darfoo

This is one of the most fun and entertaining horror movies I have seen in a long time. There are scenes that literally made me laugh out loud, and scenes that made me go "eww". It wasn't particularly scary but there was a decided amount of camp, as well as a post scream self-awareness that made the movie fun. It seemed to really be made for the horror movie fans, and did not want to play to the lowest common denominator. Robert Englund was fantastic, and as always played his part perfectly on key. I actually sat through this without look at my watch once, without getting up at all and when it was over I was glad I had sat through it. A very good movie.

This movie will not win any awards, it doesn't have any brilliant message or specific vision to convey. It is entertainment, pure and simple. You go to this movie, drop your 9 bucks, and kick back for 2.5 hours of enjoyable action and adventure. It is Hollywood brain candy at its finest, and Johnny Depp brings more than one smile to your face as you watch this film. As a sequel to the original, it does a good job of continuing the story but also stands on its own so people who have not seen or do not remember the first one will be able to enjoy this film. The movie has one or two scenes that might be a bit intense for small children, but it has enough humor to make them soon forget the dark stuff and enjoy. Overall, a good movie, check your brain at the door and enjoy.

Hollywood has tried so many times to capture the feel of Philip K. Dick terms of his style and writing. Films like Total Recall, Paycheck, Minority Report, all were playing to the lowest common denominator and really lost a lot of the feel that Dick conveys in his writing. Blade Runner came close, but it still missed the essential darkness that Dick brings to each and every one of his works.

Enter "A Scanner Darkly", aside from the Interpolative Rotoscoping that the film maker used to put the graphical images of this movie together and give it an amazing visual feel all its own, the vision and imagery conveyed by the film are as true to Dick's original as any movie has come. I left the theater feeling overwhelmed, touched, and changed, much the same way as when I'd finished the book. This is rare, and it is decidedly a beautiful thing.