Linklater somehow makes coherent Dick's incoherent visions.
Comment
08/05/06
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
67
%
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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
About on par with watching Cheech and Chong follow up a screening of their Up in Smoke with a PSA on the evils of marijuana.
08/02/06
For all of the film's ambitions and technical complexity, and for all the apt reasoning behind its storytelling decisions, the narrative is never particularly engrossing.
07/28/06
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 creates an eerie, mysterious, menacing hyperreality that engulfs the mind and senses.
07/26/06
Would be significantly more wearisome...were it not for Linklater's ability to tap into his source material's atmosphere of unsettling paranoia.
07/24/06
With A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater proves that anything worth doing is worth doing right, no matter how painstaking a process doing it right might prove to be.
07/22/06
A Scanner Darkly is well worth viewing solely because films this unusual are rare in our Hollywood-infused world of pirates and popcorn.
07/22/06
A Scanner Darkly finds Linklater in experimental mode, which is a far, far better place for him to be than in a little league dugout.
07/21/06
As a story about Bob/Fred, and his friends, Scanner is a compelling creation.
07/19/06
The slipperiness of the animated image has something to do with duplicity, with the idea that things you perceive are not necessarily the same as things that are real, and with the fact that both people and governments betray you.
07/18/06
Bland reality becomes abstract: a visual representation of the way the movie's Substance D addicts observe their surroundings and themselves.
07/18/06
Linklater's low-key, meandering humanism is a bad match for Dick's obsessive, clammy suspicion. We never feel the desperation of these characters. They're merely painted figures on a screen -- shimmering somewhere far away.
07/18/06
Dude, if your idea of fun is watching a group of drug-addled slackers rant and rave in graphic-novel-cum-cartoon, I've got just the movie for you ... To be graphic, A Scanner Darkly is one freaking bad trip.
07/18/06
It seems that the point of this movie is to say, drugs are bad. Why then does the movie that's making this point appear to have been made by people on them?
07/18/06
The [characters'] outlines are unstable, and so is their environment, keeping us caught in a constant state of questioning the film's 'reality,' just as its characters do.
07/17/06
Linklater's decision to assemble a supporting cast widely known for their own drug connections should reek of stunt casting, but doesn't.
07/17/06
It's an identity crisis wrapped in a mystery and smothered in freakout sauce, and it's relentlessly interesting. The grooviest scenes are the ones where the characters are clearly impaired and riffing on their own inner alpha waves.
07/16/06
The approach is creative, but it still does not overcome the problems of bringing such a contemplative novel to the screen.
07/16/06
So preachy in its anti-drug stance that it might as well have had the financial support of D.A.R.E. during its production.
07/15/06
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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