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  • Film & TV Moderators: ghostfreak

Film A Scanner Darkly

rate this movie

  • [img]http://i.bluelight.ru/g//543/1star.gif[/img]

    Votes: 8 5.2%

  • [img]http://i.bluelight.ru/g//543/2stars.gif[/img]

    Votes: 10 6.5%

  • [img]http://i.bluelight.ru/g//543/3stars.gif[/img]

    Votes: 22 14.3%

  • [img]http://i.bluelight.ru/g//543/4stars.gif[/img]

    Votes: 49 31.8%

  • [img]http://i.bluelight.ru/g//543/5stars.gif[/img]

    Votes: 65 42.2%
  • Total voters
    154
Saw the film... not bad! My bf and I saw it high so the images were pretty trippy. It made us sorta sad... so we quit smoking for a day and got back to it. lol
 
Last edited:
Minimal Spoilers, you've been warned!


So I saw this recently even though it hasn't been released in my city yet and I have mixed emotions about it.

Despite the poor video quality of my "source" the aesthetic appeal alone made it worth watching. The acting was solid on all parts but none of the characters really blew me away.

While Robert Downey Jr. did a fine job with Barris I couldn't help but think of Jeff Goldblum every time he opened his mouth. Cochrane's take on Freck cut a little too close to Del Toro's Dr. Gonzo from fear and loathing. Although to be honest I suppose there are only so many ways to play the quirky genius and the paranoid one-toke-over-the-line junky.

Generally I'm a big fan of drug films, be they plot driven or loosely rendered character studies. Unfortunately A Scanner Darkly failed to really connect with me, which is unfortunate because I really wanted it to. I suppose the main reasons for this was an inability for me to really connect with any of the characters (they all seemed almost stereotypical) and quite a few of the scenes seemed fairly irrelevant.

While the opening scene, the "what are we going to do with the house now?" scene, Freck's wine, and the cafe scene were all interesting. I felt that an equal number of scenes just fell flat for me, particularly the highway scene and the bicycle scene, for the latter I just wanted to yell "3x6=18".

The atmosphere was well conceived and the score complemented the tone of the film nicely but as a whole A Scanner Darkly just felt hollow. Nothing really felt connected, although I'll bet that was intended as one of the main themes is disconnection and the blurring of perception. Apart from the aesthetic and a few innovations I felt as if I'd seen the bulk of the characters and the majority of the themes before, much of it felt cliche. Although considering the age of the source material much of it may have been cutting edge at the time of its conception. Had A Scanner Darkly brought more novelty and creativity to the script I think I would have been more impressed, although I'm sure many will disagree.
 
i absolutely loved this film...brought back alot of good and bad memories
 
I found this film pretty intense even on as mellow a substance as 2C-C. Some of the scenes where Reeves is trying to deal with his confusion, especially his last scenes with the LE psychiatrists and Hank, really had me in a weird place.

I'm going to reserve final judgement on the film's quality until I see it sober.
 
I saw this movie in theatres when it came out and it was amazing. It was a little confusing at first, but my friend and I eventually figured it out as we were leaving the theater. I really wanted to read the book about 6 months ago but of course my library doesn't carry it :(

I just downloaded Waking Life and I'm planning on watching it later this evening - I skipped around on the file and watched a little bit - it seems promising.
 
icecreamtrepan: as BL's resident librarian, I'll suggest to you that you ask your library to interloan the book for you (e.g. order it from another library). They may charge you for this, though, so your best bet might be a 2nd-hand copy via Amazon or something. [PSA over :)]
 
On the movie:

I'm a big PKD fan, and this novel would be one of my favourites - maybe in my top 10 (of all novels, not PKD's). I like Linklater's work, and I know he is a big PKD fan, so I was really looking forward to this film.

And I think it *nearly* delivered. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn good. My main problem was that I couldn't hear a lot of the dialogue (and I was watching it in a good cinema with a brand-new sound system). Partly my fault for having poor hearing, but still.

It was VERY reverent towards the source material. This is generally a good thing, I think - most other PKD adaptions have missed the point of what he was writing about*. Linklater took a lot of dialogue directly from the book, and even threw in scenes that only fully make sense if you've read the book (e.g. the highway scene where they quote 'if I'd known it was harmless, I'd have killed it myself' has a half-page exposition in the book, explaining where the quote comes from).

I also thought it was a bit slow-paced - probably a function of the fact that the book itself is slow paced, and it's more of a thought piece than an action/drama one.

But overall, a good and faithful reproduction and visualisation of the original. I'm not sure it added anything to the book, but it didn't ruin it or misrepresent it, either.

*Yeah, not Bladerunner, obviously.
 
In light of your comments (and your profession), would you recommend reaidng the book first?

Lets face it, I got fucking months to wait before it comes out in Australia... so it's not like I'd have to rush to finish the book. :X
 
Sim0n said:
icecreamtrepan: as BL's resident librarian, I'll suggest to you that you ask your library to interloan the book for you (e.g. order it from another library). They may charge you for this, though, so your best bet might be a 2nd-hand copy via Amazon or something. [PSA over :)]
Click to expand...

That's what I was planning on doing, but I kinda have a bunch of stuff to read at the moment, so it'll have to wait until later.
 
tambourine-man said:
In light of your comments (and your profession), would you recommend reaidng the book first?

Lets face it, I got fucking months to wait before it comes out in Australia... so it's not like I'd have to rush to finish the book. :X
Click to expand...

It's not essential - the book will give you some background that isn't in the film - but then it might spoil the ending for you. As I say, the film is very similar to the book, so if you want the film to be a surprise, watch it first. I would recommend reading it at some point though.
 
watched it while tripping on LSD and possible a DOx substance. it was a great movie but i missed quite a bit because i was puking a lot of the time. but what i saw, i thoroughly enjoyed and would defnitely watch it again; even sober.

very funny and entertaining to say the least.
 
I was also quite surprised at keenu's role in the movie, I didn't think it was going to fit him but was glad I could put up with him. I gave it a 4 star
 
just wanted to reiterate how kick ass this movie was. damn, it makes superman and pirates look silly in comparison.
 
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