While one of Cronenberg's recent efforts, CRASH, was the biggest pile of crap I have seen grace the screen, I ate every bit of eXistenZ up with a spoon.  You could call this a Cronenberg-ian attempt at blending Science Fiction with Film Noir,  and frankly it works very well.

Playing on the reality within a reality theme (only to a minor degree like the Matrix) eXistenZ is a game system created by the goddess of the computer world Allegra Gellar (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  During a demo of the revolutionary game system there is an attempted assassination of Allgera.  Luckily she escapes with the aide of rookie Security Guard Ted Pikul ( Jude Law, sporting an American-ish accent).  With her game pod in hand, Allegra and Pikul must soon enter the world of eXistenZ to find out what's wrong with her game as the two worlds are starting to bleed together. 

A film like eXistenZ requires a fair amount of concentration from start to finish, so make sure you muzzle an potential yappers before sitting down to watch it.
With a hit and miss director like Cronenberg, it's great to see this takes on the title of the latter.  'Tis good shtuff, but really, only Sci-Fi buffs need apply

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
While the encoding of this Anamorphic Widescreen DVD can't really be faulted, the source material is less than perfect.  Suffering from a whole range of problems like excess grain, underexposure and overexposure, eXistenZ is not you best looking DVD, but is a little more than 'acceptable'.
Having seen both the US and Canadian DVDs of this movie, I can say that the Australian PAL version is by far the best with a better resolution, less noise, and stronger more detailed black level.  The USA version pales in comparison, and the Canadian version is very similar to ours, just with less detail and a heavier black level. 
Colour Saturation is strong throughout, perhaps a little high in parts, and sharpness is a bit much in spots and results in an edginess to the image. 
I like this transfer, but I certainly don't love it.

AUDIO
The Audio on the other hand is terrific, with only some signs of ADR produced dialogue showing up from time to time, this is a subtlety gorgeous soundtrack, Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded.  Howard Shore's music score adds a great deal of atmosphere to the bizarre world of eXistenZ and is quietly played in all channels throughout.  When required to show of a bit of muscle, the dynamic range is at its maximum and simply kicks 5.1 arse! 

EXTRAS
Sadly we are not treated to any of the wonderful extras that both Canada and the UK got on their DVD versions, thanks in part to licensing issues.
So all we get is a eXistenZ trailer, Gattaca Trailer and Talent profiles.  What we DO MISS OUT ON is the following,  David Cronenberg Commentary track, the Visual FX supervisor comm track, the DOP comm track (yes that's 3 separate comm tracks!!!) and the 50 minute doco on Production Designer Carol Spiers (who had works with Cronenberg for years!!)