Customer Reviews

K-Pax: Collector's Edition (Widescreen)

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When I received the video it seemed in good condition, but when I played it the first half of the movie was all digitally fragmented. I was not impressed. However this is the first bad situation I experienced from Amazon and I would not hesitate from ordering again.

Fine acting for the most part, an enjoyable story line and good photography, too. But I have to ask: how does Spacey know the orbit trajectories or whatever it is of his supposed far-off galaxy? Did he secretly bone up on this one thing to sway the authorities? And the ending! A vibrant, intelligent (if troubled) person is turned into a drooling basket case by the brilliant doctors of Manhattan Institute. Now that's some serious doctoring! And then the good doctor finally bonds with his son? Huh?

Kevin Spacey plays a character named Prot, who may be from the planet K-PAX, or he may be a deluded person from New Mexico with a painful personal secret. A case could be made for either scenario, but I find compelling evidence for the former.

In any event, Prot makes an unusual appearance at a train station, is involved in a minor altercation, and is arrested and put in a mental ward under the care of Dr. Powell (Jeff Bridges) and claims to be from the planet K-PAX, 1000 lightyears from Earth. Prot is questioned and hypnotized on several occasions, without conclusive evidence to his true identity. Without spoiling the end, Dr. Powell finally follows a clue to his apparent satisfaction, though uncertain conclusion.

Regardless of the outcome, getting there is pretty well done. Spacek puts a slightly unusual spin on things (especially fruit) and is quite humorous, and Bridges is good as well. Nice cinematography.

The DVD has a director's commentary, a behind-the-scenes documentary, deleted scenes, alternate ending, and the usual setup features.

"Your produce alone has been worth the trip."

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This 2001 movie (120 minutes) consists of eighteen scenes. It is based on the novel of the same title. Like the novel, this movie is part mystery, part comedy, and part human drama.

The story is about a man who claims to come from the utopian world called K-PAX (a planet he says is in the constellation Lyra). This man is the prot-agonist of the movie and calls himself Prot (Kevin Spacey).

Excellent cinematography is one of the highlights of this movie. For example, the way Prot (pronounced pr-OAT) is introduced to the movie viewer is truly amazing. At the beginning of of the movie, we find ourselves in a busy and crowded train station and gradually the sunlight coming through the station windows brightens. Then the crowd parts and we see Prot standing in the center of the station floor with his sunglasses on. It's as if he entered the station "on a beam of light."

Eventually, Prot ends up in a mental institution and the psychiatrist that treats him is Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges). Most of the movie is concerned with the interaction and relationship that develops between Prot and Powell.

The acting, especially among the above two actors, is another highlight of this movie. Spacey does a superb job of getting across Prot's wit, humor, and extensive knowledge (especially in sciences like astronomy and physics). He also gets across Prot's passion for eating fruit. Bridges, as the psychiatrist Powell, does a great job in trying to analyze Prot. Powell finds Prot quite rational and later admits that this patient is "the most convincing delusional I've ever seen."

One of the best and most colorful scenes occurs at a planetarium where Prot demonstrates to some distinguished astonomers and astrophysicists that he knows the precise orbital pattern of his home planet in a newly discovered star system. The thing is he should not know this information! As well, Prot demonstrates certain otherworldly abilities. Thus Powell and the movie viewer don't know if Prot is indeed an extraterrestrial or a traumatized human.

Prot has a positive influence on all the people he meets especially on Dr. Powell, his family, and other patients in the mental institution. This gives the movie a certain warmth.

Suspense is created when Prot tells Powell that he must eventually return to K-PAX. As well, even though all his fellow patients want to go with him to his utopian world, he states that one can only come with him. As the announced "departure" date approaches, the question asked by Powell is: "What will happen when this day arrives?" As well, the other patients wonder whom Prot will choose to go with him.

This movie is perfect for the first 75 minutes. It retains its wit and humor for that time. After this, the movie seems to lose its humor and becomes serious. For about 15 of the remaining 45 minutes, Powell does some investigative footwork and he has no further interaction with Prot. In my opinion, this was a mistake since (as mentioned above) this story revolves around the interaction between Powell and Prot. (Note that the novel never loses its humor until the very end and an investigative reporter does all the investigative footwork thus allowing Powell and Prot to maintain their interaction.) However, some movie viewers may forgive this because the story is so engrossing.

The ending is well done. The movie ends on an ambiguous note and leaves you wondering. (However, some viewers may not think that the ending is ambiguous.) An ambiguous ending is also found in the novel.

Thus this movie ends and the end credits start rolling. The movie is over. Right? Wrong! I'm not sure why this was done (and it seems that other reviewers never noticed this), but the movie actually continues AFTER the end credits have stopped!! (I found this out by accident.) For about a minute, we have a scene (with no dialogue) where Powell is looking through a telescope at a constellation. Readers of the novel will understand what this means but those who have not read the novel will probably not understand its significance. Then the movie ends.

Yet another highlight of this movie is its music. In a word, it's--beautiful. It is hard to describe but I might call it "quiet new age." This music seems to heighten the emotion experienced in each scene.

Finally, you don't have to read the novel to understand this movie. However, if you want to understand its finer nuances, I recommend that you read the novel first.

In conclusion, this movie is one that has extraordinary acting, cinematography, and music. Be sure not to miss this magical movie so you can experience what it's like to "catch a beam of light."

**** 1/2

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Great acting by both Spacey and Bridges. The plot flows very well. There are some logical holes in the story but I liked it so much, I was willing to over look them. This is definitely a movie a family should see on a Sunday afternoon.

K-PAX is a movie in it's own. Kevin Spacey plays a brilliant performance of "Prot," the Ailen from K-PAX, and Jeff Bridges plays Spacey's phycologist in a mental institution. Funny, sad, and and actually makes you think ... Buy this now!

This enigmatic tale will challenge the skeptic in all of us and awaken a deep sense of wonder and hope. This is the kind of story that can make us WANT to believe.

Meet "Prot" (played by Kevin Spacey), the mysterious stranger with no apparent past whose claims to be an alien from the planet K-Pax promptly earn him a trip to the local psychiatric hospital. His treating psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Powell (played by Jeff Bridges), initially treats Prot as just another routine case, dismissing his odd claims and "alien" behavior as just the products of a sick mind. Over time, however, Prot begins to do, say and know things that Powell simply cannot ignore. Could there be some truth to his claims? Following a fascinating demonstration at the local planetarium, which both confounds and amazes an assembly of distinguished scientests, the remotely plausible starts to become dramatically more convincing.

All the other patients at the hospital love Prot, and are soon infected by his deeply held expectation that the "mother ship" will, in fact, return to pick him up. They even go so far as to prepare a sending-off party, and to hold an essay contest to decide who will be the one lucky person who gets to go with him. Nevertheless, Prot seems, for all his claims and otherworldly behavior, to be a very normal, lucid individual -- quite harmless to himself or others.

Powell thus feels comfortable to take him to meet the family. All goes well at first, but when an innocuous event begins to awaken some deeply repressed memories, Prot undergoes a sudden change. It is here that the viewer gains new insights into the disturbing and tragic past of this man who calls himself by an alien name. It all begins to make sense now -- or so it seems.

Just as we start to think we understand who Prot is and why he acts as he does, the ending of the movie takes an unexpected twist that causes us to question -- and to hope -- yet again. The fate of Prot is never made clear, and I think that's what turns an otherwise merely good movie into a great one. The viewer is left with his sense of grief and tragedy competing with a sense of inspiration and hope. I guess each viewer decides which one wins, but for me it was hope. I enjoyed believing in something good for a change -- doesn't matter whether I was right or wrong. Great movie!

First of all I love these actors to bits and the story does sound good. Spacey could be a man from another planet, here visiting earth, who gets caught up in psychiatric evaluation program when he is admitted to hospital for talking strange to a cop. It has all the hallmarks of what could be a great film.

Sadly it is very long and boring and the film never really does explain much. One of the main problems with this film is that we have seen it done before.. and better. The next problem is that Bridges character sometimes defies belief. One moment he has almost solid evidence that Spacey is an alien. Next he is treating him like a patient. This juxtaposition is incorrectly proportioned in the film and gives Bridge's a lack of credibility. When we the audience have seen something that makes Spacey an alien, Bridges is treating him like a patient and when Spacey does something that makes us think he is mentally ill, Bridges is treating him like an alien. Then we have the whole problem of how this is never really resolved and the director just lashes on with heaps of sentimentality to help mask the films many flaws.

To be honest I did not want to watch this film past the first 20 minutes and it was very hard to stay with it until the end. I have reserves about it and feel that although Bridges and Spacey do try to do wonders with their characters it simply does not gel. Go watch "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" instead.

This is one of those movies that you will either get into or you won't. The premise is interesting and at the same time totally preposterous. There is some serious suspension of disbelief needed to get through this film. What makes the film passable is the wonderful performance by Jeff Bridges and the twist near the end in the story where the the past of Spacey's character starts coming into play. I liked the acting for the most part. Some of Spacey's work was the same old same old, but he got better as the film progressed. Jeff Bridges really makes this film. He has a very difficult role.

If you get this far in reading reviews then you already know the storyline and ending so I won't be spoiling it for anybody. First off, you have to have a soul to appreciate this film. I just got totally absorbed into the film and the characters. Sad though parts of it are, I still think that, overall, this is a feel good film. The people who slam this film probably watched it from a totally detached point of view in which case I can imagine them finding it boring and slow. It's not the sort of film that you put your brain into neutral and then just simply watch. I was captivated to the point that I didn't let anybody into the room while I was watching it for fear I'd miss a single important phrase or word. Generally, I myself like action films, but I found this film a breath of fresh air. Not surprising, I don't suppose, considering 'Starman' is also one of my favourite films.

I must admit, I was a little dissappointed with the ending, but only because I wanted it to confirm my thoughts on whether Prot was an alien or not. In a way it did, but it still left you guessing a bit. There were a couple of keys points that made me believe Prot was who he said he was.

The first was that he openly recognised Robert Palmer in the picture album at the end, and said, very seriously to Jeff Bridges, to look after him when he'd gone, which he did. At that point I realised that Prot was occupying Palmer's body. The other key point was that after Bess had dissappeared it showed her note saying 'I have no home', making her an obvious candidate to go with Prot. I also agree with another reviewer's observation with regard that barely noticeable little smile Spacey gave in the wheelchair at the end of the film. I am going to watch this film again to see if I can pick up any other clues, something I had to do with another Spacey film, The Usual Suspects.

All in all, a very enjoyable film, and brilliantly acted by Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.