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If you haven't seen Waking Life you've probably at least heard about it. And if you haven't then look it up. And from what I had heard going in I was almost exxpecting another Waking Life here. Thankfully I didn't find that. Not to say that Waking Life wasn't good, it was just a bit much. The animation effect was great, but a lot of the stories and rants just got to me. And if I was going to see another film with the animation over film twist I wanted a little bit more. And I got it!
True, while the story is there, and at times interesting (if not underdeveloped), the real charm of this movie are the supporting jobs of Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. (especially the latter). Downey does a hell of a job playing a parnoid drugged out asshole (go figure!). And the interactions between him and nearly every other cast member are fantastic and funny as hell.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't go too much deeper than that in the beginning and then seems to zip ahead into another gear so fast at the end that the twists and turns seem out of place and pointless. I've never read the original novel, but it almost seemed that they decided to draw out the first quarter of the book into an hour, and then jam the last three quarters into 30 minutes. And while Keanu Reeves does a good job as a wasted loser, he delivers yet another wooden performance that we've all come to expect from him. It does seem to fit into a lot of roles, but how long can we actually consider what he does to be acting?
Still, it was visually very well done, and what little story was developed does make me interested in checking out the book (if for nothing else than to see if more is explained/developed/etc.). And if nothing else Doweny's performance along with the semi-unique visual experience make it a worthwhile experience.
Finally a movie worth my time and money!
RATING: Worth a full price ticket (but try for the student/senior discount if you can), Worth a real rental.