[Insert Dick joke here]

[yendi]

[Poll #350480]

Comments

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

Watch me commit sacriledge:

I think Dick is a terrible writer. His stories are awful--not well written with characters I actively hate if I give a shit about them at all. Almost all the movies are improvements on those crap pulp stories. Part of it is the conventions of sci fi during his era, part of it is not living up to hype, but part of it is that he has neat ideas, but can't write his way out of a paper bag.

IHNJH, IJLS "Dick".

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I'm unable to answer this poll, having seen only one Dick adaptation (Paycheck) and read only one Dick novel (The Man in the High Castle, which, by the way, I adored and hope to be consuming more Dick in short order). So while I love Dick, I haven't gotten enough to be able to comment in an informed manner.

[tablesaw]

Blade Runner: I think that what devalues the novel are the printings that tried to cash in on the movie. They're very different works, and that's okay, normally, because they have very different titles. But I stil remember those editions that tried to rename the book "Blade Runner." It's not right. The more the differences are made clear, the better both are.

Total Recall: I think that it's a cheesy action fic that's as good as plenty of Dick's short story work. Nowhere near his best work, but I remember thinking that it's the kind of screenplay that Dick might have written if he were hungry.

Screamers: Still haven't seen, but the short story gave me chills.

Minority Report: Not the best movie. It had some interesting points, including the precog escape scene that was a short-hand version of Paycheck. But the story is AWFUL! It's a lot of paranoia that goes nowhere around a clever trick that doesn't get the proper focus. Dick did a lot of paranoia work, and almost all of it is better than this story.

Paycheck: I have to choose the opposite of one of your choices, that it was a pretty good adaptation that was stuffed with really bad action straw. I bought Affleck as an engineer (which surprised me), and the movie was at its best when it focused on him being an engineer, not an amazing magical action hero.

A Scanner Darkly: Man, I barely undertand the novel, I'm not going to try to guess what the movie will be like.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

But I stil remember those editions that tried to rename the book "Blade Runner." It's not right.

Damn skippy.

[yendi]

Damn skippy.

Damn him straight to hell.

I love Dick!

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen most of these - I tend to avoid Dick adaptions like the plague*. This is the first I've heard of A Scanner Darkly, and I was scared for a second, since that's my favorite Dick novel, but if anyone can do Philip K. Dick right, it's Linklater.

*Though Blade Runner is my third favorite movie, and my favorite non-animated one.

Re: I love Dick!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

if anyone can do Philip K. Dick right, it's Linklater.

Gilliam, dude. Gilliam.

Re: I love Dick!

[sarabellum.livejournal.com]

YESSSS!

Re: I love Dick!

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

Right. Gooood point.

Re: I love Dick!

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Gilliam would be AWESOME.

I'm scared to death of the A Scanner Darkly adaptation. It's probably my favorite book of his. I loved Linklater's Slacker but I thought Waking Life blew chunks.

Re: I love Dick!

[daoistraver.livejournal.com]

but I suspect, knowing him, that this will be the most faithful to the original writing.

that's no guarantee that it won't suck, but...

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen Minority Report or Paycheck, and never heard of Screamers.

mooovies

[gaelfling.livejournal.com]

Total recall was just.. well full of holes so I can't say it was like anything except perhaps swiss cheese...
and paycheck? never saw it so I can't really make a comment on it, but should I be on a bus going somewhere and they show it I'll be sure to offer my *ahem* opinion on the subject ;)

Re: mooovies

[yendi]

Of course it was full of holes -- with so many bullets fired, how could it not be?

[shawnj.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see Time Out of Joint, but the concept has been done to death lately.

[shawnj.livejournal.com]

Other for Blade Runner: Never seen it. It's one of my shameful geek admissions. Read the book, though (as well as most of the other books referenced here).

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Never seen it.

Don't bother. It'll make you twitch in impotent frustration and anger.

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

WHAT?

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Call me a heretic, but seriously, man. It was a great book! You'd think they'd have USED some of it...

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought it was a great book and as adaptations go, it was very loose. But as a movie, regardless, it did its own stunts.

[daoistraver.livejournal.com]

loose isn't the word.

But it was awesome in its own right. So... yeah to what you said.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

This is a horrible admission, but I was simply bored by Bladerunner. I know I fell asleep at least twice trying to watch it.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*high five*

[lunaris1013.livejournal.com]

Total Recall: I never watch Schwartzenegger flicks. Never.

Minority Report: I really liked, but since I've not read the source, can't speak to its faithfulness.

Paycheck: See icon. *bg*

A Scanner Darkly: Can the opposites of Keanu and Linklater cancel each other out? Hmmm...

[yendi]

I don't like Arnie, but he's managed some decent movies, actually.

Yeah, that icon speaks volumes. :-)

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Why why why always Keanu??? Arrgghhhh!!!! He screwed Johnny Mnemonic so badly they're NEVER gonna make another Gibson movie. But I'll pay to see A Scanner Darkly because it's my favorite book, period. I have not the slightest idea how they're going to put all that confusion and neural aphasia in a movie, but I trust Linklater to at least try real hard.

[aki-dreaming.livejournal.com]

Have not seen Minority Report or Paycheck. Haven't actually seen Screamers, but I figure that's covered by my selection. Really scared of that A Scanner Darkly thing. Really, really scared. Terrified, actually.

In case you're wondering, the only one of the books I've read is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and I like the movie and the book equally and think they both rock. But the movie wouldn't exist without the book, and the book would still rock without the movie. So.

Rutger Hauer=yummmmmmmm.

[lovingboth]

Someone left a collection of Dick short stories somewhere, so I reread 'I can remember it for you wholesale' and was surprised at how much of it was in Total Recall.

[pharminatrix.livejournal.com]

Never seen Screamers or Paycheck.

[rhapsody-98.livejournal.com]

I mention this just to maintain the integrity of the polling: I answered "Other" whenever I hadn't seen the movie.

[yendi]

You can also just skip a question (which I did for one of them).

[thejunebug.livejournal.com]

*repraochful* You forgot the shiny buttons. WHERE ARE THE SHINY BUTTONS

[yendi]

It's a quiz about PKD -- all buttons are shiny! And at least two of the answers in the penultimate question are silly enough to be considered "shiny buttons." :-)

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the first two.

I love Blade Runner on its own merits, having had the advantage of not reading the book first! The book was... interesting, but difficult. I suppose I would probably understand it a lot better now, 20 years later.

I have a habit of discovering Total Recall on TV, each time a little earlier in the movie, so I've kind of been watching it backwards over a period of years. It seems to go drastically downhill at the point Sharon Stone bites the dust and they go on the run, and from then on everything looks fake and gaudy and laughable.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

My others are attached to either didn't see... or don't care.

I own about 15 Dick books and have only read two.

[das_hydra]

I've only seen the "director's cut" of Blade Runner, and I really wasn't paying a hell of a lot of attetion. Oddly, it reminded me a lot of The Fifth Element. But I liked what I did get/saw.

I know what Total Recall is, but I've never watched it. Ditto with Paycheck.

I like Keanu. I've seen pictures from this, and I might be interested in seeing it. Probably when I know more about it, will I decide.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

In spite of all my years reading SF, I don't think I've read a Dick.

[crwilley.livejournal.com]

Minority Report, along with A.I., constitute proof that Steven Spielberg has forgotten how to end a movie. Most of Minority Report was a darned good movie. If they had stopped it when they were putting Tom Cruise in jail, it would have been a great place to stop...but not a Hollywood ending, I guess. Someone decided that what it needed was an action flick attached to it by means of a plot hole you could drive the Titanic through....