THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

  • 22 Jun 2025, 22:04 *
  • Welcome, Guest
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)  (Read 11494 times)

Lise

  • Furry furrier
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 169
    • Face Me
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« on: 17 Jul 2006, 12:18 »
Come on, people. I did a forums search for a discussion on A Scanner Darkly, since I saw it last night in the Angelika, the "local art cinema," and came up with no significant results.

I know it's an indie movie with limited showing, but probably some of you have read the book or are already familiar with the trailer, etc etc. It's definetely a great movie to watch, if you enjoy mind-games and the trippy atmosphere. There's even a few humorous parts involving the group of junkies. And the twist at the end, was UNEXPECTED (at least, for me).

And the rotoscoping effect is just amazing. I think this reviewer analyzed the use of it quite well: "a complicated computer imaging technique that gives filmed people an overlay of shaky hand-drawn animation -- or, in this case, a crazy web of drug-induced (or governmentally imposed) illusion hovering on the surface of everybody's appearance."

So, what do you all think?

PS: the people who left during the first 20-30 minutes were probably expecting something along the lines of "Pirates of the Caribbean". cough. "If you weren't a substance D abuser in the first movie, YOU ARE NOW!"

Logged

Garcin

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #1 on: 17 Jul 2006, 12:31 »
I saw it at Lincoln Center loews.  Didn't even know it was playing the Angelika, or I would have seen it there -- I really prefer the crowds.  I loved it.  The twist(s) at the end were delicious.  I haven't read the short story yet but I intend to (a friend of mine is lending me his Philp K. Dick collection).  The rotoscope effect was not only amazing, but it suited the theme incredibly well thematically.

And Reeves didn't ruin the movie, because (and I'm not generally a fan of the guy's "acting") he can play a druggie fairly convincingly.  There really isn't that much psychedlica in the mainstream cinema, so for fans of the genre, this was a really incredible movie.
Logged

Lise

  • Furry furrier
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 169
    • Face Me
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #2 on: 17 Jul 2006, 12:38 »
Heh, on Moiche's conclusion that Reeves "played a druggie fairly convincingly"...

I'm sure the fact that the starring actors probably had an (extensive) drug rep, or at least SMOKED profusely, lended to the realism of the film.

I actually missed a lot of important dialogue that perhaps a second showing would fix. I'd definetely view the film in a different light in lieu of the "twist."

I'd like to have some answers on Donna and Bob's relationship, but I wouldn't want to spoil anyone who hasn't seen the movie :P.
Logged

Ghostwriter

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #3 on: 17 Jul 2006, 13:30 »
I really, really want to see it, but there probably won't be a showing anywhere near me :(.

I'm reading the book right now and I really love it.
Logged

Garcin

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #4 on: 17 Jul 2006, 13:52 »
Quote from: Lise
Heh, on Moiche's conclusion that Reeves "played a druggie fairly convincingly"...

I'm sure the fact that the starring actors probably had an (extensive) drug rep, or at least SMOKED profusely, lended to the realism of the film.

I actually missed a lot of important dialogue that perhaps a second showing would fix. I'd definetely view the film in a different light in lieu of the "twist."

I'd like to have some answers on Donna and Bob's relationship, but I wouldn't want to spoil anyone who hasn't seen the movie :P.


PM or email me your questions.  I didn't leave the movie feeling I'd missed anythings, so I'm curious.
Logged

est

  • this is a test
  • Admin emeritus
  • Older than Moses
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4,157
  • V O L L E Y B A L L
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #5 on: 17 Jul 2006, 18:25 »
I've heard mixed reviews on this.  I know it's a cliche to say that the book was better, but I've read that people who've read the book will be disappointed by the movie.

That said, I've read the book :(  I still want to see the movie, because the rotoscoping looks excellent, and I'm curious as to how much liberty they've taken with certain aspects of the story.
Logged

KharBevNor

  • Awakened
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 10,456
  • broadly tolerated
    • http://mirkgard.blogspot.com/
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #6 on: 17 Jul 2006, 20:45 »
I doubt this will be showing at my local Cineworld :(

This is a shame. I love the book.
Logged
[22:25] Dovey: i don't get sigquoted much
[22:26] Dovey: like, maybe, 4 or 5 times that i know of?
[22:26] Dovey: and at least one of those was a blatant ploy at getting sigquoted

http://panzerdivisio

Rizzo

  • Bling blang blong blung
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,192
  • R'lyeh City Hardcore
    • Riding the failboat
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #7 on: 18 Jul 2006, 02:37 »
I read the book and I thought the movie was absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed every aspect of it.
I found it both hillarious and tragic. Fucking brilliant
9/10.
Yeah, I guess I'm a fan boy now.
Logged
Quote from: Jimmy the Squid
Sometimes I feel like everyone around me is some sort of statistical/mathematical genuis and I'm hitting a gazelle in the head with a rock and screaming at the sky when there's a storm.

neomang5

  • Curry sauce
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 287
  • Machine of Rage and Hate
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #8 on: 18 Jul 2006, 13:54 »
Man, I seriously want to see this movie, but the chances of it playing anywhere near me are slim to none.

Is it ever supposed to have general release, or is it staying limited?
Logged
Quote from: Johnny C on 02 Sep 2010, 10:52
i don't understand why you're implying that i have to come to terms with your crippling failings as a person

Electric Monk

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #9 on: 19 Jul 2006, 06:58 »
I have read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but not this one. I am probably going to try to see it this weekend, because it looks so darn cool. Even though it has Keanu "Whoa" Reeves, I hear Rob Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson are hilarious.
Logged

Merkava

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #10 on: 20 Jul 2006, 07:03 »
Look, guys. I am tired of the Keanu hate. I know a thing or two about acting, and I like still quite like him.

I SAW THE LAKE HOUSE BITCHES

But yeah, I really want to see this. Is this the same director as Waking Life? It's pretty much the same visual effect, I believe.
Logged

Electric Monk

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #11 on: 20 Jul 2006, 09:57 »
Quote from: Merkava
Is this the same director as Waking Life? It's pretty much the same visual effect, I believe.


Yeah, it's the same director, Richard Linklater, who incidentally also directed "Dazed and Confused" back in the day.
Logged

Gryff

  • Bling blang blong blung
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,109
  • Summary sense... tingling!
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #12 on: 20 Jul 2006, 15:02 »
I like Keanu as well. He's like the classic example of the American underactor! Also, he is very good in My Own Private Idaho. So yeah.

I will be seeing A Scanner Darkly when it comes here in the international film festival in August.
Logged

saintoflevelheadedlovers

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #13 on: 02 Aug 2006, 19:32 »
Rizzo has a great avatar. I just had to say that first. So I didn't forget the name.

I just saw the movie. Never read any of Dick's books, though I intend to now. I just wiki'd Dick and I really like what Ursula K. LeGuin said about him, even though I hate Dickens.

I would say that the style worked beautifully with the surreal nature of the material, Harrelson and Downey were excellent (but I really think Downey almost always is), as many other people have said Reeves worked well for the role and I found the twist at the end highly entertaining.

Definately worth the $8.50. If I can walk out of a movie and say that the only drawback was the fact that the old-ass theatre I saw it in reeked of mildew and that the smell is lingering in my nose it's an evening well spent. Oh, and the previews had some interesting stuff.

I can't wait to see Renaissance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(film)
http://www.renaissance-movie.com/
Logged

JLM

  • Pneumatic ratchet pants
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 321
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #14 on: 02 Aug 2006, 22:54 »
If anyone has seen both this movie and Waking Life, I need you to promise me that this film is absolutely nothing like Waking Life in order for me to express any interest in seeing it.
Logged

saintoflevelheadedlovers

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #15 on: 03 Aug 2006, 04:31 »
Aside from the obvious fact that they're both filmed in rotoscope, no. Not so much. Darkly follows a traditional plotline and when I say that it's surreal, it's surreal sort of in the way Minority Report was surreal.

Not like Waking Life. Go see it, I say.
Logged

sunniegreen

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #16 on: 03 Aug 2006, 16:43 »
I love PKD, and I hope that my Cinema 3 gets it sometime.

That's right, Cinema 3.  I'm in the backwater section of nowhere, and we have a few tiny movie theaters that sometimes break down.

Otherwise I am soo getting it when it comes out on DVD.

Meanwhile maybe I'll go re-read VALIS until they make the movie of it. It could be kickass.  Or, a really horrible atrocity.
Logged

Spinless

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #17 on: 04 Aug 2006, 09:09 »
This has nothing to do with the topic but...
What's Michel Gondry's new film called? I forgot. But I know I really want to see it.
I had it written down in my memory, but I lost it.
Yeah, I use a notebook to remember stuff.
Logged

Aztex

  • Balloon animal serial killer
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 94
Limited showings
« Reply #18 on: 30 Aug 2006, 08:12 »
The limited showings really frustrates me and it seems almost impossible to view it all in Australia.... hoepfully it'll come out soon here..
Logged

Will

  • Bling blang blong blung
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1,158
  • Creeeeeeeepy bear HEARTS YOU!!!
    • William James (author page)
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #19 on: 30 Aug 2006, 12:41 »
I saw about the first half of it...cough cough bittorrent cough...the visual effect was great...if nothing else, you have to appreciate the effort to try to do something cinematically that as far as i know hasn't been done before...anyone have any clue when this will be available on dvd?  i really would like to see the whole thing
Logged
Quote from: JohhnyC
In grade six one of my classmates during sex ed asked if the penis could be broken. The teacher's response was "Not in the same way you'd break a bone. I still wouldn't take a hammer to it or anything."

logosmonkey

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #20 on: 30 Aug 2006, 13:17 »
It was a pretty decent flick. The rotoscope effect has been done in a way before, well a lot before actually.. Max Fleischer did it in 1914 and it's been done many times since. Linklater did it once before with Waking Life. Eitherway it looked great in this film.
Logged

Mister Rand McNally

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #21 on: 02 Sep 2006, 00:06 »
Quote from: sunniegreen
I love PKD, and I hope that my Cinema 3 gets it sometime.

Meanwhile maybe I'll go re-read VALIS until they make the movie of it. It could be kickass.  Or, a really horrible atrocity.

I know I'm new here, and my opinion probably means next to nothing, but I really hope that film producers never touch VALIS.  VALIS is too close to Dick, in my opinion, and any book that is so close to the author is going to be tricky anyway, but VALIS is a special case, being an almost complete narrative of Dick's breakdown and detachment from reality.  It is, I feel, a little too sad to show the complete breakdown of a man who worked so hard to craft so many beautiful, if not hopeful, futures.  

I guess what I'm getting at is that VALIS is a little too raw, too emotional for film.  I think maybe we owe Dick the respect of staying away from his work pointing at his most vulnerable time.
Logged

est

  • this is a test
  • Admin emeritus
  • Older than Moses
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4,157
  • V O L L E Y B A L L
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #22 on: 02 Sep 2006, 03:30 »
Heya dude, welcome to the QC forumses.

I agree with you about VALIS.  For one thing, although it worked pretty well as a book I am pretty sure they would have trouble adapting it into a movie without making it completely unattractive to most people.  I mean, even his name would probably be the first thing to be either changed or made to seem like some kind of wacky zany thing to be played on.
Logged

Mister Rand McNally

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #23 on: 02 Sep 2006, 08:41 »
Thanks, est.  It's nice to be here.

I think the take Hollywood would take on VALIS would be the outrageously silly one.  Jack Black plays Horselover Fat, Drew Carrey plays the narrator, and Andy Richter plays Phillip K. Dick.  Watch them slap each other.
Logged

öde

  • Vulcan 3-D Chess Master
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3,633
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #24 on: 02 Sep 2006, 09:35 »
I watched it a while ago, it was a pretty cool film.

If I get time I might read the book.
Logged

Marauder

  • Guest
A Scanner Darkly (It had to be done)
« Reply #25 on: 03 Sep 2006, 22:58 »
Playing at a two theatres here in Ottawa; should see it sometime this week, very excited.
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »