life "Mario on steroids". :-)There are also several nice touches of humour, that prevent the movie from taking itself too seriously (check out the meditating guy later on in the movie for a nice example...). Finally, there is some nice music in there as well.All in all, an enjoyable little movie - with cult potential, I think.