--- In [email protected], "george_deforest"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > TurquoiseB wrote:
> > 
> > As it turns out (I didn't know this when I wrote the
> > first mini-review), the good ideas in the flick came
> > from...again...Philip K. Dick, whose story it was
> > based upon. That said, it wasn't a very good render-
> > ing of Philip's ideas, but what, other than (perhaps)
> > "Blade Runner," has been?
> 
> well, i really liked "A Scanner Darkly", which came out last year.
> based on PKD (who is great) and done by Richard Linklater,
> using a very cool animation technique called digital rotoscoping.
> stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, and Winona Rider

I liked it, too. Captured a lot of the drug jargon
and mindset that Dick used in the original. Again,
not a great film, but one of the most faithful rep-
resentations of a PKD story in film.

> > Philip was an over-the-top crazy, a man with so many ideas
> > running through his brain that society is still trying to 
> > absorb them all. But they haven't translated to film 
> > very well yet.
> 
> on the DVD extras, they interview his grown children

That must be interesting. From what I hear, PKD
had a somewhat rocky relationship with reality, so
it couldn't have been easy being his kids.

> > I didn't say that it was a good film, merely that
> > I enjoyed it. I've also enjoyed the hell out of
> > "Plan 9 From Outer Space" as well, but that doesn't
> > mean that I think it's a good film. :-)
> 
> well then, i hope you saw "Ed Wood" starring my hero
> Johnny Depp. (Plan 9 was an Ed Wood movie)

Know it well. Johnny Depp is one of my heroes as well.
In fact, I list my favorite movie of all time as his
"Don Juan de Marco." If you like Johnny Depp and his
work, sometime check out the film that he directed.
Most people don't know about it, because it sunk like
a stone, largely due to its subject matter. It was
called "The Brave," and recounts the odd vision quest
(in a way) of a down-on-his-luck Native American who
agrees to be tortured to death in a snuff film in
exchange for enough money for his family to live on,
and to throw some last parties. Extremely disturbing
film, with a cameo performance from the godd friend 
he made during the filming of "Don Juan," Marlon
Brando.

I also loved his performance in "From Hell," a dark 
and well-researched retelling of the Jack The Ripper
story. He plays a police inspector who solves crimes
by smoking opium, drinking absinthe, and then having
visions that help him find the killer. 

Even though the film opens with the line, "You are not
going to like me," I loved him in "The Libertine" as
well. Another powerful performance, delivered in a 
very atypical (for Depp) manner. But IMO Samantha 
Morton stole that movie, and Depp graciously allowed
her to do so. She's also tremendous in a semi-scifi
movie called "Code 46," which Bharitu was kind enough
to turn me onto here on FFL. Very nice little romance
set in a near future in which cloning has become 
commonplace, and with it the possibility that you
could accidentally fall in love with someone who was
related to you genetically. Suffice it to say that
this is a crime.

And, since you've gotten me talking about little-known
films, especially scifi films, don't miss one called
"Final Cut," starring Robin Williams. Brilliant film,
a director-to-watch's first, that deals with the 
nature of being observed, and knowing that you are
being observed, and what that does to your sense of
reality, and to memory.





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