next

[danny_galaga]

just saw this movie today. i enjoyed it. ive enjoyed pretty much any philip k dick movie adaption ive seen. even 'through a glass darkly' which some people grumbled about. i think its because ive either never read the stories or if i have it was when i was in primary school and the memory is too weak to compare...

[patrickl]

I recently saw that movie too. I thought it was an entertaining movie, but I felt it was (unintentionally) more of a comedy rather than a thriller.

The computer effects were often overly visible. Nicholas cage's "tough guy" walk looks more like the walk of a clown in cowboyboots (does he have some problem with his legs or something?) More importantly though, I felt the story was annoyingly repetitive They pull the "ha ha we fooled ya, it was only a view of the future" trick way too often.

It's also completely unbelievable that he can go through all possible futures and still have time to react. At least the way they show it in the movie he goes through the future in about real time and then he goes back. That would mean in real time he would instantaneously see the outcome of his possible futures. Which sounds odd. OK I know it's all nonsense, but I felt was unbelievable nonsense 

[shmokes]

God I can't stand Nicholas Cage.  Then, of course, he does something like Matchstick Men and I remember that he's actually talented.  Then he goes back to doing absolute, thowaway action movie pieces of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- for the next few years and promptly forget again.  For every Raising Arizona there are five Ghost Riders. 

[shardian]

I enjoyed Next, though I thought it was a bit creepy that the hot 7th heaven girl was his love interest. Ahh, the benefits of being the producer of your own stuff - you get to choose who you want to make out with and film sex scenes with, and they actually do it for "the art".

Oh, and Ghost Rider sucked major balls.

[patrickl]

OK compared to Ghost Rider I have to agree that Next was an award winner. Another horrible cage movie was The Wicker Man. I won that DVD, but I had to get rid of it as fast I could.

I liked Leaving Las Vegas, but I guess that had more to do with Elisabeth Shue than Nicholas cage.

[patrickl]

Look what might happen if they actually became a couple and had kids (see the second picture):
Worth1000 contest

[somunny]

I thought "Lord Of War" was a decent film.  And, of course, he's great in "Valley Girl".   

[koolmoecraig]

He was great in Adaptation.

[danny_galaga]

and he was absolutely smokin' in 'fast times at ridgemont high' (",)

actually, i thought ghost rider was ok too...

[boykster]

He was great in Adaptation.

Agreed....

[AtomSmasher]

Another horrible cage movie was The Wicker Man.

I'm one of the few people that didn't hate that movie, I didn't think it was all that good, but I didn't hate it.  Although I only saw the dvd version which apparently had a couple different scenes and a different ending then the theatrical version (I have no idea how different, it just said it was on the box), so maybe that had something to do with it.

I haven't seen next, but as others have mentioned he has done some great movies, such as Adaptation and Raising Arizona.

[patrickl]

Another horrible cage movie was The Wicker Man.

I'm one of the few people that didn't hate that movie, I didn't think it was all that good, but I didn't hate it.  Although I only saw the dvd version which apparently had a couple different scenes and a different ending then the theatrical version (I have no idea how different, it just said it was on the box), so maybe that had something to do with it.

I saw only the DVD version too. I just thought the whole thing was ridiculous. never was there an suspense or mystery. Just laughable ridiculousness.

BTW I like Lord of War too. Haven't seen Adaptation or Matchstick men and maybe I should.

[koolmoecraig]

A good rule of thumb is to see any movie that's written by Charlie Kaufman.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Adaptation
Being John Malkovich

All great.  He used to write for "Get a Life" too which was a great albeit short-lived sitcom.

[AtomSmasher]

A good rule of thumb is to see any movie that's written by Charlie Kaufman.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Adaptation
Being John Malkovich

All great.  He used to write for "Get a Life" too which was a great albeit short-lived sitcom.

I agree on all counts.  From time to time I still refer to the Get a Life episode where they get stuck upside down in the rollercoaster, but no one ever has any clue what I'm talking about.

[SavannahLion]

Look what might happen if they actually became a couple and had kids (see the second picture):
Worth1000 contest

Holy crap. Promise us you'll never link us to that site again.

[RayB]

A good rule of thumb is to see any movie that's written by Charlie Kaufman.

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Adaptation
Being John Malkovich

All great.  He used to write for "Get a Life" too which was a great albeit short-lived sitcom.

I saw Spotless last night. Funny, it reminded me of Being John Malkovich. Now I know why.
PS: I have both Get a Life DVDs.  It's so stupid, I LOVE it!

[boykster]

I'll probably see Next, but will wait for dvd (for sure).  I'm a big fan of PKD's novels and shorts, but have to admit that most of the movie adaptations are pretty craptacular.  I'm probably one of the few ppl that actually liked 'A Scanner Darkly' in all of its rotoscopic wierdness....liked, not loved.  I LOVED the novel.

It'd be curious to see some of his more obscure work adapted to film; I think Counterclock World would be a good choice...

[danny_galaga]

Another horrible cage movie was The Wicker Man.

I'm one of the few people that didn't hate that movie, I didn't think it was all that good, but I didn't hate it.  Although I only saw the dvd version which apparently had a couple different scenes and a different ending then the theatrical version (I have no idea how different, it just said it was on the box), so maybe that had something to do with it.

I saw only the DVD version too. I just thought the whole thing was ridiculous. never was there an suspense or mystery. Just laughable ridiculousness.

BTW I like Lord of War too. Haven't seen Adaptation or Matchstick men and maybe I should.

definitely see matchstick men

[patrickl]

To me the story of Scanner Darkly got compeletely lost in the odd cartoon effect. I didn't even finish the movie. It felt a bit like a Bertolt Brecht play (make sure people don't get involved in the story so they keep thinking).

Blade Runner was nice though and Minority Report too (up to a point)

[boykster]

To me the story of Scanner Darkly got compeletely lost in the odd cartoon effect. I didn't even finish the movie. It felt a bit like a Bertolt Brecht play (make sure people don't get involved in the story so they keep thinking).

Blade Runner was nice though and Minority Report too (up to a point)

Blade Runner was a loose adaptation of a MUCH wierder story, and Minority Report was a short story that was turned into a MI type action flick.....

I actually think the rotoscoping helped the movie immensely try to match the wierdness of the novel.  There's also no other way I can imagine that you could represent the scramble suit and his trippy friends and their paranoia and hallucinations.....Like I said, I liked the movie....but not as much as I loved the book.

[RayB]

A Scanner Darkly sucks.
Blade Runner is great.  I know a few years ago everyone snapped up all of his work, but that doesn't mean everything he wrote is gold. There can and probably are a lot of weak stories that are, and will be made into movies but shouldn't be (eg: A Scanner Darkly)

[jbox]

Oh but dude, I totally want one of those morphing suits! That would be awesome.


Anyway, I just got around to watching "Next", and I have to say that I too have a few unresolved questions:
spoiler:

(a) What was the point of being shot *after* the phones were disconnected? duh! It wasn't to find the sniper, because he could just 'rewind' and tell her where the sniper was. It wasn't to make the bad guys think he was dead, because the FBI just switched off all the phone lines so the sniper had no way to contact his associates. So, WTF?
(b) What was the point letting the FBI search one deck at all? He takes a few minutes to process his potential searches of every other deck of the boat, and they can't spare the few seconds more it would take to search the current deck? WTF? FBI chick should have given him a damn radio so that the instant after one of them got shot (especially her!) someone could radio him straight away so that he could radio her back *before* they were shot. I know that wont work for hundreds of agents in mass gun battles like outside, but there's just like five FBI dudes inside.
(c) Covert operations work when they are SMALL. I can believe that a group of say ten individuals can be "trustworthy" and with sufficient funds could pull that off. But they were carrying that ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- around and talking in front of hundreds of dock workers. Not a single one of them is even interested in the reward money (if not simply having family near by)? Not a chance. That gun battle at the end made it seem like there were a stack load of bad guys and choppers and all kinds of weapons just sitting on the docks waiting to get used.
(d) He spends his whole life being used to two minutes and now he can see days to weeks into the future for her? No way does he just bang the chick and move on without having a lot more questions about *why* she changes him.

/spoiler
Do any of the people who have read the book know if that stuff gets answered better there (if it even happens there in the first place)?

[boykster]

A Scanner Darkly sucks.
Blade Runner is great.  I know a few years ago everyone snapped up all of his work, but that doesn't mean everything he wrote is gold. There can and probably are a lot of weak stories that are, and will be made into movies but shouldn't be (eg: A Scanner Darkly)

Have you read the book, or are you basing only on the movie?  Personally, I think A Scanner Darkly was MUCH more mainstream than 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and is actually very representative of PKD's body of work and how he addresses mental illness, drug use, existentialism, and most definately PARANOIA.

To each their own though, if you thought it sucked, then to you it sucked. 

[RayB]

Nope, I did not read the book. And perhaps this is exactly my point. Not everything he wrote is suitable for a movie. Some stories are best told in written form.

[boykster]

Nope, I did not read the book. And perhaps this is exactly my point. Not everything he wrote is suitable for a movie. Some stories are best told in written form.

Good point.  If I hadn't read the book, I'm pretty sure the movie would have been pretty incomprehensible....