tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post355275030395234527..comments2024-03-11T11:06:36.576-07:00Comments on Total Dick-Head: My Future Has Been AdjustedRagle Gummhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13951340313214410331noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-26175066976462335692011-07-02T13:48:14.406-07:002011-07-02T13:48:14.406-07:00I finally saw this last night and it was a lot sil...I finally saw this last night and it was a lot sillier than I expected. The Adjustment Bureaucrats really suck at their jobs. It's funny though, the first 18 minutes were the most Dickian for me, but for all the wrong reasons - the merging of reality and fantasy with the appearance of Madelaine Albright, John Stewart, etc. making an appearance in this work of fiction. I found this more unseemly than a comedy like "Dave," maybe because the blurred line between politics and entertaiment is so much more pronounced. <br /><br />In all, I didn't really feel like I was watching a bad PKD adaptation, I felt like I was watching a bad movie.Henry Baumhttp://www.theamericanbookofthedead.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-42972513626114757282011-04-04T19:01:06.116-07:002011-04-04T19:01:06.116-07:00You forget this film... I know it's french (bu...You forget this film... I know it's french (but french guys were the first to give some love to PKD) but it's a really good adaptation (and yes it's an adaptation not a rebuilding by Hollywood):<br />"Confessions d'un Barjo"<br /><br />http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104003/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-85524237386805430882011-03-27T18:07:25.084-07:002011-03-27T18:07:25.084-07:00It is changing the subject a bit, but I'd like...It is changing the subject a bit, but I'd like to see a response to this: http://www.cracked.com/article_19106_5-ways-phillip-k-dicks-insanity-changed-world-movies.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-49914651085099580382011-03-25T12:52:59.297-07:002011-03-25T12:52:59.297-07:00Evelyn Waugh said, many years ago, that Hollywood ...Evelyn Waugh said, many years ago, that Hollywood selects a book for filming because it "has had some individual quality, good or bad, that has made it remarkable. It is the work of a staff of 'writers' to distinguish this quality, separate it and obliterate it. We all known frightful examples of books we have seen thus sterilised."Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-19991944331920729752011-03-24T02:56:35.578-07:002011-03-24T02:56:35.578-07:00hated this film. Heard someone describing it as &q...hated this film. Heard someone describing it as "The Matrix with a Hallmark twist." Think that hits the nail on the head.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-63596772386261086162011-03-22T14:31:26.132-07:002011-03-22T14:31:26.132-07:00It is interesting. Personally, I find a movie like...It is interesting. Personally, I find a movie like MICHAEL CLAYTON to be more like a PK Dick movie than many of the movies actually based on Dick stories and novels. Except A SCANNER DARKLY, of course.<br /><br />For me, ADJUSTMENT BUREAU would've been much more interesting if, as you point out, it had been far less overtly fantastic. <br /><br />In MICHAEL CLAYTON, there is the implication that something unexplainable is going on. That Arthur Eden, Clayton and Clayton's son, Henry, are all traveling through a pathway of alternate realities that converge in the boy's series of books.<br /><br />It's probably something more like Jonathan Lethem than Dick, but Dick's where Lethem got much of his style. But it is a mistake to label PK Dick a "high concept" writer as Hollywood seems to do. By emphasizing the concept to the exclusion of the actual story, they fail to understand his writing beyond the superficial.John Henninghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09776687871642074467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-63226877994165605832011-03-21T03:02:56.054-07:002011-03-21T03:02:56.054-07:00Hopefully the plethora of films will get people in...Hopefully the plethora of films will get people into reading the stories. That's the most positive thing I can find to say about most of these films. Then everyone will become fed up of PKD (if they're not already) and the second-hand prices for some of his books might come down. There's always hope.palmer_eldritchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15218327847970391752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-25032873908406695602011-03-20T20:52:48.645-07:002011-03-20T20:52:48.645-07:00Tragic isn't it; i'm sure that list is ups...Tragic isn't it; i'm sure that list is upside down. Or should be. The most faithful adaptation you can currently get at the bottom? That's just not cricket. meh. I look forward to the 4 part man in the high castle BBC thing and see if that does something right.politeruinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-56562603612544817442011-03-20T16:34:03.945-07:002011-03-20T16:34:03.945-07:00Simply thinking actively about Dick, subjects addr...Simply thinking actively about Dick, subjects addressed by Dick, and subjects adjacent to Dick generates more creative and fruitful material than most original writing does. But Dick also seems to provide a unique kind of influence of writers - one smart tweak of a central theme (like your Jung-ey solipsist confrontation idea - shades of GPH?)can produce an idea that is somehow a riff and yet not overly derivative. I think that's partially because he was so involved in the dialogue aspect of science fiction - an aspect that keeps non-SF readers confused by so much of his approach. It's also because he's simply the most stimulating writer around. I guess I have no conclusion here, except: from one Dick-head aspiring writer to another, keep on keepin' on. And if anyone gets to consult on the man's works, it should and probably would probably be you at this point.Nathaniel K. Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05865030640753109578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2184123882936370131.post-84226956499283579362011-03-20T14:33:50.470-07:002011-03-20T14:33:50.470-07:00My main disappointment with The Adjustment Bureau ...My main disappointment with The Adjustment Bureau was that it ditched the philosophical speculation and subtleties of Dick's work to make a thriller that just did not thrill.<br />At least when Spielberg simplified Minority Report for a mass audience he made a genuinely exciting movie. <br />The Adjustment Bureau ended up trying to do what The Matrix and Dark City have already done much more intelligently (!) and excitingly. The only difference between Adjustment Bureau and those films is that it substitutes their film noir-palette for the bright colours of daytime-NYC which just served to further the illusion that you had just mistakenly wandered into a romantic comedy.<br />[apologies if this is a double-post]giospurshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07004196378398706597noreply@blogger.com