Altered States Rating: Release Date: 29 December, 1998 Retail Price: $9.98 OUR Price: $9.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: William Hurt Drew Barrymore John Barrymore Blair Brown Complete Cast (8 total)

Altered States Reviews

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Has withstood the test of time
I watched this in the theater years ago with my friend L when I was still a young 'un. Completely blew my mind...I had never seen anything like it...and I was fascinated by all the new concepts. I've watched it several times since then and have always enjoyed it. I can't wait to see it again in Widescreen at home.

Mind Bending & Visually Arresting Science Fiction
Altered States will stay with you.

You may not love this film nor even like it, but once seen, you'll not likely to forget it - especially the visuals. Director Ken Russell loves using incredibly jarring imagery in his movies. Productions like Tommy or Lair of the White Worm are chock full of powerful visions. Film being the visual medium that it is, Russell's films are highly accessible to a wide audience and are definitely memorable. Can every viewer know exactly what's meant by specific visuals? Doubtful. But they still can be enjoyed, savored over and help move people.

In fact it can be convincingly argued that Russell's kinetic visual style in Tommy helped to shape the MTV generation as we know it today. With Altered States, those quick frantic cuts full of potent sound and vision highlight the movie and give it an intense pace. William Hurt and Blair Brown excel as the two intellectual leads who meet, fall in love and whose academic pursuits put them at odds. It's all very academic, until Hurt starts messing around with psychotropic compounds and sensory deprivation chambers. While the drugs and the sensory isolation themes may rewind back to the mind "trippiness" of the 1960's, the film's pursuit of answers on humanity, evolution and beyond still resonate and challenge today.

If mind bending trips into the human brain, action packed scenes full of then state-of-the-art FX which still quite pack a punch, along with solid, emotionally laden acting is your idea of a good science fiction film, then this one will find a home in your movie collection.

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