CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
74 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Scanner Darkly, A
Warner Independent Pictures

Scanner Darkly, A reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 73 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.2 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 83 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for drug and sexual content, language and a brief violent image

Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, and Rory Cochrane

Based on legendary science-fiction author Philip K. Dick’s own experiences, A Scanner Darkly tells the darkly comedic, caustic, but deeply tragic tale of drug use in the modern world. The film plays like a graphic novel come to life with live-action photography overlaid with an advanced animation process -- a method known as interpolated rotoscoping, first employed in writer/director Richard Linklater’s 2001 film "Waking Life" -- to create a haunting version of America, seven years from now. (Warner Independent Pictures)


GENRE(S): Animation  |  Drama  |  Mystery  |  Sci-fi  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Richard Linklater
Philip K. Dick (novel)
 
DIRECTED BY: Richard Linklater  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 19, 2006 
Theatrical: July 7, 2006 
RUNNING TIME: 100 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Premiere Glenn Kenny
The most impressive thing about the film's technical wizardry is, finally, how unimpressive it is. One doesn't leave the movie with a mind blown by visual bedazzlement but with a soul shattered by the profound sense of tragedy Linklater and company so beautifully put across.
Read Full Review
100
Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
The casting of Reeves in the lead role is inspired: who better than the star of "The Matrix" and its sequels, a trilogy that borrows heavily from Dick's sensibility and obsessions, to play a personality split through overindulgence in drugs and manipulation by outside forces he barely recognizes?
Read Full Review
91
Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Probably the most faithful to the writer's tortured spirit. It's the kind of movie that gets under your skin - and stays there.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
The brilliance of A Scanner Darkly is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books.
Read Full Review
90
Dallas Observer Rob Nelson
What a breath of fresh air this stifling, claustrophobic, boldly uningratiating vision of an American subculture's last gasp imparts to its contrarian core audience. (Call me a hopeless addict: I've seen it three times.)
Read Full Review
90
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Without its animation, A Scanner Darkly would have made a fine cautionary tale about drug addiction, paranoia and institutional treachery in a police state. But with a technique that turns the existing live action into a two-dimensional cartoon, the movie goes one -- maybe even 10 -- better. It becomes its own living, breathing metaphor.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's one of the most faithful movie adaptations of any Dick story to date, and it comes from the scariest of all his books, as well as the truest.
Read Full Review
80
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
There's no other filmmaker, living or dead, who could produce a futuristic sci-fi nightmare, a hipster comedy, a haunting film noir and a cartoon, all in the same movie.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Downey, who, having grasped that he's playing a cartoon character, delivers the most animated performance. (Midway through 2006, this supporting turn is the performance to beat in what seems the year's American movie to beat.)
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Christopher Orr
As they (Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson) bicker and banter, threaten one another with small household objects, and try (unsuccessfully) to determine the number of gears on a bicycle, they display a combination of irritability and incompetence that is the soul of comedy.
Read Full Review
80
Empire Kim Newman
Its intelligence makes it near-essential viewing.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Turns out to be more ordinary than the recipe might suggest. Oh, it's dense and funny and assured, but it's also chatty and listless in a fashion that constrains a narrative film, which, however reluctantly, it is.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
With everything this film has going for it - humor, intelligence and a splendid ensemble - Richard Linklater's nightmare drug movie, A Scanner Darkly, should be continually compelling. But it loses its fizz after a strong series of pops.
Read Full Review
75
Boston Globe Ty Burr
There's conspiracy here, as there is in all of Dick's books, and it wraps the film up with a moving but somewhat neat bowtie.
Read Full Review
75
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
But transforming full, live-action performances into quavering cartoons isn't inherently lyrical, and here it produces the jittery sense of a world dissolving into flat forms and buzzing prattle.
Read Full Review
75
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening sequence, but it's still an audacious offering during a season of brain-dead blockbusters.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub
The visual style and lethargic pace can be frustrating -- at least if you're sober -- but the animated tragedy is still a success.
Read Full Review
75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
This gifted writer-director isn't out to dull the masses with cinematic opium. Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms.
Read Full Review
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The film is weirdly fascinating in its own maverick way.
Read Full Review
70
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Rotoscoping makes certain sense for a film about cognitive dissonance and alternative realities, though both the vocal and gestural performances by Mr. Reeves, Mr. Harrelson and, in particular, the wonderful Mr. Downey make me wish that we were watching them in live action.
Read Full Review
70
Variety Justin Chang
Deeply intriguing but almost too-faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's nightmarish 1977 novel.
Read Full Review
67
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Which makes it all the more frustrating that the film doesn't quite work, and that it drags from episode to episode--some are brilliant, most merely intriguing--with little momentum.
Read Full Review
67
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
As a whole, the film has too little character and/or plot development to sustain narrative interest. What A Scanner Darkly excels at is mood and tone.
Read Full Review
63
USA Today Claudia Puig
Definitely not for everyone. It's a very bleak story with uneven pacing and a narrative whose jumps in time are confusing and occasionally infuriating. But the post-apocalyptic mood blends well with its uniquely stylized look and surreal story.
Read Full Review
63
ReelViews James Berardinelli
If ever there was a movie more destined to become a cult phenomenon, I don't know if I can name it.
Read Full Review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
Smartly cast, in the sense that Reeves, gloomy and pained, and Harrelson, confused and explosive, both seem befuddled while Downey, as the devious, intellectual Barris, is befuddling.
Read Full Review
63
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Scanner is mostly all talk, and the talk is entertaining only when it's coming from Downey. The actor's long history of drug abuse taught him a thing or two about cooked behavior, and he gives some anxious run-on monologues that are very funny.
Read Full Review
63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
It's watchable, due to the rotoscoping technique...It's also as lightweight as the smoke rings blown by one of many perverse, dull characters.
Read Full Review
63
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
More than once during A Scanner Darkly, you find yourself wishing these characters would just shut up.
Read Full Review
60
Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Isn't as dark or sinister as its source material, but it comes closer than any other filmed attempts to this point. It may only be a decent movie, but it's a pretty fine PKD adaptation.
Read Full Review
50
Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand
A rambling depiction of a junkie's descent into zombitude.
Read Full Review
42
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
In A Scanner Darkly, we're watching other people freak out, but the film is maddening to sit through because their freak-outs never become ours.
Read Full Review
40
The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge
Audiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 83 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rory P. gave it a6:
I'm not usually a fan of Robert Downey Jr, but I thought he was very good in this film. He managed to make something striking out of his typical funny/oddball shtick, creating a presence in his neurotic character that mananged to be both weak and threatening. In fact, I liked his performance so much that, as i watched it, i began wishing i could see him acting the part without all the rotoscoping sh*t hiding the performance. Rory Cochrane on the other hand, was over the top in a way that perfectly suited the rotoscope format and the tone of the film. I really hope he gets out of CSI and gets into some movies/non-cack tv shows. I'd love to see him in a decent role. Keanu does his sullen thing again. Its alright, just about. The rotoscoping thing is good, and the acting is good enough, and their is some good dialogue. Its just all very slow and protracted though. its all a bit of a whimper. An unfocused one at that. I'd say this film is most suitable for dedicated fans of Mr. Dick and connoisseurs of film production. Other then that, i'd say you'll be relatively bored of the whole thing, interesting themes and all, after a hour or so.

Kent C. gave it a5:
Artistic creativity and vision isn't enough to change the confusing plot.

Donal M. gave it a10:
Absolutely brilliant.Good storyline, class twist at the end. Rotoscope effect just finishes it off.Creeped me out the first time, had to watch it again and again to understand it more.

Sergey M gave it an8:
Very cool, stylish psychedelic movie!

Brendan M. gave it a9:
A Scanner Darkly is extremly provocative, and visualy stunning. The story really sends a message to modern day society about the what if situation if the war on drugs is lost, and how a person can be controlled by peopel who he thinks are his friends. Its a haunting tale, as well as a cauntionary one, and is not to be missed by anyone interested in good film.

Martin A. gave it a9:
What makes my blood boil about reading these 'public' reviews is that people think that if a film doesn't tick boxes, its "boring, pretentious and no plot character/development." And you will see the same trite comments on every film review on this website. Films like this are attempting to redesign cinema. And in many ways this film is very original. This film circulates around the idea and connotations of drugs and Linklater tries to incorporate this into every aspect. The most obvious aspect of this is the aestetics, the constantly shifting and changing shapes indicate the idea of instability. The plot is murky and constantly fluctuating from comedy to existential questioning andthe dialogue ranges from scientic journal extracts to inane alcoholic banter. None of the dialogue is "meaningless" it all serves a purpose. The film is fantastic because it shows the conflicting mentalities of society and drug user, demonstrated prominently by the quote "you're either on substance d, or you havent tried it." Its a great film.

Jordan K gave it an8:
Those who gave it a red score, and ridiculed the director for the "boring, meaningless dialog, with the 'twist' at the end, which was very predictable" probably haven't read Philip K. Dick. If they had read Dick, they may have been able to appreciate how sincerely the director tried to transfer Dick's style and story to film. This film was masterful, even with Keanu Reeves. Anyone who hated this film is probably illeterate in film and books.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use