Rating: 
Summary: hallucination masquerading as film
Review: I viewed this film as fan of David Cronenberg's, not of William S. Burroughs', and was not disappointed. At this point in my movie-watching career, I think Crone is actually a more bizarre and maybe more talented artist than David ("Blue Velvet") Lynch. "Naked Lunch" is a total hallucination--there's no real plot to speak of, but the film is well-acted (Peter Weller is a deadpan marvel here), funny, and just downright weird. This is Cronenberg at his abstract best, and might remind viewers of Terry Gilliam's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
Rating: 
Summary: A True Classic
Review: One of my all time favorite movies. After reading others' reviews, now I want to read the book also.If you like movies that are not your average movie, you'll love this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not so much an adaptation...
Review: It is better to view this movie as a Cronenberg movie instead of as an adaptation of Burroughs' book because it is NOT what Big Bill wrote. This movie is very Romantic...and I don't mean like lovers...I mean as in it is about the Artist who must Suffer for His Work. Although some would not think so, the plot is more or less linear and easily-followed, coming off like a James Bond movie with a need for a fix..a spy movie lived out through a drug addict's hallucinogenic world. Unfortunately, the majority of the strange images in this movie are reduced to the aforementioned drug-induced visions. What Burroughs wrote was a very un-Romantic novel, in fact it wasn't even really a novel. It was just a string of what he called "routines" that could be read in any order. Burroughs' passages about Dr. Benway (the behavioral conditioning freak), the hanged man's orgasm, and homosexual orgies were a lot more terrifying in the book (Jack Keruoac helped type the manuscript, and he said it gave him nightmares) because the images were displayed as REAL...here we know they are just caused by withdrawals or new highs. On its own, viewed as a Cronenberg movie, it is terrific. Just try not to think of NAKED LUNCH the book while watching it.
Rating:
Summary: Cronenberg Classic.
Review: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs is one of those stories you can't forget. The imagery in the film is unforgettable too. Cronenberg's directing is solid, Peter Weller's acting is solid. A strange and beautiful and bizarre trip about William S. Burroughs coming to terms with his homosexuality. A must have for any film collector.
Rating:
Summary: The Book Is Better
Review: Cronenberg dose not folow the book, but that is the point of Naked Lunch. Naked Lunch is not a book or a movie that can be read or viewed in cronalogical order (this is why I am upset that it is not on DVD). Cronenberg (crash) undersands this and puts the writing in his own order along with views of the writer and his wife in the midst of writing the book [that must be from burroughs himself (he had input on the making of the movie)] got to go COKE BUGS ! if you don't know what that means READ THE BOOK or thake the EASY way out and get the movie but it is not from the horses mouth (W.S.BURROUGHS IS THE ONLY GOD OF MODERN LIT.) GOT TO GO DR. BENWAY IS CALLING.
Rating:
Summary: A Fitting Tribute to Burroughs
Review: As a devout Burroughs fan, of course I was a little hesitant to view this movie initially. And having read the book "Naked Lunch" prior to watching the film, I was at a loss as to what I expected. Certainly there was no way this book could translate into a movie...even "The Wall" director Alan Parker would have been lost. In essence, Cronenberg didn't attempt to recreate the book verbatim. Instead he deftly interwove Burroughs' life with some of the routines and rants from the book. This movie is not for the fainthearted as it shows man-sized mugwumps and talking typwriter/insects who are really operatives for a covert attempt to penetrate Interzone, using a hapless writer, Bill Lee, as their chief spy. Definitive moments in Burroughs' life, such as his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and the death of his wife Joan at his own hand are featured in the movie. It also gives a surreal biography to the birth of the writer in Burroughs as he attempts to write his way out of the guilt of his wife's death and the drugs that numbed the difficulties of his life. Those who think that this movie had no real plot or if they did think there was a plot that the plot wasn't linear, then they can't be that big a fan of Burroughs. His life was not normal, his fans are not normal, and his mode of thinking was, frankly, insane. Cronenberg does a brilliant job getting inside the mind of the writer, the genius, the man, William S. Burroughs. Take a trip into his mind, ladies and gentlemen, and be changed forever.
Rating: 
Summary: What the hell was that!
Review: Being a massive fan of David Cronenberg I had high expectations of this film. But after watching it I didn`t know what to think. It looks very good and the acting is nearly perfect but I didn`t understand it. Maybe that's what you are meant to think? Watch it for yourself and try and figure it out. But even after everything I have said it is still a very enjoyable film. A MUST FOR ALL FANS OF THE WEIRD AND SURREAL!
Rating:
Summary: A Kafka high.
Review: David Cronenberg has done something very interesting in his film version of the book by William Burroughs. Attempting to faithfully follow the book's plot would have been a hopeless enterprise (and an X-rated movie); instead, Cronenberg wraps short sequences from the novel and intertwines them with Burroughs' own life. This is not only completely appropriate for this unique author, but also conveys the tone and structure of the book. In this respect, although the 'plot' of the book is not followed with slavish respect, this is one of the most successful book-to-film translations. There are interesting (if brief) portraits of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac (although in the movie Ginsberg is portrayed as pursuing Burroughs, when in fact Burroughs was in love with Ginsberg). The film also shows the accident in which Burroughs shot his wife, and his meeting with Paul Bowles in Tangiers. In the plot of the movie, Bill Lee is instructed by giant insects to infiltrate Tangiers and write 'reports' which eventually become the text of _Naked Lunch_. All of the events of the movie are shown from Bill Lee's drug-altered perception, so that most of the film's scenes have to 'translated' from the metaphorical to the actual by the viewer. In spite of other reports, the movie is quite coherent and linear, detailing Bill Lee's emotional recovery from drugs and the death of his wife as he becomes a writer. Perhaps 'recovery' is the wrong word; what Lee learns is to use them as material for his writing. One warning: Cronenberg's decision to use elaborate special effects to show Bill Lee's reality works brilliantly, but it can be quite disgusting. The movie is not for weak stomachs (which again fits both the book's title and content exactly).
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable.
Review: "Naked Lunch" is definitely an enjoyable movie. However, I don't think it's much else than that. It's incoherent and lacks a linear plot of any sort, but what can you expect from a movie about a guy tripping on bug powder? And besides... the bizarre incoherence is what makes the film entertaining. It doesn't exactly have any major flaws, but not any major strong points either.It's best quality is being weird, and if you like weird movies, well then check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishingly Beautiful and Delightfully Disturbing
Review: Naked Lunch is the most beautifully photographed period piece I have yet experienced. It has the most astonishing and convincing set design I have ever seen in a film. Through the genius of the director, the distiction between reality and imagination/ hallucination is so meticulously crafted and successfully blurred in this film, within the first minute we are hopelessly drawn into the story. From this moment on anything is possible. This is without a doubt a disturbing film, but for anyone who wants an extraordinary glimpse into the perfidious and drug- induced lifestyle of the 1950's, it is a must- see.
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