Rating: 
Summary: A superior horror film
Review: A cult-classic from 1980, Scanners has earned a reputation as a gore-fest. But it's a reputation unearned. Aside from one truly graphic moment, Scanners is more thought provoking than violent. David Cronenberg's commercial breakthrough, Scanners is set in a society where advanced telepaths walk among us. Most of them are trying to cope with their potentially destructive power. However, an underground group of violent Scanners led by a chilling Michael Ironside is bent on world domination. More of a hard edged science fiction story told as straight up horror, Scanners will dissapoint those looking for lots of blood, and delight those looking for a more intelligent thriller. It's nice to have the film on DVD, the anamorphic widescreen transfer is very nice. Not perfect but good. Though it's very frustrating that a cult-classic like Scanners didn't have anything by the way of extras, such an innovative film deserves more, Scanners is still a rather obscure title and it's not surprising that MGM slacked off. Oh well, the price is good -- and so is the movie. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent 1981 Science-Fiction movie.
Review: This Masterpiece from David Cronenberg is a Horror-thriller/
Science Fiction movie and a Suspense film all combined. It's about these Telepathic Beings called " Scanners" who have unique
powers that let them communicate with each other through the brain and to sometimes give those who abuse them, they give them deadly seizures that can result in Exploding heads. A young Scanner named " Cameron" ( Stephen Lack) who is sent by a Scientist named " Ruth" ( Braveheart's Patrick Mcgoohan) to destroy a deadly criminal Scanner named " Revok" ( played by
Michael Ironside) who plans on mutating the entire World with his Chemicals. It's a thriller with enough Suspense and Gore to
keep you awake, highly recommended!other similar movies i would suggest: Akira, Carrie, Roland Emmerich's Making Contact, Re-Animator, C.H.U.D., X-Men,
Day of the Dead, The Matrix, Dark City, and The Stuff.
Rating: 
Summary: Let the Scanners scan you....!
Review: This film is one of my personal new 'classics' of horror, although it's also a sci-fi film. The plot centers around a small group of 'mutants,' long before the 'X-Men' made them cool, who have the unique ability to scan the thought patterns of others, thus knowing what people are thinking. However, as always, not all mutants play nice, as actor, Michael Ironside, has a great role as the demented Revok, who likes to scan people's minds just a bit too long, leading one to lose one's head, as in the infamous exploding head scene! Revok leads his bands of rebel mutuants against the establishment, and only another Scanner with equal ability can stand in his way. Even though this film is dated somewhat and campy in parts, it's definitely entriguing and fans of gross-out effects will eat this film up!
Rating:
Summary: A Sci-fi horror classic.
Review: David Croneberg's best film, it's a 1980 Canadian-made Science Fiction horror thriller about these Mutant beings with telepathic powers called "Scanners", it deals with a good young Scnaner named " Cameron" ( Stephen Lack) who is founded by a scientist named " Ruth" ( Patrick Mcgoohan) and sends him to track down a deadly but powerful evil scanner named "Revok" ( Michael Ironside) who plans on using deadly chemicals on Pregant women to make unborn scanners so he can have a army to take over the normal humans. A unique and striking mixture of science fiction and horror with great acting, realistic special effects, chilling music score, graphic gore including the famed "Exploding Head", and a interesting storyline. The DVD is impressive but the only extra is " Theatrical trailer", the DVD's picture quality is phenomenal and the sound is good too, highly recommended movie if you like either Sci-fi or horror. I can't wait for the the remake coming next year, it might be cool. Also recommended: Akira, Total Recall, Carrie, X-Men, Firestarter, Roland Emmerich's Making Contact, The Shining, The Fury, The Matrix, Re-Animator, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, John Carpenter's The Thing, From Dusk Till Dawn, Mission: Impossible, Nightmare City, The Toxic Avenger, Videodrome, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Maniac ( 1980), Resident Evil, C.H.U.D., Scarface, Final Destination, The Toxic Avenger, An American Werewolf in London, and Lucio Fulci's The Beyond.
Rating: 
Summary: B-list Cronenberg
Review: Along the trajectory of David Cronenberg's career, Scanners feels like a step backwards. While the premise is intriguing - drug companies and evil corporations wage bloody war with telepaths as cannon fodder - the execution is painfully dull and unintentionally funny. Part of the problem is the acting, which is wooden all around but reaches new depths whenever Stephen Lack opens his mouth. This guy is dreadful. He sure does Lack the ability to deliver lines. The high point of the film comes early with the infamous exploding head scene. Nothing that follows, not even the climactic psychic battle royale, comes close to the visceral potency of that scene. It's all downhill from there. For instance, how does a telephone booth explode? And if you were shot in the hand with a huge dart, wouldn't you just pull it out rather than run around a mall until it knocked you out? If there were a few more exploding heads I might not be splitting hairs. A disappointing outing from a talented filmmaker.
Rating:
Summary: I don't understand! Who has won?
Review: By now you have all heard about the infamous exploding head scene. I actually never heard of this because all I was interested at the time was that it was a Cronenberg film and thought it would be worth a go. It was a great purchase! The whole idea of the film is that there are scanners in this world who can read people's minds and if they don't like what they hear they kill them! I have a feeling some people would love that power. The scanners can be either " self destructive or simply destructive." I'll admit the acting here at times can be wooden but I think there's a need for Cronenberg to have his characters perform wooden acting. It enhances the view that these socially inept scanners are all dehumanized humans who don't know how to survive in this world. By the way I must mention the soundtrack here. This has got to be the most insane thing I've ever heard. It's as out there as you can possibly get. I don't know how they managed to get it the way it is but I really like it. I only wish they released it on CD because I'd love to listen to this more and more The ending must be intentionally meant to confuse people. I've seen this about 10 times or so and I still don't know what they meant by " It's alright - we've won! " Who's won - I don't understand. Am I missing a scene from the film? That could be true since the censors where I lived in Ireland are notoriously picky about some scenes and would edit them out. Then again I don't know if there was an uncut edition in the first place! Even still I'd probably still be left confused by it all Anyway as Cronenberg movies go this is an essential purchase! It's intelligently done and well worth seeing
Rating:
Summary: A Cronenberg Classic
Review: Every once in awhile I like to dip my toe into a David Cronenberg film. I have seen quite a few of them at this point, from some of his earliest stuff like "Rabid" to his seminal reworking of "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. One thing you will always get out of a Cronenberg film is a serious look at how technology and human beings interact. Like science fiction author J.G. Ballard, Cronenberg's viewpoint towards a synthesis of man and machine is always exceedingly grim, not to mention gory as all get out. The overarching theme in his cinematic examinations seems to be that humans simply do not know enough about the technology they develop, or if they do, their arrogance in the ultimate abilities of mankind never prevents them from charging into potentially damaging experiments. That we are just not far seeing enough to predict the outcome of using new drugs or messing around with human genetics may be a good message to take from a Cronenberg film. "Scanners" should fall into a "Cronenberg 101" class about these messages. Released in 1981, this film helped bring Cronenberg into the mainstream, as well as spawning a host of cheap sequels and a possible remake due sometime next year. Of course, this movie also provides the rabid horror fan with what is possibly the sickest gore scene in cinematic history. "Scanners" tells the story of Cameron Vale, a man who has spent most of his life in a perpetual fog. Roaming through the streets of the city as a homeless person, Vale suffers from a plethora of voices constantly yammering away in his head. He cannot hold a job or have a regular life with this problem, so he copes the best way he can by always staying on the run. During one of his excursions in a shopping mall, Vale overhears two women casting aspersions on his grubby appearance. The comments bother Cameron, who promptly causes one of the women to collapse into convulsions merely by mentally concentrating on her. Two thugs in trench coats lurking nearby notice Vale's little performance and promptly chase him down. When our hero wakes up, he is in the company of one Doctor Paul Ruth, a laconic chap who gives Vale the lowdown on what he is and what he must do. Ruth comes across as distant and slightly sadistic, but Cameron trusts him because the doctor knows how to make the voices in his head stop and is the first person to show a real interest in him. According to Ruth, Cameron is a scanner, a person with the ability to use a congenital form of telekinesis to manipulate other human beings. Ruth shows Vale that an injection of a drug called ephemerol quiets the voices in his head, which are really the voices of people around him that he picks up because he doesn't know how to use his scanning abilities. What Cameron doesn't know is that Ruth works for CONSEC, one of those evil corporations most movies seem to have nowadays, a company developing scanners as a weapon for governments and wealthy individuals. Moreover, Ruth initially fails to tell Vale about the presence of Darryl Revok, a powerful scanner who is building an army of these telekinetics, or how Revok just invaded the CONSEC building and killed six men in an attempt to discover exactly what new tricks the corporation has up its sleeve. Ruth then enlists Cameron to track down Revok and kill him. Along the way, our scanner encounters the beautiful Kim Obrist, uncovers the truth behind ephemerol and how scanners came to exist, and the true identity of Darryl Revok. Stephen Lack, the actor who plays Cameron Vale, carries out his onscreen duties with all the charisma of an ironing board. Some people claim that this is exactly the way a confused homeless man should act when confronted with such an awesome series of events, but I don't buy this argument. Lack gives a whole new meaning to the term "wooden" and the movie suffers because of it. Fortunately, Michael Ironsides as Revok, Jennifer O'Neill as Kim Obrist, and Patrick McGoohan as the strangely aloof Doctor Ruth make up for the lead character's ham handed performance. Of these three actors, Ironsides steals the show as the unbalanced Darryl Revok. Anyone remotely familiar with this actor's work knows he often plays the lead evil guy in dozens of films, and "Scanners" marks one of his best turns as a baddie. Without Ironsides in the cast, this movie would not be nearly half as good as it is. The most memorable elements of "Scanners" are both good and bad. The good is the gore, which tops most horror films on the market. The infamous exploding head scene at the beginning of the movie still makes me cringe. In fact, it ranks as one of those rare scenes in a film that actually get worse the more times you see it. The first time you watch the movie, you have no idea that this scanner's head will burst like a balloon. Subsequent viewings are worse because you know what's coming and the anticipation fills you with dread. The final showdown between Vale and Revok revolts as well. What doesn't work in "Scanners" centers on the sudden ability of Cameron to scan a computer system through a public telephone. I simply didn't buy this suddenly revealed ability, let alone that it would lead to the telephone booth exploding. Unfortunately, another drawback is the lack of substantive extras on the DVD. The picture quality is good, but I would have liked a commentary by Cronenberg to explain the philosophy behind the picture. Still, "Scanners" is a must see for horror and science fiction fans alike.
Rating:
Summary: An unrelenting darkness -- inspired
Review: What sticks with your from this film, apart from its superlative physical effects, is the unreleting darkness and foreboding created by the sets, lighting, and cinematography. A vision of powerful forces locked in a conflict and intrusion by unwanted forces into your very thoughts form the basis for a highly disturbing and entertaining film.
Rating: 
Summary: Assassinate anyone just by thinking it. The Scanners can.
Review: A film I have been wanting to see for 22 years. Now on DVD, I can. Imagine having the will power to make someone do anything you want them to do without touching them or physically blocking them. Your mind of ESP or telepathy was so strong they can do exactly what you wanted. They have a seizure, a heart attack, give themselves a shot instead, have a car accident. In this film, these exceptional people are called "scanners". Some do this for goodwill. It's just a quiet form of communication. But the character Michael Ironside (Visiting Hours [1982],V: The Final Battle [1984], V: The TV Series [1984-85]) plays is so powerful with telepathy, he can assassinate at will using only his mind. Followed by Scanners II: The New Order (1991), Scanners III: The Takeover (1992), Scanner Cop (1994), Scanners: The Showdown (also known as Scanner Cop II: Volkin's Revenge [1994]).
Rating:
Summary: not impressed at all
Review: I saw this with a friend based on the fact that he said there was an exploding head scene. There definitely was and it was truly disgusting, which was nice but the movie was pretty awful all around. Like many have said the transfer from VHS to DVD was not kind to this film and at a certain point in the movie the voices are not following the mouths of the actors. The acting was pretty awful too if you ask me. I can't believe this is called an essential film by Amazon when this truly is just a rather weak attempt at science fiction. I guess it is worth seeing for the head explosion and the ending scene, but if you want to see a quality movie I would look elsewhere.
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