hi def digest did right by giving the pq 5 stars! it was a trippy movie. quite original and extraordinary to look at. do yourself a favor and buy this one for the pq alone! plus, it's a great movie to boot. easily made my top 5:

(in no order)
King Kong
Batman Begins
Corpse Bride
Hulk
A Scanner Darkly

I bought it yesterday and we'll be watching it tonight! My g/f LOVES Philip K. Dick, so she's very anxious to see it.

Yeah, it was kinda trippy. Brought back old memories and an anxiety attack :o

those "old memories" are called flashbacks.

your girlfriend may or may not like the story treatment, but if you guys look at the movie as a whole, you'll be very impressed. the sound is fine, but keep in mind that this isn't an action movie. it's more eye-candy than ear-candy. but for what the movie is, the sound is fine.

believe me, this one movie your tv should really be calibrated for!

btw, i never touch anything more mind-altering than a beer, but this is one movie that would probably do well with something besides popcorn...

I watched the SD DVD version a while back - not a bad movie/story. Now I just bought the HD version mainly because of the PQ. I have not watched it yet but since it is ranked as Tier 0 I expect it to look nothing but awesome. :D
____
Axel

I bought it yesterday and we'll be watching it tonight! My g/f LOVES Philip K. Dick, so she's very anxious to see it.
Well, you might want to tell her to temper her expectations a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I really like this movie, and I'm also a HUGE PKD fan, but it's best to approach it on it's own terms, as opposed to solely in comparison to the book. Basically Linklater took scenes directly from the book, and lined them up to make a movie. So in that sense it's really great to see those scenes on the big screen, and Downey is awesome. But there is basically no character development in the movie, which definitely hurts its effectiveness. Especially considering the fact that Arctor has no real character ark in the movie. In the book when get a great sense of his descent, but in the movie he basically goes from burnt to burnt to a crisp. That's my only real gripe with the movie, so while I found it to be quite good, I do feel that it could have been great. Seriously great.

Oh well, I'm just glad it was made at all, and that we have such an outstanding HD-DVD release to enjoy.

So far A Scanner Darkly is in my top three favorite HD DVD's, along with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Batman Begins.

No question about it!! I have been praising this movie all over the forum. Great story.....great animation work...hi-definition quality is outstanding. One should not pass up the oppportunity to OWN THIS MOVIE. Period!!

I still have not found this in a store. Will have to add it to my next amazon order.

i just got this recently too.....def a good lookin flick

I loved the movie. But I hated the animation. This would have easily been one of my favorite films had it been done in total live action with added visual effects.

Just watched this two nights ago, it's amazing what depth this movie achieves through what should be a flat style, guess it's the advantage of drawing over film I guess, awsome movie aswell.

This makes me want to see Waking Life in HD.

I really liked the movie too -- better than I thought I would.

Just watched this two nights ago, it's amazing what depth this movie achieves through what should be a flat style, guess it's the advantage of drawing over film I guess, awsome movie aswell.

I totally agree. The level of depth that was achieved from the 2d tracings was simply amazing.

Netflix here I come! :)

I haven't had a chance to view mine yet, but all these positive remarks are making me look forward to it. =)

Netflix here I come! :)

Same here. Not something I would normally go out and see in the theater but I have been very impressed with movies I would never think about seeing but with HD DVD and Netflix I have been exposed to some great movies.

This makes me want to see Waking Life in HD.


I actually thought Waking Life had much more interesting ideas than Scanner Darkly. I was disappointed in Scanner Darkly...

I loved the movie. But I hated the animation. This would have easily been one of my favorite films had it been done in total live action with added visual effects.

Absolutely! It's f****ng animation!

I've only had a chance to take a quick look at it, but the PQ is definitely amazing.

I loved the movie. But I hated the animation. This would have easily been one of my favorite films had it been done in total live action with added visual effects.

Lol, it is done in total live action with added visual effects. The visual effect was to hand-draw/trace the entire live action frame by frame. :rolleyes: But seriously, this movie looks stunning. I had been avoiding it since it was a cartoon, but am very glad I finally got around to seeing it. And the movie is worth seeing just to watch Downey's antics. The actors performed marvelously, include Reeves. And what an incredible job capturing them in hand drawn/traced images!

I actually had no idea who was in the movie besides Reeves, before watching it. And since it was a cartoon, I figured everything was just voice overs anyway. After the first little bit into the movie, I decided they had modeled arctor after Reeves. A few minutes later, and I knew something special was up. These cartoons were amazingly real, and I could swear one of them was Robert Downey Jr, and one was Winona Ryder. When Woody came on screen... These guys were really good artists. I even watched all the extras after the movie(a rarity for me), then rewatched the movie. Wow!

So if you have not watched this yet, it is a real treat.

Wow, i didn't know the setting was in Anaheim/Orange County. They mention it alot in the film too, thats cool. If i would have known that i would have bought this HD DVD the day it released.

Wow, i didn't know the setting was in Anaheim/Orange County. They mention it alot in the film too, thats cool. If i would have known that i would have bought this HD DVD the day it released.
Well, it was filmed in Austin, Tx but ya, the story takes place in Cali.

Well, it was filmed in Austin, Tx

Those bastards, no wonder i couldn't recognize anything.

Is there no banding on this one? The digital post production pipeline had an 8 bit bottleneck. :eek:

Well, it was filmed in Austin, Tx but ya, the story takes place in Cali.

Those bastards, no wonder i couldn't recognize anything.

Call it payback for years of Texans watching crap clearly filmed in Hollywood being passed off as “Texas”. Wait for the Heroes HD DVD release and then take a look at what they call Odessa; where did all those hills come from? Odessa sits in the middle of the southern plains and is hundreds of miles from anything other than flat land. One must drive to the aforementioned Austin (358 miles) to see any hills or El Paso (284 miles) to see mountains.

Richard Linklater has made many “trippy” films including HD DVD exclusive Dazed and Confused. If A Scanner Darkly seemed strange to most the 1991 film Slacker (also filmed in Austin) will really send you for a loop. The film has no plot (I’ve seen porn movies with a more substantial plot) and just jumps from person to person. In a lesser town that might not be very interesting, but in the Prague of Texas it’s a real hoot. As a general rule I would advise chemical enhancement (via alcohol or other means) for all of Linklater’s films.

Back on topic: I still need to see A Scanner Darkly in HD. I rented it on standard DVD and enjoyed it, but the great PQ ratings it has garnered have peeked my interest in getting the film on HD DVD.

Well, for a Half-animated movie, I am NOT surprised the PQ is outstanding.

ALL Animated features should get into Tier 0!

Is there no banding on this one? The digital post production pipeline had an 8 bit bottleneck. :eek:

Banding isn't a problem when there are no gradients.

is there any difference between the HD DVD and the bluray version?

Thought it looked great...but the movie itself was so out there it leaves a sour taste...and I usually go for that stuff. It just never really delivered.

Guess I'll add my two cents here since this is the latest I've found doing a search on the title of this film.

Not really my cup of tea but that is why I have netflix so I can view something I'm at least curious about. The PQ was very very good and that is the best thing I can say about this one. I was going to stop it before it ended but I stuck with it. I'm sure those who liked the content are quite happy with this one.

I didn't like this movie the first time I watched it (back when it came out on HD DVD). I recently gave it another chance, and I was drawn in right from the start. I think it's a fantastic film, and has renewed my desire to check out more of Philip K Dick's books, and movies based on those books (yes, even Screamers...)

The movie for me was better during the second viewing. The first time you are trying to understand what is going on. It kind of interrupts with the enjoyment and the overall taking in of everything going on.


I was able to pay attention more to the performance of the actors the second time instead of just the story. I really like this HD-DVD a lot.

I think such glowing reviews is a little much. Its ok, definately not a blind buy by any means. Its such a stylized film that wont appeal to everyone so to say for people to just buy it for PQ is a little much and selfish. Just rent it folks and decide if you would watch that multiple times.

Crap movie. I haven't seen the HD-DVD but the SD version had very muddy dialog IMO which made it hard to understand what they were saying.

It's a movie for Phillip K. Dick fans. Great book by the way. You may recall he wrote sci fi stories that were made into other familiar movies as well : Blade Runner, Total Recall and Paycheck.

saw this for $14.99 in best buy today.

saw this for $14.99 in best buy today.

if you're keeping your hd dvd system, it's totally worth getting.

This movie worth buying? CC's total price would be 12.50 for this flick.