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July 3, 2006
A Scanner Darkly
I just saw a preview for A Scanner Darkly on Comedy Central, and one of the review tags said "Linklater's funniest film in years!"
I beg your pardon?
It's been years since I read the book, and yeah, all of Dick's stories have a sort of wry cynical humor to them, but they're more edgy than hyukster funny. Did Linklater or somebody else with the purse strings need to dumb this down and tart it up for a modern idiot audience? The original work explored complicated ideas about consciousness and awareness and reality vs. perception, and this was supposed to be the film that would finally faithfully represent Dick's vision on the screen. It'll really break my heart if we end up with Total Recall on rotoscope.
My books are packed, but I'm going to have to go buy another copy and reread it before I see the film, just to firmly replant the book in my brain like I did with War of the Worlds.
The book is always better. Always.
Posted by ray at July 3, 2006 11:29 PM | Permalink
Categories: [books | movies ]
Comments
Well, bear in mind it is advertising, and you know that trailers often are completely different from the film. I haven't read the novella but I have seen the movie. It's very funny at times -- especially the dialogue between Robert Downey, Jr. and Woody Harrelson. But that doesn't detract from the overall themes of the movie, which are more complicated. I wouldn't call it dumbed down. It's definitely worth seeing.
Posted by: Jette at July 3, 2006 11:44 PM
Hey,
So the trailer here doesn't seem to imply "hyuckster" to me...more ominous. http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/ascannerdarkly.html
Maybe mrqe.com would have some reviews that could let you know for sure which way it really goes.
To my mind, none of Linklater's films have ever been "comedies" except for perhaps Dazed and Confused. They're almost always more soulful, with some comedic lightness added in to offset the introspection and humanity.
Posted by: Miss Syl at July 4, 2006 8:40 AM
I'd say School of Rock falls into the comedy arena as well....
Posted by: Gregg P. at July 4, 2006 2:15 PM
OK, I checked out some of the trailers on YouTube and Yahoo and iFilm and I feel a little better.
I wish I could find an online copy of the commercial I saw on TV last night. It was so unlike any of the trailers y'all have seen. It had that "In a world..." guy reading review quotes. It dripped with big-Hollywood lameness.
Posted by: Ray at July 4, 2006 2:50 PM
I didn't realize he'd done "School of Rock." Surprising. Okay, so two comedies. Actually, SOR is way more of a Hollywood comedy than DAC. DAC had some bittersweetness to it to offset the goofiness, and there weren't the standard Hollywood spit-take conventions.
Posted by: Miss Syl at July 4, 2006 9:57 PM
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
Posted by: Ray at July 4, 2006 10:01 PM
The books are always better, with the possible exception of The Godfather.
Posted by: Sophmom at July 5, 2006 3:27 PM
Jaws.
That's the answer to 'is the book always better'.
Posted by: Elvis at July 5, 2006 7:41 PM
I'll see it because I've read about everything PKD wrote, but I was disappointed to learn:
1) it's a cartoon
2) it stars Keanu Reeves. I can't see the dogstar having the depth to portray a PKD character. No way.
I hope the PKD estate gets alot of dough from it though... I think its a shame that PKD himself never lived to see his ideas put onto the big screen and into popular culture. Then again, the screen adaptations of his work have been so mundane that the ideas really weren't conveyed in the first place.
Posted by: Mike at July 7, 2006 10:19 PM
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