X
  • 2011
  • R
  • History Films
  • 1 h 47 m
  • 2011
  • R
  • History Films
  • 1 h 47 m

Summary In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the...

Directed By: Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney

Written By: Ken Kesey, Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney

  • 2011
  • R
  • History Films
  • 1 h 47 m
  • 2011
  • R
  • History Films
  • 1 h 47 m

Magic Trip

Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 20 Critic Reviews
59
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary In 1964, Ken Kesey, the famed author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip to the New York World’s Fair. He was joined by “The Merry Band of Pranksters,” a renegade group of counterculture truth-seekers, including Neal Cassady, the American icon immortalized in Kerouac’s “On the...

Directed By: Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney

Written By: Ken Kesey, Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 20 Critic Reviews
59
50% Positive
10 Reviews
50% Mixed
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 20 Critic Reviews
59
50% Positive
10 Reviews
50% Mixed
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
83
Aug 11, 2011
The film is a lively and absorbing document, filled with jaw-dropping materials, such as an actual audio recording of Kesey's first LSD trip in a Stanford University lab.
By Shawn Levy FULL REVIEW
75
Aug 18, 2011
It's the lysergic soap opera going on among Kesey, Neal Cassady, and various pals, scribes, spouses, and hangers-on piled onto the rainbow-hued school bus that's at the heart of this rollicking road pic.
By Steven Rea FULL REVIEW
67
Aug 12, 2011
The result may have value to '60s sociologists, ethnologists, superannuated hippies, and Kesey fanatics, but for the most part what is on view is a jumble of scenes featuring pranksters getting high on grass and LSD.
By Peter Rainer FULL REVIEW
60
Aug 5, 2011
The filmmakers' fidelity to their source material is admirable, but more historical context could have made this Trip as illuminating as it is magical.
By Frank Scheck FULL REVIEW
60
Aug 2, 2011
What it lacks, perhaps unavoidably, is a sense of the cosmic Now; the movie recovers, without exactly illuminating, a "long, strange trip" that seems all the stranger as it recedes into the past.
By J. Hoberman FULL REVIEW
50
Sep 15, 2011
Magic Trip comes off nearly as scattershot as the events it depicts, which is a major stumbling block.
By Marc Savlov FULL REVIEW
40
Aug 6, 2011
Sadly, the documentary just doesn't have enough coherent passages to make anything about this now seemingly ancient journey compelling for contemporary audiences.
By Pete Hammond FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Magnolia Pictures, History Films, Optimum Releasing, Imaginary Forces, Jigsaw Productions, Phoenix Wiley, A&E IndieFilms
Release Date Aug 5, 2011
Duration 1 h 47 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place
Website http://www.facebook.com/MagicTripMovie
View All Details

Awards

Miami Film Festival
• 1 Nomination

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