Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Screen_Blitz Philip K. Dick is the author of several novels cited in the dystopian sci-fi genre, some of which garnered powerful film adaptations such as Ridley Scott's classic hit 'Blade Runner' and the popular Amazon series 'The Man In The High Castle'. These films/novels expressed many thought-provoking themes dealing with society in depression, providing audiences with powerful "what-if" premises. This adaption to Dick's novel 'A Scanner Darkly' gets a provocative treatment with powerful writing and visually stunning rots cope animation by the hands of director Richard Linklater, a filmmaker often known for films revolving around personal relationships between characters, philosophical themes, and the reality of growing up. Unlike his other works, Linklater takes a unique direction in painting a picture of the effects of drug trading and addiction while adopting a compelling visual style. Set in California in the near-future society where the United States was defeated in the U.S/Mexico Drug Wars and an epidemic of drug use spreads across the nation, Bob Arctor (played by Keanu Reeves) is an undercover cop working for a company to capture the distributor of a mind-altering drug known as Substance D. Arctor is unexpectedly drawn into addiction to the drug by this housemates James Barris (played by Robert Downey Jr.), Charles Freck (played by Rory Cochrane), and Ernie Luckman (played by Woody Harrelson); and eventually his girlfriend Donna (played by Winona Ryder). As his addiction to the powerful drug escalates, he begins losing identity and sense of reality around him.This film delivers a fair cache of surprises in this dystopian thriller, and the story presents plenty of twists and turns throughout, some of which wouldn't be as possible if it weren't for the visceral rotoscope animation. One of the most appealing elements includes a "scramble suit" which is comprised of non-stop shifting images of people to disguise the wearer in a series of constant shifting visual identities of personal entities, something that would be nearly impossible to bring to life in a live-action setting. The animation also allows certain advantages to present the story in both an emotional and visual manner in a way that fits well with the plot. Now this doesn't work mark the first time Richard Linklater has taken usage of rotoscope animation. His first usage of this technique reverts back to his 2001 film 'Waking Life' which centered around a series of unrelated character engaging in conversations dealing with human psychology and stream of consciousness. This film however, presents a more polished rotoscope animation and more plot-centric storytelling. With an intelligent screenplay, the story sprouts plenty of surprises dealing with the characters' downward spiral into a perilous world of drug addiction and trading including scenes of creepy hallucinations, and succeeds at an engaging level. The characters feel real and show genuine humanity, and the performances by the cast shine blissfully. Though the story occasional falls into some areas that are both dull and incoherent, it manages to stay strong for most of the run.A Scanner Darkly is a smart and provocative thriller with plenty of thrills and food for thought. It marks one of the best roles by star Keanue Reeves, and an honorable directorial effort by Richard Linklater. This sets a strong example of a film adaption to the a novel done right, a very surprising novel by Philip K. Dick brought to life on screen since Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

Python Hyena A Scanner Darkly (2006): Dir: Richard Linklater / Cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane: Intriguing futuristic film from the writings of Phillip K. Dick. Keanu Reeves stars as an undercover cop out to expose drug dealers only to become hooked on the substance himself. Richard Linklater previously made The Waking Life, which is similar in that everything is animated upon with brilliant realism. So the actors are there but their actions are animated upon. This is a unique style of filmmaking that matches the material with its images of reality and fantasy. Reeves does well as the undercover cop slowly falling into the world of addiction and unable to maintain a sense of reality at work. It brings off the sense of fantasy associated with the drug craze and animating atop the actors utilize this effect to great extremes. Robert Downey Jr. steals scenes as the drug target fast talking his way through life. Woody Harrelson further becomes paranoid. His actions and movements allow for him to steal every scene he is in as well as add humour. Winona Ryder is also featured and is involved with Reeves who questions her involvement with drugs. Fantastic animated portrayal with strong themes regarding the lie of drugs and the false promises they present. In the end they can destroy lives, careers and ultimately futures. Score: 10 / 10

Johan Dondokambey The story is as most of Philip K. Dick stories, marvelous at mind bending and crashing all those themes and topics. But what makes me very interested about this movie is the cinematography approach. Making this movie into an animation render from a live action is indeed very much in line with the theme of having to go undercover and suppress one's own life and live a fake life instead and gets everything confused later on. Compared to other Philip K. Dick movie adaptations such as Minority Report and Total Recall, this movie's take on the sci-fi genre is very nice and different indeed. The acting overall is very good. Keanu Reeves take in the confused and eventually demented undercover cop nicely. Robert Downey Jr. really uses his fast talking to portray a degree of drug addiction very well. Woody Harrelson is really accustomed to this kind of active role. Wynona Ryder also did great in doing her role, right until the very end.

KineticSeoul This film is based on a book by Philip K. Dick. Now I haven't read any of his books yet but from what I heard this is a solid adaptation. And this is a pretty darn good conspiracy film about a guy coping with his surroundings and a drug called Substance D. A drug that causes bizarre hallucination and makes them go all schizo and paranoid. It's basically a film that might be difficult to comprehend at first but you get use to it and it all makes clear to a degree. Keanu Reeves plays a guy named Bob Arctor who goes by other aliases. Now I don't think Keanu Reeves is a brilliant actor but he usually fits the roles he is given and in this case just perfectly. Keanu is really good at playing these confused and apathetic roles. Just about everyone is right for the roles they were given for this film. Robert Downey, Jr. is good at playing these pedantic and slightly weird characters and he nails it in this. Woody Harrelson is alright in this. But the guy that really nails it in this is Rory Cochrane, who is this jumpy, twitchy and overly paranoid character. And Rorly plays him flawlessly. Winona Ryder is also in this but felt that a bunch of other actresses could have played her role. When it comes down to it, it's the interactions between these characters that is the primary focus. And the conversations and the direction is clever and sometimes dumb(in a good way) but mostly amusing. This movie is shot with real actors but rendered into animation. Which adds to the weirdness of this film and bring out more of that trippy feel while it being cool and all. But wondered why they picked this subtle movie to do that in. Cause if they could have picked a story with explosions, car chases and other special effects and just used animation. It would have saved themselves a lot of budget and still could have gotten away with it in the audiences eyes. Although the animation rendering works in this film and doesn't seem like a gimmick. And even has couple of messages that can keep the audiences that watch this film thinking. And it's clever with it's execution, despite a twist when it hits I wondered how I could have missed that. Overall this is a good sci-fi conspiracy film that is well blended together. It's just a shame this film bombed at the box office.7.4/10