Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Talk about vertigo: Altered States.

What condition my condition is in. . .
Altered States, 1980, directed by Ken Russell. Written by Paddy Chayefsky.
starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban.

" Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically." (IMDB).

Um, NO. In addition to freezing my tail off most of the day, I spent the last three hours trying not to throw up; I blame the film. I didn't really dig it at all and actually fell asleep during the first half, but then every few moments I would hear some weird, jarring noise, wake up to find all kinds of trippy designs and flashes going on, and then see William Hurt either sweaty, bloody, or morphing into some ridiculous ball of energy or moving lumps. I'm not a good candidate for hallucinogens or films about hallucinogens (unless we're talking Lebowski, of course). Being dizzy and out of control is probably *the worst* thing I can imagine. Boo.

The one semi-positive thing I can say about this film is that the ending reminded me of a very popular music video from my youth, man banging on the walls, trapped in a hallway? Yeah? I liked A-ha's version of it a little better though, to tell the truth.

10 comments:

Donald said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Donald said...

I remember when my sister rented this because she heard it was good, so I watched it with her knowing absolutely nothing about it. Turns out, it didn't matter because nothing in this movie would've made sense to me even if I had written the damn screenplay myself.

Man, I hate this movie. I do love Bob Balaban, but if Bob Balaban is all you want out of a movie (and what more could you posssibly need?), rent Close Encounters of the Third Kind or 2010 instead.

Justin Garrett Blum said...

The only reason I'm glad I saw this movie as a kid is that years later, I could understand the joke when they parodied this in the Dog Whisperer episode of South Park.

Justin Garrett Blum said...

Also, Take on Me will never stop being awesome.

Anna said...

is that the one where all the nannies come to try to civilize cartman and can't, so the dog guy has to do it? i need to see this.

Anna said...

and yes, on Take On Me.
back when videos were videos. THE GOLDEN AGE.

Donald said...

I think I may have said this before, but Take on Me is the best song and video ever made. Maybe not the best song ever made... and maybe not even the best video... but put together, but are awesome enough that the combo is unstoppable. This song was so amazing, there is no doubt Ah Ha is going to take over the world.

I'm too lazy to check, but where are they on that?

Justin Garrett Blum said...

I think A Ha are still pretty big in Europe. Aren't they Norwegian?

Donald said...

Yeah, but *I'm* big in Europe. I have a couple records over there under the name "Mephin Dorf."

Justin Garrett Blum said...

Oh, dayum! You're Mephin Dorf??? I have all your albums!

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