justingeist Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Just finished watching A Scanner Darkly. Disappointing. All premise and mood. Is this typical of Philip K Dick? Used to read a ton of SF but never got around to Dick. Crap movie is fair indication that book doesn't have much to offer. vs. Also saw Blade Runner for the first time a couple of weeks ago (the VHS was before my time). Enjoyed the acting and art direction, but extremely thin story. What's the deal with Philip K Dick? Are any of the movie adaptations any good? What about the stories/novels? P.S. Am I a total weirdo for thinking Sean Young was the bee's knees? [yt=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lad3ZlzPD4k[/yt] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GorunNova Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 No, you're a total weirdo for thinking that watching a movie based on a book will tell you anything about the book it's based on other than its genre (and sometimes not even that!) Don't rate a book by watching it's movie... read the book. In this case, I've seen the movie, but haven't read the book... so I can't comment on the quality of the book, not having read it. As for 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' (i.e. the book 'Blade Runner' is based on)... yeah, the book and movie are also significantly different, and I much prefer the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenebrae Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Even with very good adaptations, it's not the same as reading the book (Lord of the Rings had a good one but still missed a tonne of stuff)... and really, since when did Hollywood do good on a regular basis? If Heinlein had lived to see Starship Troopers made into the film... he'd have died of shame. It bears little, if any, resemblance to his book and the themes from the book are at best ignored and at worst, totally the opposite. So, I'd say - don't write off a book because a film about it was terrible. Unless it's The Da Vinci Code - then it's ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justingeist Posted August 25, 2007 Author Share Posted August 25, 2007 I know where you're coming from. I refuse to ever see Bicentennial Man or I, Robot cuz I'm sure I would we be disappointed. I'm too loyal to Asimov to do that. But I don't read SF anymore, so I'm more interested in Philip K Dick as a reservoir of ideas for sci-fi movies. I've never read a Stephen King novel, but I tend to like the movies made from his books/stories. (Even the Langoliers miniseries.) So....are there any movies based on Philip Dick that you like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenebrae Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 Bicentennial Man was actually a pretty decent adaptation... terrible film but fairly true to the story. I, Robot had little - if anything - to do with Asimov and was an abomination for many reasons... they should just have made it an unapologetic Will Smith vehicle. There are a fair few Philip K Dick films... I'm not sure any of them are good, per se... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amnot Borg Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 Phillip K. DIck was an unusual man and and writer. His stories take some interesting turns and you have to realize "they ain't based on reality." They are just stories. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep vs. Bladerunner... lol, the book has strengths that the movie does not and vice versa. We Can Remember It For You Wholesale vs. Total Recall... well, the story is short and misses out on what a novel could include but it does have interesting things in it as does the movie. The movie has Arnie as a spy, (wow, how'd that happen), and the special effects are funny. Saturday Night Live started a skit based on the movie. Haven't seen A Scanner Darkly yet or read the story so I can't comment on them yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amnot Borg Posted November 1, 2007 Share Posted November 1, 2007 still haven't read A Scanner Darkly but the movie is very much done in his style. psychodelic. I enjoyed the technology in the story even if the story itself got confusing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnifex Posted November 22, 2007 Share Posted November 22, 2007 Crap movie is fair indication that book doesn't have much to offer. WTF? I didn't bother reading any further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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