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K-PAX

K-PAX

List Price: $12.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Really Amazing
Review: K-PAX is an interesting movie--not quite an alien movie, not quite a mystery movie. It's a mix of lots of different ideas and sub-plots, but it all comes together in the end in a feel-good sort of way, while still not tying up all the knots and answering all of your questions.

The story basically boils down to a man (or alien?)called Prot, played by Kevin Spacey, who says he is from a distant planet called K-PAX. A psychiatrist (Bridges) works with him, trying to both understand him and make him well. Although his co-workers ridicule him for it, Bridges' character finds himself almost believing Prot's very convincing story.

How Prot affects the lives of all the people he meets is both amazing and wonderful to behold. The surprising, disturbing twist of an ending will leave you stunned. Lastly, the mystery surrounding Prot's fate will leave you pondering for days, even weeks afterward.

I laughed, I cried, I was amazed. I really enjoyed this movie. I recommend it highly.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Shoot this one into outer space.
Review: With movies like *American Beauty*, *Pay It Forward*, the recently released *The Shipping News*, and this turkey, *K-PAX*, the name of Kevin Spacey is becoming associated in my mind with mawkish, pretentious, and just downright bad films. In this one, he plays Prot, who is either a genuine spaceman or just a garden-variety madman. No matter which, really: he's annoying either way. Spacey phones this performance in (from outer space?), content to hide behind a pair of dark sunglasses and his trademark smug smirk. His co-star, Jeff Bridges, as the psychiatrist who is reluctant to believe that Prot is really an alien, is humiliatingly subordinate -- constantly made a fool of by the Spacey character, constantly one-upped. (Even the cover art for the DVD conveys this.) Surely Bridges deserves better . . . to say nothing of the audience.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: He calls himself Prot.
Review: This has the essence of the book with the addition of time. The story is not unique and the subplots are not unique. However the execution is superb. Just the right people were picked for each character. The pacing was such that you had time to laugh, cry, and be shocked in the best proportions.
Basically Prot turns up out of nowhere; yet many things can be explained. Then again many things can not be explained. As the people that deal with him vacillate as to his nature, others accept him and are better off for the experience. This leaves you with the question: "Is he a man, alien... or savior?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Engaging story, wonderful performances
Review: This film was everything I'd hoped it would be. Perhaps a little more. Ok, definitely a bit more.

It was one of those movies I got completely swept up in; I was totally oblivious of anyone else in the theatre except for my boyfriend. The movie was fabulous, Kevin Spacey was fabulous, Jeff Bridges was fabulous. The direction was fabulous. The cinematography was fabulous. It was fabulous. It left a lot of questions unanswered, and not the ones you might think, and only one of which stands out (to me) as a huge incongruity.

The way the director played with light and color was beautiful, sometimes stunning. And, sometimes, a bit over-the-top, but not often. As the movie began and started to play out, I completely believed Prot was from K-PAX - there wasn't any reason not to. But then, of course, evidence comes to light making the viewer doubt the validity of his claim. I fervently hoped he was from K-PAX, but I was absolutely terrified that Hollywood was, once again, going to crush all hope and end it all with some ultra-left-brain, no-room-for-wonder ending. As the story progresses, though, whether or not he's from K-PAX becomes less and less important. The layers peel back, and peel further back, and ... well, I'm not going to ruin it for you. I was on the edge of my seat until the very last second of the movie, and I wouldn't deprive you of the same pleasure.

It's not that the story is startlingly original, or that the screenplay is overwhelmingly creative...it's everything. Absolutely everything. It's a beautiful, emotional, hope-giving movie, and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredible!
Review: A mysterious stranger (Kevin Spacey) "appears" out of thin air in New York's Grand Central Station claiming to be a visitor from the planet K-PAX, which is located in another galaxy many light years away. The benevolent foreigner, who goes by the name Prot, is detained by the NYPD and turned over to the Psychiatric Institute of Manhattan, where Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges) takes a gradual interest in the man's story.

Over time, Prot shares countless anecdotes of his utopian planet with the hospital's residents and staff. His descriptions paint a world free from laws, families and social conflicts, instilling hope in the patients and raising the suspicions of the doctors. However, Powell has difficulty proving Prot's foolish claims to be false. In fact, the peculiar patient displays an infinite knowledge of subjects he shouldn't know anything about, unless of course he really was from another galaxy all together. So when Prot announces one day that he plans to return to K-PAX, Powell experiences a sense of urgency to solve this man's riddle before he loses him forever.

Director Iain Softley, who made quiet little splashes in the Hollywood pond directing a tearjerker (The Wings of the Dove) and a barn burner (Backbeat), crafts an extremely engaging and introspective science-fiction mystery out of author Gene Brewer's original novel. Much like Spacey's character, K-PAX makes obvious, somewhat universal observations about extremely broad topics, such as man's daily struggle to exist in a family or in society, yet still manages to touch a nerve. After establishing its intrinsic desire to gently poke and prod our planet's problems, though, Charles Leavitt's fabulous, intelligent screenplay goes two steps further, ratcheting up the mystery of Prot's past as you beg for a legitimate resolution.

K-PAX features exquisite performances by leading men Bridges and Spacey, though it's the latter who is given the most rope while Bridges is left to reel him in from time to time. Most of K-PAX's astute observations and valuable life lessons spew forth from Spacey's Prot, and his almost-ambivalent delivery fits the film's mood perfectly. It's as if the film's teachings were, as he often put it, "common knowledge." As proven in Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects and David Fincher's Seven, Spacey excels when his character possesses more knowledge than not only his co-stars, but the audience. His performance is confident, assured and extremely natural - one of his best, and enough to make us forget the sludge that was Pay It Forward.

K-PAX only falters when it attempts to resolve the delicious mystery it has established, because it can't quite answer all of the questions it has raised. Instead of sewing up Prot's case, Softley tacks on an ambiguous open-ended conclusion that, like life itself, just leaves us with more queries to explore. It's frustrating, yes, but it contributes to the film's allure. If you're not discussing this marvelous film on the ride home, you didn't pay close enough attention.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What a surprise!!
Review: Sincerely, I didn't expect a surprise like this. I went to the theater expecting to see a typical entertaining film -I see all the Kevin Spacey's-. When I got out I had that taste in my mouth that only leave the really good films.

Magnificent interpretations, a solid script, a good direction and -in occasions- a splendid BGM is all you'll encounter in this film. I won't miss it.

Or, at least, that's my opinion...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Sci-Fi... or is it?
Review: In a year with somewhat meager sci-fi offerings one movie broke free from the pack by avoiding science fiction techniques almost entirely. "K-PAX," based on the novel by Gene Brewer, Academy Award Winner Kevin Spacey ("American Beauty") stars as prot, a mental patient who believes himself to be an alien from the planet K-PAX. Jeff Bridges does a great turn as prot's psychiatrist, proving his diversity as an actor -- although just as good as he was in "The Big Lebowski," the characters are worlds apart.

The film has very little in the way of the fantastic, yet still conveys an incredible sense of majesty that movies these days simply don't have, and it does it in a fashion bizarre enough that, combined with the premise, brands this movie as light sci-fi, although calling it "light" is to do it a disservice.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great acting, despite some cheesy scenes
Review: I had no idea what to expect when seeing this film.. but I wanted to see Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges together... two awesome actors who couldn't act poorly if they were paid to.

If you're looking for special effects, this is not the right film... no explosions, spaceships or anything tangible like that, but instead you're on a perpetual guessing game... is this guy really from K-Pax, or is he a nut?

He demonstrates some unusual physical abilities, but they are minor and he still appears to be entirely human inside and out. He knows things that most non-astronauts should not know, but then again, the knowledge he has is not entirely impossible for a layman to have access to... so - is he or isn't he?

You may even be asking yourself this question (with a smile on your face) after the movie ends.

The cheese starts when the space traveller (or nut, you decide) tries to mend a broken relationship with Bridges and his adult son... the ending scene is almost like a Mentos commercial and I think they just wanted to add whatever it took to make it end on a happy note... this increases ticket sales, after all.

Don't get me wrong... I don't dispense 4 star ratings on crappy films... this was highly enjoyable and the acting was fantastic... but I never have to see this film again. It was entertaining, but not life changing and after time, easy to forget.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Didn't quite make it.
Review: I love science fiction, true science fiction with a plot and characters. K-Pax came very close to my kind of story but got lost somewhere along the way to the end of the film. I'm sure the intention was to keep everyone guessing but they played it just a little too conservatively, creating a giant flat note at the end of the picture.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: At last, a movie that makes you think!
Review: This is a film that you want to see every minute of. With most of today's movies, you can go out for a soda and still know what's happening -- not this film.
Some reviewers found the ending unsatisfying. I disagree vehemently. No, you are not given a package with a neatly tied bow. Instead you're given a thought provoking conclusion. Best of all, unlike too many of today's movies, it is consistent. As the plot progresses, it doesn't contradict itself, or try to slip a curve ball past you. Instead, it's a film that you not only think about on the way home, but for many days afterwards.


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