[Director] Russell's noisily grandiose swipe at psychedelia embellishes what is no more than the cosily familiar story of the obsessive Scientist Who Goes Too Far and Unwittingly Unleashes, etc.
Comment
06/24/06
Altered States (1980)
87
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:31
Fresh:27
Rotten:4
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Extraordinarily daring for a Hollywood film, Altered States attacks the viewer with its inventive, aggressive mix of muddled sound effects and visual pyrotechnics.
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: A psycho-physiologist doing experiments with human consciousness eventually decides to test his findings on himself. He becomes obsessed with performing these auto-sensory deprivation experiments... [More]
Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Charles Haid, Bob Balaban
Director: Ken Russell
Reviews for Altered States
Top CriticNo simple description could ever manage to convey the sheer visual assault of the film. It's a movie that has to be seen, experienced.
01/01/00
Direction by Ken Russell has energy to spare, with appropriate match-up of his baroque visual style to special effects intensive material.
06/06/07
Top Critic[Director Russell] fails to bring any clarity to the silly affair.
06/06/07
There isn't a lucid moment in it (and much of the dialogue is rendered unintelligible by Russell's subversive direction), but it has dash, style, and good looks, as well as the funniest curtain line since Some Like It Hot.
06/06/07
No review available.
12/08/06
No review available.
12/06/06
William Hurt at his weirdest
01/25/06
No review available.
09/23/05
No review available.
07/29/05
No review available.
07/02/05
No review available.
03/24/05
trippy
03/18/05
Very intense, very inner self, very self absorbed.
10/25/04
I was overwhelmed, I was caught up in its headlong energy.
10/23/04
Top CriticDependably -- even exhilaratingly -- bizarre. Its strangeness, which borders cheerfully on the ridiculous, is its most enjoyable feature.
08/30/04
Top CriticNo review available.
05/26/04
No review available.
03/19/04
Altered States explores the human drive to leave the body behind, to be born again, and to experience in the mind things that were once thought divine.
01/29/04
Mind-blowing imagery, solid Hurt performance; a first-class freak-out
01/23/04
Latest News for Altered States
April 25, 2005:
"Blair Witch" Director to be "Altered" by Rogue Pictures
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