Rating: 
Summary: A sorry effort by AandE.
Review: I can't add anything more to what the previous reviewers have said. I think the AandE network owes its loyal viewers enough that they should pull this program from their lineup and cancel the sale of the DVD. Maybe they can blame it on Haber's nightmare & have George dream up a new & better version. Antwerp. GHP
Rating:
Summary: the pbs movie was much better
Review: i don't know what this was. it certainly was not anything like the original movie or the the book that it was supposedly based on. the aliens were an important part of the book and yet do not exist in this version. the character of heather does not match how she is portrayed in the book. it seems as if the names and title were borrowed from leguin's book but very little of the plot or substance. If you are a true fan of the book, buy the pbs version instead of this one.
Rating:
Summary: Skip it.
Review: I had high expectations for this movie. A decent budget, modern effects and real actors. I really liked the original Lathe PBS movie, but it had that low budget feel. The story, not the effects carried it, something that is impossible to find today. Having seen that original adaptation and read the book, I was left wondering. Did the person who made this screenplay read the book? Perhaps he started reading Lathe and fell asleep watching Quantum Leap. I really don't know, nor do I care. This movie is a dog.It was painful to watch, poorly acted and bizarre in the extreme. Maybe it's what Lathe would be if you read the book while drunk and had a short term memory problem.
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie as a stand alone, but not for knowing fans
Review: I rented this DVD for free from the library, so I didn't have high expectations. Now, I wouldn't put this in the category of a classic, say Brazil, Dark City or Celine & Julie Go Boating or even intense fun of Matrix or Donnie Darko. However, I did enjoy watching it, esp. for Lukas Haas' performance. I also watched it after the hystrionic remake of Open Your Eyes - the Hollywood - Vanilla Sky. Lathe seemed really good after watching the Vanilla Sky disaster. I guess for me, the best part was clothing design in this movie. It was pretty neat to see the au couture fashions (although it's hard to believe that people who aren't trendy & young would be wearing this type of clothing.) I didn't read the book yet. Usually movie remakes of books are disappointing. Probably if I read the book it would be horribly disappointing and I probably would agree with the other reviewers. When I saw an ad for this film, I kept thinking, wasn't this movie out already? The premise sounded so familiar. I have had many nightmares as a kid based on a similiar premise about being locked up in a mslt/sleep lab. But my nightmares had a very trapped feeling & was much more horrific than this movie. And then when I read the other reviews, I realised that I saw the original when I was a kid! It's been 22 yrs, so I don't remember it very well. I'll have to see the original again & read the book. My opinion may change of this version, but w/o the background of the other film & book, it good enough to rent for free or pay $3 for it. I definately recommend checking this out from your library instead of spending $18 for this movie though.
Rating:
Summary: The Belt Sander of Heaven
Review: I took the title for this review from a post on the A&E message board. These are some posts from there: Posted by Annoyed
Posted on 9/9/02 00:28 AM What a disappointment! This was so [dumbed down], it was [lobotomized].
A&E knows it's audience better than I, so perhaps they really had to change Antwerp to New York, for their commercial viewers to grasp the code word as a city. I dont know. Obviously absent from this production was the sense that the Doctor, ambitious as he is, actually wanted to use the situation for the betterment of mankind. It never quite worked out that way. In the original story, and the prior (superior, if underbudgeted) production from PBS, this was the central theme - Be careful what you ask for. Disregarding that theme in favor of naked personal ambition, reduced this story to typical cable dreck.
Thumbs down on the dumb down.
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Posted by cwkibbe
Posted on 9/11/02 07:50 AM Absolutely!! I loved the book and the 1980 PBS version. A&E really ... [messed] up with this one. I have seen community theater that was better.
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Posted by dreamer57
Posted on 9/10/02 7:14 PM Great take on the title, still [laughing]! Perhaps you should write a screen play!
(Someone should take a belt sander to the DVD's before too many are unleashed upon the word!)
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Posted by gridsleep
Posted on 9/9/02 02:06 AM Ha! Thanks very much. I always enjoy a ripping good laugh before I have to head off for bed and wake up for work the next morning. That describes this production to a T! Bravo!
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Posted by NoZen
Posted on 9/9/02 02:03 AM "Thumbs down on the dumb down." Couldn't agree more... ;)
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I watched this movie when it aired on A&E, normally a source of high-quality television. I was very hopeful that this would be a good movie. Was I disappointed! It is completely unfaithful to the book; it misses the point of the story completely. It leaves out important parts of the plot (such as the alien invasion) and enhances others (namely the romance between George and Heather) until it is unrecognizable. The actors seem to be sleepwalking. The director seems to have so fallen in love with the image of the jelly fish (which Ursula K. Leguin used at the beginning of the book) that he decided to make a movie that was just as shapeless. Even the title was changed: The book is called "The Lathe of Heaven." Read the book instead. If you want to see a movie, buy the 1980 PBS movie starring Bruce Davison (also available on DVD). It had almost no budget, the special effects were cheesy even by 1980 standards, and it battled time constraints. It also boasted good acting, good writing, and it was as faithful to the novel as it could be. It's a good movie, a thinking person's movie.
Rating:
Summary: Did Anyone Involved with this Movie Read the Book?
Review: If you want to see a movie about a strange man having a love affair with his lawyer while his Evil doctor attempts to have him locked up, this is the story for you. ...There is nothing good about this A&E version, except perhaps the fact that it ends.
Rating:
Summary: Words cannot express the stupidity!
Review: In 1980 PBS broadcast an adaptation of Ursula Le Guin's novel "The Lathe of Heaven", made with the close cooperation of Le Guin herself. The movie was an instant cult classic, and its subsequent 20-year disappearance from the airwaves only heightened its legend. In 2002 A&E broadcast a new version called "Lathe of Heaven". The director boasted that he hadn't read the book nor watched the movie. And Ms. Le Guin was not consulted at any time in the process of making the movie. The result? A brainless, gutless, pointless waste of time. So much of the plot from the book and PBS movie were discarded that no real plot remains. The aliens? Gone. The twisting effect of manipulated dreaming? Gone. The conflict between passive and active world-views, between Tao and technology? Gone. The tragedy of good intentions gone hopelessly awry? Gone. Well-written dialog, good acting, a coherent storyline? Gone, gone, and - yes, you guessed it - gone. The novel and original PBS film were brilliant reflections on the nature of reality and existence, with plot twists that packed an emotional as well as an intellectual wallop and with involving, three-dimensional characters that you could care about. The A&E version replaces all that with a bit of hot tongue action between Lisa Bonet and Lucas Haas. And it's not even GOOD hot tongue action. Look, if you're looking for hot tongue action, go buy or rent some honest-to-goodness p0rn. It'll have more integrity than this A&E abomination. And if you're looking for one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, AND one of the best adaptations of a novel to film that was ever made, watch the PBS version of "The Lathe of Heaven". It's available on DVD once again, thank goodness. And will be watched with delight long after this filmed atrocity has been wiped from human memory.
Rating:
Summary: Saw the A&E remake, skip it
Review: It really missed the mark and I was very disappointed and that's a shame because I so looked foreward to it. The serious problem was that they seemed to miss the idea of the book (LeGuin did not consult on the production) and made Dr Haber a power hungry guy which is true but in the book, despite his becomining more powerful and bigger, he does want to create a better world. Lisa Bonet is really not mature enough as an actress to play Heather Lalashe, I'm sorry she just can't pull it off. Plot wise, they skipped what a good 2/3 of the book! I really think they should have had a few of the changed worlds, they totally missed the plague that wiped out 5 billion people, the dropped the aliens, everyone turning gray. THe whole concept that if you change one thing everything changes. Get the 1980 PBS version, much better, more fun. Though, I did like Manny in this version, I have to admit. But they aliens never exist so he nevetr gets called Jor Jor (George Orr).....
Rating:
Summary: Easy on the eyes, subtle as a brick
Review: It would be easy to dismiss Le Guin's novel as unfilmable, except for the fact that it has already been done and done well, managing to capture the subtleties of shifting histories and universes without having to rely on adding melodramatic subplots or spelling out blatantly what was handled with style and grace in the text. All of which is a roundabout way to say that you can't watch this movie without comparing it with either the 1980 film or with the original novel and that this version is extremely disappointing. Nuance is replaced with blatant acting and a heavy handed score, slow discoveries replaced by melodrama and all humanity reduced to the emotions of a soap opera. While it's obvious that many changes would have to be made in order to turn a fairly cerebral novel into an accessible movie, the changes made to this are extremely disappointing and I couldn't recommend this movie to anyone on any level. Leave it well enough alone and hope you can find either the 1980 movie or, preferably, the original book.
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