Jade's Trick

Reviews, Spotlights, and Randomosity of all things under the sun.

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Location: Hartford, Connecticut, United States

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Thursday, December 30, 2004

"Your produce alone has been worth the trip." -- K-PAX

So this first review is about an incredible movie that nobody knows about.

K-PAX is the story of a man who calls himself Prot (pronounced "proat" and played beautifully by Kevin Spacey) and claims to be from K-PAX, a plent about 1000 light years away in the constellation Lyra. We first see him at Grand Central Station from whence he is immediately taken to a mental institution. There, he meets up with our other protagonist, a psychiatrist named Dr. Mark Powell played by Jeff Bridges. The rest of the movie seeks to answer (or not answer) one question: is Prot really who he says he is or is he a human?

The first half or so of the movie conclusively proves that he is from K-PAX whereas the second half conclusively proves that he's really a human. The ending is highly provocative.

It is a crime that this movie did not win at least one Oscar. If nothing else, Spacey deserves one for his performance during the hypnotism scenes (Dr. Powell "regresses" him so as to learn about his past). He really nails the emotions of a shell-shocked child, an apathetic teenager, and a grief-stricken family man. It's hard to say anything without giving the whole film away, so I'll only give you one piece of advice: make sure to have a box of tissues nearby.

Besides the acting, this movie really fascinates me because it has an intelligence and poise that you rarely see in movies. You have to actually think during the film and it doesn't hand you the answers on a platinum platter. The dialogue is so witty and yet so natural for these characters that they make believable PhDs (and aliens), and at no point do you get the feeling that they're narrating.

In short, I highly recommend seeing this movie if you haven't. Rent it, borrow it, buy it (Amazon sells it for only $9), trade crack for it, whatever. Just see it.

Acting: 5/5 sticks of dynamite (Awe-inspiring).
Sound: 3/5 ducklings (Decent, but not particularly noticeable).
Visuals: 3/5 silver eggs (Good, but the movie didn't really require anything spectacular as some of the best scenes were of the two main characters talking in an office).
Humor: 3.5/5 talking heads (It definitely has its moments, and what moments they are, but this is decidedly not a comedy).
Story: 4.5/5 strips of flannel (A very interesting sequence of events. No real flaws, but I'm hesitant to give it the full 5 if it doesn't completelly blow me away).

Overall (not necessarily determined by the above categories): 4.5/5 sugar cookies (One of the best movies I've seen in a long time, but again, I'm hesitant to give it the maximum).

(PS: Any suggestions for new categories would be very helpful).

The Modus Operandi

Ahoy hoy! Welcome to my blog. Here, I plan on doing a number of things: spotlighting various works that have gone unnoticied ("sleeper hits," as they are often called), reviewing movies/books/etc, random rants, and mabye even posting some short fiction of mine. I can't say for sure how regular I'll be posting, but I plan on shooting for once a week on Saturday or Sunday, at least to start.