this dystopian paranoid thriller tracks addiction in all its highs and lows, and offers a dignified elegy for its misguided casualties.
Comment
06/13/07
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
67
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:112
Rotten:54
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: A faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, A Scanner Darkly takes the viewer on a visual and mind-blowing journey into the author's conception of a drug-addled and politically unstable world.
Theatrical Release:18-08-2006
Synopsis: Richard Linklater's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's classic novel is a challenging, mind-bending experience that cautions about the dangers of excessive drug use as well as the government's capacity... [More]
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder
Director: Richard Linklater
Reviews for A Scanner Darkly
Top CriticYou’ve never seen anything like this before due to some simply astonishing animation.
08/18/06
That Linklater can keep a light tone running through the film in spite of weighty subject matter ensures that A Scanner Darkly is accessible enough for wide audiences without dumbing down for others.
08/26/06
Its intelligence makes it near-essential viewing.
08/18/06
Top CriticEngaging, beautifully animated sci-fi thriller with superb performances and a script that manages to be funny, disturbing and thought-provoking all at once.
08/17/06
It's never less than incredibly beautiful to watch.
08/15/06
Top CriticNot a triumph, but a clever rendering of the subversive spirit of Philip K Dick.
06/13/06
Top CriticA churning passion inside this eerie dramatic thriller really gets under our skin.
07/15/06
It is not a great film, but an insidious one, the sort that gets under your skin. It leaves you scrabbling at aphids, hoping they really are in your imagination.
08/19/06
It's one hell of a trip, but a bit of a comedown.
06/13/06
Top CriticThe first film to capture the author's transience and his art.
07/14/06
An ambitious animated adaptation of one of the most personal novels by sci-fi visionary Philip K. Dick.
07/07/06
Mr. Linklater emerges once again as the Austin auteur par excellence, even if A Scanner Darkly is set in a ratty precinct of Orange County.
07/27/06
Linklater has adapted Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel faithfully, and his unusual technique seems a valid choice for the world Dick created in that book.
07/06/06
Based on Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel that was informed by the author's own drug experiences, the film, which retains the dark humor often missing from other Dick adaptations is at once dated and eerily prescient.
07/07/06
Wondrously attractive, all the more so for the avoidance (with one or two exceptions) of extrovert Waking Life-style set-pieces.
08/17/06
As Dick's vision matches up with our times, so does director Richard Linklater's animation technique match the story's material. A Scanner Darkly is a joyful wedding of medium and message.
07/13/06
Too talkie to be legitimately entertaining, too dark to be wholly enjoyable and too muddled to be entirely comprehensible, A Scanner Darkly stands as a creative, if unengaging interpretation of its source materia
02/28/08
A thing of unique beauty and free-floating menace, A Scanner Darkly is also about the transmutation of good into evil and back into good, and the willful surrender of freedom in the name of propagandistic safety and betterment.
09/17/06
Hilarious digressions like these are bound to induce chuckles even among viewers who, as Bill Clinton would say, have never inhaled.
07/07/06
Latest News for A Scanner Darkly
January 09, 2007:
Online Film Critics Name Their Year-End Favorites
Hosted right here at the illustrious Rotten Tomatoes is the official website of the Online Film Critics Society, an international group of flick analyzers who put their heads... More...
August 31, 2006:
A Taste of What's "Next" for Nicolas Cage
Any time I hear the phrase "movie based on a Philip K. Dick story," I know I have to do a little more research. The next PKD adaptation is Lee Tamahori's... More...
August 08, 2006:
Paul Giamatti to Star as Philip K. Dick
He night not be as famous as H.G. Wells or Isaac Asimov, but ask a sci-fi enthusiast what they think of Philip K. Dick, and get ready for a lengthy conversation. The late and... More...
July 24, 2006:
Box Office Wrapup: "Pirates" Passes $300M; "Lady" Stumbles
Johnny Depp made this weekend's four new releases walk the plank as his megablockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest became the first film of the year to spend... More...
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