Slashdot Mirror
Review: K-PAX
There is at least one new twist at least in this tattered story line. Spacey's Prot, a visitor from the planet K-PAX, is a healing alien. Picked up by the police after a mugging in New York City, Spacey is - of course - not believed when he says he's from outer space and is tossed into a psychiatric hospital for a month. He tells the skeptical Bridges (Dr. Mark Powers) that he's from another planet. He has no mission, he's just traveling, curious about the odd and destructive behavior of humans and the high quality of their produce.
Powers doesn't believe him at first -- all of his fellow patients instantly believe naturally -- but then becomes curious as Prot proves impervious to even the most powerful anti-psychotic drugs, astonishes astrophysicists with his knowledge of far away solar systems, and begins healing deranged patients who've been confined for years.
Powers brings Prot to his house, with curious results that set the shrink off on a not very believable mission to New Mexico that he hopes will tell him who Prot really is. Along the way, the doc has the battle the usual assortment of impatient, cost-conscious and cynical bureaucrats.
Prot isn't worried about what any human thinks. He blithely insists to his captors that he's soon to head home on a beam of light to a planet where family is both unknown and unnecessary, and that he will take one person -- probably a fellow patient -- with him. This has particular resonance for Dr. Powers, who seems not to notice his gorgeous wife or adorable kids. But Prot's utter, unrelenting cool leaves us detached from the movie as well as him.
Spacey is so ironic and low-key it seems he might well be from another solar system. He has played this kind of ironic character a bit too often, and Prot doesn't come close to the blow-out portrayal of Lester Burnham's suburban bust-up in American Beauty.But tension does build as we get curious about whether he is really an alien or not, and whether or not he will go back to K-PAX. (Also whether Powers will notice his wife and what's-really-important-in-life.)
The ending turns out to be the most inventive part of the movie. It's actually quite ingenuous, leaving people wondering about what they really saw and ought to conclude from it. This is one of those very rare endings that a dozen people can see and draw completely different conclusions from.
And K-PAX is a particularly relevant movie this week, since one of its themes is that we ought to appreciate life while we can. It's pleasant and soothing.
first post on a katz story? hardly worth the effort, is it? sfi props.
frist 0n3 here! Another FP!
Propz to all AC's
Can be seen here.
.ac
It was early Friday morning. CmdrTaco awoke with anticipation of the
days activities with his mistress. After getting out of bed and
surveying his room to find a clean set of clothes he left for his
session. When he arrived he noticed Mistress D was waiting at the
door.
Mistress D was wearing a regular bathrobe when she answered the
door and scolded CmdrTaco for being late and said he would pay for his
mistake. When she closed the door to the outside world she took off
the CmdrTacoe revealing the rubber and leather garment she was covering.
CmdrTaco always loved looking upon his mistress when he arrived, because
she looked so powerful. Today she wore one of her more elaborate
garments consisting of a total body black rubber jumpsuit that covered
her body from the neck down. The suit had holes for her large tits
which jutted out and each was the size of a cantaloupe with lovingly
huge nipples. Another large hole in the suit revealed her own ruby red
shaved pussy and from the back showed her asshole. She also wore a
pair of thigh length high heeled bright red shoes. The heels of the
shoes were five inches long and made of steel with a button end and
were about as round as a pen-light battery. On her head she put on a
half mask that turned her into a ruthless tigress. The mask came down
to under her nose, and suddenly transformed her into a creature with
the senses that told her the pain/pleasure threshold of her slaves.
Mistress D told CmdrTaco to go to the basement and strip down. He
went to his customary "cell" and took off all his clothes. On a shelf
in his room were some items with a note that ordered him to wear what
was there. The items included a pair of dildo briefs, an unusual mask
with a small rod sticking out of the front and only a tube for his
nose, a cock harness, a set of handcuffs, and a leg spreader bar with a
hook in the center.
CmdrTaco wasn't sure exactly how to put on the rubber dildo briefs,
so he reached for the bottle of petroleum jelly and began to spread the
substance slowly around and into his asshole. As he inserted his
finger into his hole he could feel his member becoming rock hard. He
slipped both legs through the pants and then he put his feet as far
apart as possible and bent over so that he could see his asshole in the
cells mirror, this he thought should help make the butt plug go in
easier. Mistress D had thought of everything, since the plug had
already been covered by petroleum jelly. He pressed it to his asshole
and slowly began to push it home. It was about five inches around at
its widest point, and he wasn't sure if he could handle the whole
thing. Inch by inch he saw it work its way inside him. He could feel
his muscles tighten as he pushed the intruder into its new dark warm
home. Just an inch to go then the lip of the plug would be inside the
outer muscle and the plug would pop in on its own. Finally, the butt
plug caught on the lip of his outer asshole and CmdrTaco squeezed his
muscles and sent the plug deep inside him to lock in place. After his
muscles relaxed he noticed a clear plastic tube coming out from the
center of the plug. CmdrTaco wondered if she was going to do anything
with it.
His next task for Mistress D was to put his cock and balls in the
front of the pouch. He slowly inserted his rock hard cock into
avoid coming, because he knew that he would be punished even more for
messing up the cells carpeted floor and he was already in trouble for
being late. After taking five minutes to get his member in, he
carefully fed his balls in the pouch and pulled up the briefs to an
overly snug fit. That's were the straps came in. He buckled the
regular belt of the briefs around his waist and pulled on the two
straps that came from behind the brief, through his crotch and felt a
tightness around his balls and his asshole as he locked the straps to
the remaining buckles on the brief. He began work on some new buckles
on the briefs. Three sets of straps buckled around his cock and he
buckled them to the tightest fitting so he would not be punished even
longer. One strap was right at the end of the sheath that buckled just
behind the head of his cock. The second strap was about two inches
inward, and the last was just in front of his ball sack. He managed to
get all the straps to the smallest positions. He thought his cock had
been caught in a vise and would not let go. The last of the new straps
was locked into place behind his cock and balls and secured them inside
the sheath. Looking in the mirror he saw that his cock was standing
straight out and looked totally confined and was as disciplined as
possible.
CmdrTaco picked up and checked out the spreader bar. On both ends
were ankle cuffs made of leather with a fur lining. He put the first
one on his right ankle, then attached the left. He was really excited
and couldn't wait for the session to start.
Mistress D, without warning, flung the door open and asked what
was taking so long. She forced CmdrTaco down on his knees and roughly put
on the helmet. What CmdrTaco found out was that it was an inflatable
helmet when she inflated the gag in his mouth and the helmet itself
around his head. He felt totally cut off except for the smells in the
room. She also took a five inch cord and secured the cock harness to
the spreader bar. Now CmdrTaco had to walk using his knees.
Mistress D pulled CmdrTaco's arms behind him and attached the pair of
handcuffs to his wrists, securing them to the belt strap that ran
around his balls. The strap was adjustable and Mistress D adjusted the
line so tight that his hands were almost touching the sack itself.
Next, she secured the leash to the harness and began to lead him out of
the room. He had never been in this position, and was very clumsy. He
felt a swift cat-o-nine tails on his cock, and knew he better get good
fast. The cord from his ass was dragging behind him as he tried to
"walk". She led him down a long hallway which felt a mile long and
into a room with no sounds at all (at least nothing CmdrTaco could hear
because of the helmet). Through the helmet CmdrTaco could only hear
anything spoken directly at him.
CmdrTaco had been here many times before and knew that pictured along
the walls of the dungeon were actual photos blown up to poster size.
One picture showed a girl in a leather mummy suit fitted with holes for
her tits, pussy and ass. All around the suit were three foot straps
that had been buckled at the smallest possible position. On the lower
portion of the mummy were a short strap was around the ankles, two more
straps just above and below the knees, and one appeared about an two
inches below the crotch. Above the crotch were straps at the belly
button holding the arms tightly to the mummy's sides, and two more
straps above and below the breasts also holding the arms to the side
and causing the breasts to stand straight out. What appeared to be a
special kind of suspension brace on the upper body section underneath
the armpits and through the crotch of the mummy and was elaborately
fitted to a ring at the top of the brace above the mummy's head. The
mummy was suspended six inches off of the floor by the brace.
Connected to the ankle strap was a short chain that had been connected
to a ring in the floor so the mummy could not swing. The only openings
in the head region were two small hoses that appeared to come from the
nose area; and one exiting from the mouth area with a small bulb
attached. A necklace around the mummy's neck held a box with the
words:
"Every single strand of hair from this loyal slave."
The pictured girls breasts were wound in a upright position very
tightly with a very small gauge of rope. Her nipples had been pierced
and each was being weighted by a one pound ball. Coming out of her
vagina just above the strap below the crotch you could make out a very
wide dildo with a clear tube running out of it and a thin black cord
going to an outlet in the wall.
"This mummy was plugged up three days ago. It is being
introduced fluids into every spot and drained again
after a thirty minute period. The mummy is being elect-
rically stimulated in its lower major openings to try and
bring it back to life. Mummy subject to be checked for
life signs after seventy two hours of experimentation.
The mouth cavity is being pried open by balloon."
Another picture on the other wall had a title of 'Nightstand'.
The girl was totally naked except for one tattoo on her left breast
that read 'Slave'. Her arms had been bound in a leather arm binder
behind her and she was laying on her arms. She was not wearing a
helmet, but what appeared to be a very large double-dildo gag. Her
legs had been bent over her head and her feet were tied by heavy
leather cords to rings in the floor five feet away from her head.
This position left her pussy and asshole pointing at the ceiling.
Inside her vagina was a six inch diameter dildo that appeared to go
deep into the helpless pussy. Above her vagina someone was holding a
pure white candle approximately one foot tall and five inches around in
the stem. It had a "bulb" at its base measuring seven inches around.
A picture hanging next to it showed the resting place of the candle,
and more. The candle had been inserted into the previously vacant
asshole, and Mistress D was reading a very large book by its light
while seated on the protruding dildo.. The candle had burned down
almost three quarters of the way, and in the picture you could see the
wax that had dripped down around the outside of the "Nightstand's"
anus. There was a small card in a lower corner of a second picture
where the mistress was being satisfied while reading a book by the
candles light that read:
"While reading the book I was being serviced by my night-
stand. The candle went out after it had burned all the
way down inside her ass and she was able to close her
rectal muscle on her own to stop the oxygen to the candle.
The candle glowed for three hours until it finally dis-
appeared into the opening and went out. The bulb of the
candle was then removed, using a cord that had been melted into
its base. I was still being serviced for two hours after I
removed the bulb, until I finished reading my entire book."
CmdrTaco wondered if the pictures were still there, but he wondered
even more about the other slaves that were there as they entered. In a
brightly lit corner of the room was a coffin leaning against the wall
at an almost standing position. Inside the coffin was a male subject
who had been put in the mummy position, except that his entire body had
been encased in plastic and them wrapped head to toe in electrical
tape. The only things that were showing were two small tubes for the
mummy to breath through and the mummy's large cock and balls. These
were in a situation of their own. The head of this mummy's cock had
been pierced, and were now sporting a cockring that was connected by a
taught chain to the ceiling. Two more cock rings had been pierced
through the ball sack on the left and right sides and each supported a
five pound weight.
Next to the male mummy was a girl riding a wooden horse like those
used by carpenters. She was completely naked and totally shaved
(including her head). Her legs were held apart by a four foot spreader
bar that had been secured so that her body was perpendicular to the
horse. Hanging from the bar were two weights of ten pounds each to put
pressure on her pussy. Her pussy had just become the home of a fist
diameter electric dildo that was eight inches long and her ass had made
a home for a large electric butt plug both of which you could hear
happily buzzing away as she struggled. Her arms had been encased
behind her in an arm binder and straps near her elbows had been secured
around her waist. The ring at the wrist of the binder had been
connected by rope to a ring in the ceiling so that she could not use
her arms to provide any comfort for her tortured pussy. Her nipples
had been pierced and light chains were connected between them and to a
neck collar she wore proclaiming in large letters "My Mistress'
Property". Her mouth had been silenced by an inflatable dildo gag, and
her eyes blinded by a blindfold.
Not four feet away from the pony rider were two young naked ladies
whose wrists had been secured to their ankles and were hanging by the
ankle cuffs to the ceiling. They were suspended so that their backs
reached to one foot off the floor. Each girls mouth had been filled by
a ball gag, and each was wearing a blindfold, just like the others.
Inside the asses of both girls could be made out the exterior section
of a butt plug (and by the size of the section, both were rather
large!) Between the girls was a three foot long double headed dildo
entering their vaginas. The dildo was about three inches in diameter.
The girls legs had been secured together by a rope so that the center
foot of the dildo was exposed between the two helpless girls and the
dildo could not come free, and so they were not touching each others
body.
In the center of the room was a square frame of two by fours
hanging horizontally from pulleys in the ceiling. It measured eight
feet by eight feet. In each corner of the frame was a pulley connected
to a steel cuff lined with fur (like CmdrTaco's spreader bar). Hanging
not so loosely from these four pulleys was a beautiful naked girl in
her mid twenties. She had a golden tan with no lines. Her tits were
the size of cantaloupes and each drooped over the side of her body.
Her pussy and asshole were shaved clean as a whistle and her clit was
shining in the hot lights from juices due to previous orgasms from all
sorts of objects the mistress had used on her. Her head was encased in
a mask almost like CmdrTaco's with the gag inflated except that it had no
rod in the front and a ring at the top of the head. This ring was
connected to a ring in the frame by a strong piece of rope. She
couldn't move or tilt her head.
The mistress lead CmdrTaco to a distance of five feet away from the
frame which was high enough that he could not bang his head, but could
touch the girl anywhere along the sides of her body. She then went
over to her table and picked up three items. Upon her return, she
attached a hand pump to the cord and proceeded to inflate the large plug
inside CmdrTaco's asshole. When she felt enough tension in the pump she
plugged the line, and played with the cord right near his hole to see
if it was inflated enough. She felt not, and continued to inflate it
until CmdrTaco almost screamed through the gag. She stopped and sealed off
the line.
The mistress took the second item and attached it to the rod on
CmdrTaco's helmet. It was a four inch butt plug with hose (similar to
CmdrTaco's). She bent down and said to CmdrTaco to insert this where it
goes. CmdrTaco obeyed and began to move forward towards the girl. He was
near her head, and began to poke her with the plug. He kept poking as
he crawled very slowly due to the dildo in his ass. His mistress gave
him a whack with the tails and he tried to move faster. He finally
made it around to her pussy, and began pushing it in, only to receive
another whack, telling him he was in the wrong area. He tried to bend
down under the strain of his bonds, and felt the plug touch the young
girls ass. He began to slowly insert the plug as he felt the girl try
and pull away. He knew that the insertion of a butt plug required that
it be done like having sex; push in hard and pull out slightly until
the widest point of the plug passes the outer muscles of the asshole
and then it will just pop right in. He just pushed harder and harder
and finally felt her rectum give way to the massive plug. He could
smell the young bound girl's ass, and thought it was beautiful. The
mistress unhooked CmdrTaco from the girl's new addition and led him by the
cock leash to another corner of the room, where he waited for what he
felt was the longest time.
The girl on the square was trying in vain to free herself with
wild moves and pulling on every bond. She had never felt a plug up her
ass, and was in loving pain. Her mistress began to take a rope and tie
her tits in a upright position, which she then snaked the leftover rope
through rings in the ceiling and pulled taught.
The mistress went back to CmdrTaco and put another item on the little
rod. This one was a nine inch dildo. She again told CmdrTaco to put it
where it goes and left the room. It took CmdrTaco ten minutes just to
locate the girl. Again he was near her head and began poking to see
where he was. The mistress came back, and told him that if he found
where it went and got her to cum, maybe he could fuck her for real. He
quickened his pace.
While CmdrTaco was looking for the "prize box", the mistress went
over to her throne. It was a young naked girl no older than nineteen
whose legs had been bent back, and her knees had been tied using a rope
that went behind her back. Each arm from the elbow to wrist had been
encased in a spandex mitten along with the leg that matched, from the
knee down to the tip of the toes. Near her ankle and half way up each
mitten were leather straps assuring the "throne" could go nowhere. The
girls head was encased in a rubber hood with a built in dildo gag that
she breathed through. Her pubic hairs were a nice blonde color and had
been cut to be one quarter of an inch long. The girl was placed on a
swinging platform about eight inches above the floor. As the mistress
sat down on the girl she reached over to a near-by table and picked up
a can of shaving cream and a razor. She began to apply the cream all
over her throne's pussy. After lathering the throne, she also attached
a clear tube to the can and began to pump the rest of shaving cream
into the throne's asshole. The Mistress felt excited as her throne
came to life and struggled against her bonds. The mistress began to
shave off every hair from that tender vagina. After she had completed
the shaving job, she marveled at the word "Slave" that had been
tattooed in big enough letters that when hair grew back it would be
covered. The mistress put down the shaving can and the razor and
picked up a small battery operated butt plug and a medium sized
vibrator. As the "throne" began to feel the insertion of the plug, it
began to once again try and break free to the delight of the seated
occupant. Very slowly the plug was inserted, about one inch for every
thirty seconds to prolong the feeling in the "throne's" rectum. Just
when the plug was about to go all the way in the mistress pulled it out
and inserted a finger into the hole to get the muscles real tight
again. She played around for a minute or two and pulled her finger
out, waited another minute, then very rapidly inserted the plug into
the ass with great force. This caused the "throne" to buck wildly,
which did no good, the plug was home and not about to budge. The
mistress reached for the control of the plug and turned it on to a very
slow speed. It could be heard (and felt) buzzing away happily inside
its new home. Next, it was time for the dildo. Spreading her pussy
lips as far apart as they could go, she lubricated the dildo with the
juices that were flowing from the assaulted opening. Before inserting
the vibrator into her "throne's" pussy she turned the unit up as fast
as it could go, then shoved it in until it completely disappeared
inside. The young girl was being assaulted at both ends and was trying
in vain to get loose, and the mistress was overjoyed at the feeling of
the "throne's" body vibrating underneath her. That was not the end of
the session with the throne, because one more thing remained, her
"throne's" pussy lips were to be pierced and locked together so the
dildo could not slip out on its own. The mistress took the tools for
piercing and carefully put two rings in each pussy lip at one inch
apart and then melted them into place so they would be permanent. She
then took two very small locks and securely padlocked each set of rings
together. The mistress stood up and watched as the girl kept
struggling until she had no more energy, and fainted. Leaving her
"throne" to rest she concentrated again on CmdrTaco.
I dont' want to give it away, but his body remains while the other person's doesn't. What's the deal?
I wish I didn't have to see any of his articles on Slashdot.
This is one of those very rare endings that a dozen people can see and draw completely different conclusions from.
holy crap, i agree with Katz for once?!? no way. regardless i liked the movie.
,
faeryman
A couple different ways you can reason it...
He's not an Alien... She just decided to leave and escaped
He "possesed" Rober Porters body and used him as a means of healing Dr Marko, making him realize the importance of family... and The other's body was part of Betty's escense and left with her
I think it's main purpose was to just make you think a little.
I wonder if the books have a different ending, anyone read them?
The movie is a cute flick, but it is heavy on the dreamy musical scenes and light on a real story.
-- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
I'm not buying it; he's the Starman!.
Then again, this is the same director that brought us Angelina Jolie as a l33th4x0r.
I saw this movie last night and absolutely loved it. The imagery was so visually intoxicating that I couldn't peal my eyes from the screne. My take on the ending: Prot used Robert's body to actually walk and talk, etc. IE. the form of the soap bubble. Since Prot could sense UV light and had way too much information about the solar system, he could not have just been a super-savant.
In the end when all the mental patients said that the person on gurney was not Prot was a bit confusing, and the fact that Bess did disapear is interesting.
However, Robert could have just gone crazy. Robert as a child could have spent countless hours staring into a clear new mexico sky observing and calculating etc. The eye test could have been a mistake or after the near drowning, his eyes could have become very sensative to light, although I doubt sensative to UV.
All in all - very interesting. I won't lie tho, I just love Kevin Spacy.
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
I thought K-PAX was a great movie. Compared to the crap I saw this summer, I left thoroughly impressed. What this review leaves out is how funny this movie is. I was laughing all throughout the movie and so was the audience.
One comment I had to make was on this quote:
"Spacey's Prot, a visitor from the planet K-PAX, is a healing alien".
Well not really, he can just see what human treatment leaves out. He never intended to end up in some psychiatric board to help the patients out. He doesn't have some special designation that he is a healing alien. He can just see things differently.
The rest of the article is pretty accurate. K-PAX has been getting different reviews, many good, some bad. But go see it your self. I highly suggest seeing the movie, you won't regret it.
I found the secret of life! But forgot to write it down...
I like how in the preview he says that K-Pax is X of *your* light years away. As if light years was some peculiarly human measurement.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I disagree about the ending. It seemed like a ham-handed way to make people think it's ambiguous, but by that point in the movie, I didn't really care any more.
<SPOILER>
I thought this was going to turn into a cool story about a person so traumatized by events in his family that he fantasized about a planet without families.
I thought we had been given clues to this: for instance, if he has to leave at a certain time because of the scheduling of interstellar travel, then why is he leaving exactly five earth years after he arrived? Does everyone in the universe schedule their travel based on earth time?
However, instead of turning and facing this head-on, they took the easy road and left it ambiguous.
They could have used the ambiguity in Spacey's character as a way to explore various themes about human nature; but instead, that ambiguity itself is pretty much all there is to this movie.
Incidentally, Spacey's performance was great. During the hypnosis, he has to portray a wide variety of characters, and he does it very convincingly.
</SPOILER>
In short, K-PAX is nothing but a premise: is he an alien or not? I don't need to sit in a theatre for two hours to grasp that premise.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Now I will get flamed for this.
-The ending turns out to be the most inventive part of the movie. It's actually quite ingenuous, leaving people wondering about what they really saw and ought to conclude from it. This is one of those very rare endings that a dozen people can see and draw completely different conclusions from. -
I can't agree that this type of ending is rare. In fact it is rare in American cinema (compared to the mass of movies the country produces, I'm not saying there aren't any) but loads of european, asian, south american and even a few african movies display such a type of ending. Because the majority in North America just want to hear THX sound and see big guns and endings which you can guess at the beginning of the movie, doesn't mean that it's the same everywhere.
Just my opinion though.
Imperium et libertas
Autocracy and freedom
What about healing himself? That was one of the major themes. Prot at on point mentions this.
I thought that the story progressed in a normal manner for a movie with a more relaxed tone. It's over 2 hours long and i didn't get bored. Ever scene added to the story. If you thought this was light on story, you must be really bored in most films.
I also thought that the "dreamy musical scenes" were very well done and the cinematography was brilliant.
I found the secret of life! But forgot to write it down...
not a troll, but there are certainly better reviews out there. Check out salon for an honest review that goes beyond plot summary. As always, rotten tomatoes has a plethora of opinions. Remember, there's more than Katz out there (thank god)
...there's already a good review of this on Slashdot here.
A good number of people must use AC because of the awful moderators. That said. . .
Thanks for the review. But why always popular film? It's like reviewing N-Sync every week.
Why not:
L.I.E.
Amores Perres
Waking Life
Just a few examples. Much more substance, much more to talk about. I never understood why the educated tech community just falls down walking to the arts.
What a great review.
Hail to the king, baby!
Now I know why I chose this nick to troll with!
YOU SUCK KATZ!
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
How did people interpret the scene where there faces are "merge" in the window when Dr Mark sees Prot for the first time?
Why not have RMS starring? But on the other hand, he is not by any means at all a sane person.
During the credits the theater turned up the lights, so I couldn't read them very well. Nor could I really tell what happened after the credits ended and they showed about 15 more seconds of someone (Bridges?) doing something.
What was it?
(The theater claimed it was a MD state law that they had to turn on the lights when people start leaving. I don't know how long they have been doing it, I hadn't seen new movies in MD for a while...and I may decide never to again!)
k-pax was a cross between bicentennial man, patch adams, girl interrupted,and every retarded robin williams film since good morning vietnam.
it was entirely way too over dramatized and hollywood-like for me.
--
|-_-| . o O ( bEef!)
Ok, did anyone notice if Prot was wondering around with a towel at all?
(Sorry, hopeing for a Hitchhikers Guide reference in the movie.)
Just like Katz.
Seriously, I predicted the ending about 25% of the way through the film. It was a decent movie, but not anything unique.
I saw the 13 ghosts instead of kpax.. and boy was i rewarded.. I saw a nipple..
fuck off and take your psuedo neotech babble with you, scrub.
I thought they fired this faggot already.
The only thing I'm wondering about this movie, after seeing the commercials with Spacey reading an animals mind, is whether or not this is another stupid 'extraordinary human/alien does corny magic tricks for audience' movie. When's the last time a movie with any mention of aliens, portrayed them in any sort of psychological way? If I were to believe hollywood, I would say that most alien lifeforms are pretentious freaks who should be immediately enslaved and forced to serve as interpreters to more interesting species; such as dolphins. What movie bothers to explain how or why most alien life has been given the powers of superman? Or how their superior minds somehow overcame the violent tendencies they charge us with; instincts that would've initially been necessary for the survival of their species (evolution is a dangerous road). Anyway, enough rambling. A good alien movie would be 90% exploration of life and culture on an alien planet, with the final 10% showing the arrival of freakish humans in a roving '4-wheeler'.
Although there is a good deal of ambiguitity some things are quite set.
- Prot can see ultraviolet light. Humans cannot see ultraviolet light. Thus, Prot is not human. While Prot inhabited the body of Robert, he had access to special abilities. These abilties didn't stay with Robert once Prot left.
- Prot had astronomical knowledge that would have been impossible without him being from K-PAX. The suggestions given in the movie were that he looked it up (it hadn't been published), he was a savant (he didn't have access to the necessary equipment), or even that he was a missing astrophysicist (he would have been recognized by his colleagues).
So it is nearly certain than an alien (Prot) was present in Robert's body until he left for K-PAX. It is extremely unlikely that Prot actually was Robert since near the end Prot spoke as if he was not Robert and he showed no signs of ever lying throughout the movie.
So while his motivations for coming in the first place or returning can be debated, it does seem to be a fact that Prot was alien.
carbonite
ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
Spoilage NOTE not warning, since presumably
you try not to reveal too much.
I'm really impressed that there's a movie out there that JonKatz didn't absoloutly rip to shreds... amazing!
I was looking around on amazon.com and noticed that Gene Brewer, who wrote the K-PAX novel, already has written a sequel named On a Beam of Light . There's an excerpt there also, but if you havent seen or read K-PAX yet, stay away, since it will spoil the ending.
A buddhist walks up to a hot dog stand and says ``Make me one with everything.''
This was an absolutely horrible movie with exactly one moment of inventiveness (see below). There was absolutely nothing that wasn't predictable, cliche, simplistic, and saccharine. Every person who came on screen with more than a few lines had their problems magically solved by prot in the most inane way possible. Work too much? Guess what, you'll come to appreciate your family! Have an estranged son mentioned in all of two scenes? I wonder if he'll be estranged by the end of the movie? Have OCD? Magic Jesus-analogue Kevin Spacey will make it all better.
I truly can't believe anyone actually enjoyed this movie.
As for the one inventive moment, it came at the end of the movie, as Jeff Bridges runs in slow motion to beat a digital countdown. The reason I consider this inventive is that the creators of K-PAX managed to throw in a completely unexpected movie cliche into a movie built entirely on other cliches. Note that I didn't put spoiler space around this because it was in the trailer.
My full review will appear sometime early in the week at Revolution SF. It will be more coherent than the above, which was written out of sheer shock in seeing someone think that there was actually something original about K-PAX.
Where the hell does that movie say that normal people are more fucked up then crazy people?
You don't want to give it away, but... YOU JUST DID. Moron.
I hate to beat up a Katz review...(well, no, not really.), but I have to wonder what qualifies him as a movie reviewer? Bad grammar, inaccuracies, and the like seem to say "Hey, don't take this seriously."
...and begins healing deranged patients who've been confined for years.
:)
Spacey's Prot, a visitor from the planet K-PAX, is a healing alien.
No, he's not. He even states that every being in the universe is capable of healing itself.
Picked up by the police after a mugging in New York City
...a mugging in which he did not participate...
He tells the skeptical Bridges (Dr. Mark Powers)
This is probably over-analyzing semantics, but prot doesn't tell Bridges jack shit. The actor's real name belongs in the parenthesis, while the character's name - in this case, Dr. Mark Powell is the person with whom prot is conversing.
Again, he doesn't heal them. He merely shows them the path to heal themselves.
Powers brings Prot to his house, with curious results that set the shrink off on a not very believable mission to New Mexico that he hopes will tell him who Prot really is.
I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to mean.
This is one of those very rare endings that a dozen people can see and draw completely different conclusions from.
That just proves that the Katz writing style is sophomoric at best.
Anyway, K-PAX is a great movie. prot (Kevin Spacey) is taken to a Psychiatric institute after having told New York police officers how bright the light is on Earth. Early in the movie, prot is introduced to Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff Bridges) who takes an immediate interest in his case. Eventually, prot has Powell, the staff of the institute, fellow patients, and top astrologers totally puzzled as to his true identity.
K-PAX is said to lie about a thousand light-years from Earth (within the constellation Lira), and is where prot calls home. This story is obviously met with a certain amount of skepticism from the people of Earth, and the point of the movie is to work through that skepticism. By the end, the audience will draw vastly different conclusions regarding the story's ending, and it is these conclusions that give insight into each person's individuality.
(Oh, and "prot" isn't supposed to be capitalized. That's how it works on K-PAX.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
It makes sense to me why he would have to leave x number of years to the day and minute. Perhaps his beam of light has to wait until the Earth is realigned with whatever light-path he took? So it must take 5 revolutions around the sun for his lightpath to reconnect to K-Pax. Just a thought :-)
>>Does everyone in the universe schedule their travel based on earth time?
Hey I though they were working on a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. I don't know if it's still in the works or not since Douglas Adams died :-(
Did the reviewer stay for the end of the movie? The ending was damned disturbing. If you're looking for pleasant and soothing, see something else, or skip the ending.
Fisher-king + Starman = K-PAX
The speed of light is a constant. A "year" isn't - it's the time it takes our planet to go once around the Sun.
About the whole UV thing. Even if an alien did inhabit a human body, he would still only have access to *human* photoreceptors while using this human body. Human photoreceptors cannot detect UV light, no matter who's looking through them. But this brings the whole idea of "inhabiting someone else's body" into question, and spoiling all the fun. Whatever.
i haven't seen the movie and i don't think i will till i go see and iron monkey and troll the movies to full fill the 8.50 i had to pay to get in. wee. i read the book i think this movie was based of about five years ago.. the book was based of a psychology case study about a person that saw the world to alien to him. like the movie he though he was an alien. but the kicker is that in his world having sex was very painfull, the parents kick out the kids at a young age from the home. on the planet of k-pax i think, there is no property no one owns any thing. it was intresting book and it was short. you can read it in one sitting. the ending is sad he tells every one that he is going home on a certain day. on that day the docters can't find him in the psych building they find him in the basement naked in the fetal postion and half dead. my memory isn't that good so most of this post could be a construction of my own mind.
Me and lunchbox here are going to kick your ass.
where the normal people zapped the crazy people's brains.
You might want to look up lightyear on that link you just posted. It says that a lightyear is the distance light travels in a year. A year is a human construct based on the time it takes our planet to go around our sun. Beings from another planet wouldn't use the lightyear since it's only relevant to our planet. Like another posted said, Uranian lightyears would be a measurement of a vastly different amount of distance since Uranus takes so long to go around our sun.
My other sig is extremely clever...
Prot can see ultraviolet light. Humans cannot see ultraviolet light. Thus, Prot is not human.
Actually, it's my understanding that humans can see ultraviolet if they've had their lenses removed, for instance if they've had cataract surgery. The trick is that the lens has a slight yellowish cast to it that filters UV.
It's said that during WWII, OSS parachute drops were made to targets laid out with UV beacons, using post-cataract-surgery spotters.
As far as K-Pax goes, this is another nail in the idea that an alien could take over a human and see in UV; the requisite wavelengths wouldn't even reach the retina.
In the wrong hands, sanity is a dangerous weapon.
i wrote it down but was too drunk to write it legibly-
http://www.blackant.net/other/images/page4.php
So the bottom line of the movie is alien visits from outer space. Alien behaves in a funny way so we all laugh. Something spectacular happens at the end when the alien leaves. The movie has Jeff Bridges in it. Oh my god! K-PAX is a rerelease of Starman!!!!
I know Kevin Spacey and Robin Williams play different types of personalities, but does Jeff Bridges' character come to the same sort of realizations as he did in The Fisher King.
"I see. The fact that you . . . can't explain . . . explains everything."
did nobody notice the data impression that prot constantly did?
it was brilliant.
i liked the movie - didn't expect too much, so i enjoyed myself.
~A
Linux, Vai, Satch and Guitars.. that is the life ICQ# 7357858
Kpax? What's that? Some sort of Anthrax antibiotic?
The contrived Mental Health industry has no business being in business. Not when, on public tv - PBS- yet, a celebrated mental health professional said that the current state of the art mental health technology has no apparent medical benefit. This opinion is echoed by many prominent and qualified medical professionals. The current body of mental health treatments and laws concerning "mental health" are the greatest threat to our country and our freedoms.
Actually, human blue photoreceptors can detect into the ultra-violet. The human lens is U.V. opaque (and slowly clouds up over a lifetime of absorbing ionising U.V. radiation). If you replace the human lens with a U.V. transparent artificial one, you can see into the U.V. range.
No, this doesn't explain the U.V. abilities of Prot, but it's interesting anyway.
Choice of masters is not freedom.
"Educated"? "Tech"? My man, I think you are a tad confused. You see, Slashdot is the tech community's equivalent of the Jerry Springer show. Basically, nobody over 14 takes this site seriously; unless you are a skript kiddie. (Not much difference there, now...) Slashdot is the waste dump of the computer-wannabe crowd.
The real thing. Accept no substitute!
Along the movie, people in the theater were hoping for "dressing down" of traditional human practices more specifically related to the concept of experts who know better. The expectations were met until the New Mexico connection developed, a sympathetic disappointment settled in - the messiah is a false one with no magic tricks. Except for the one where he is going to ride the light home. There too it isn't clear if did or did not ride the light.
People like things that either confirm to their existing models of perception of reality - serial killer/pscychotic/maniac etc. or plausible new ones with reasonable risk - ET/Encounter of Third Kind/ anything that doesn't fall within this range is conveniently moved under WTF. And that's what the movie is about. Suspend your conceived notions and apperance of reality. There's more to it than meets the eye. And ofcourse another thing, with the instant gratification mindset, people want things chewed and digested.
how is it possible to misinterpret the ending? prot left and didn't need to borrow robert porter's body anymore, and he took the other patient with him. remember when the doctor asked about robert porter, and prot said that when he saw him to make sure to take care of him? he knew he was going to be leaving the body behind, and only inhabited it when porter needed help.
THERE IS NO HONOR IN JOURNALISM!
Stop posting shit on slashdot. Who the fuck do you think you are KATZ? You doing this for a damn noble price? Just be like Nelson Mandela and talk shit and you'll win, but don't do it on slashdot! I repeat:
katzshitpost!=slashdotworthy
katzpost = /dev/spooge
"The idea that lunatics in asylums are the only really sane people in this crazy world has become a staple of American movies, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to Girl Interrupted to K-PAX , a surreal, at-times-charming and curiously detached psychological drama starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges about the complex relationship between a self-proclaimed alien and an alienated psychiatrist."
The idea that the above is a major run on sentence, in which absurd claims are made to support what Katz seems to think is a clever idea, when in fact the idea is ludicrous at best, might tend to go overlooked because one is so busy trying to figure out if this guy ever saw a single film or play in which he didn't see correlations between things that clearly have none, not to mention his tendency to see everything in terms of Technology and Nerds
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
That's right, I said "fuck".
Yum
and i hope you get run over by a bus on your way home. Apparently that' the only thing that will get you to stop your bullshit posts.
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
You don't want to give it away, of course. Sigh.
----------
"They misunderestimated me." --George W Bush, Nov. 6, 2000
I refuse to believe that Taco has ever been intimate with anything besides a 12 year old boy. It is well known about Taco's love for the 'unspeakable vice of the Greeks.'
C - A language that combines the speed of assembly with the ease of use of assembly.
aye! We got 'em !
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
The planet is called "K-PAX" and his own name is "prot". K-PAX II is out in bookshops now, and K-PAX III is out next year, apparently.
May contain traces of nut.
Could you imagine a Beowulf cluster of Katz essays?
This space intentionally left blank.
The whole alien story was patched together from newsclippings and memos pinned to the corkboard behind Jeff Bridge's desk.
K-PAX was some company's name on the coffee cup!
hmmm...
K - 11th letter in alphabet
P - 16th letter in alphabet
A - 1st letter
X - 14th letter
K - P+A+X = K-31 = 11-31 = 311!!
HAHA I KNEW KEVIN SPACEY WAS A NAZI FROM PLANET HITLERVILLE! The question is, "what does Jon Katz have to do with posting this garbage on slashdot?"
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
If this movie sounds good to you, go see (or rent) Man Facing Southeast [imdb.com]. One of the best films ever made.
"12 Monkeys" had the whole "guy in the asylum saying stuff but nobody believing him" angle.
he could see ultra violet, remember? That's pretty unambiguous evidence that he's from K-PAX (or at least SOME other planet). There was the stuff about him being immune to the drugs and disappearing for 3 days to go up north too. But just the ultra violet part should be enough to take any ambiguity out of the movie, right?
Let's not forget 12 Monkeys, another great movie that involves an asylum and its inhabitants. It's a counterexample to the sane-people-thought-crazy notion, with Brad Pitt playing a character who is clearly off his nut, but is the first to be released (of course, along with the influence of his father). Hmm... is that a giraffe I see on the expressway?
Why hasn't anyone noticed that K-PAX is a representation of what a modern-day appearance of Jesus would be like?
I think the whole movie could also be interpretted as kevin spacy being on ACID. thagts why his eyes were also dilated, and he was able to understand human psychoilogy so well and cure the patients (if you had ever take acid then you would know wha ti am talking about. also in 60s a lot of psychiatrists used LSD for understanding their patients better)
A perfect example of production companies producing similar films, and then the distributors competitive nature.
The distributors, if they have a comparable film competing for the same niche as another distribution company, will either release them together to share the same market simulteneously. Or if one film is getting positive criticism, they will stagnate the release of the second film to play off the popularity of the first (such as Don't Say a Word before this.
go see Waking Life instead!
The ending can make sense if put in the following light.
Prot leaves K-Pax (whole self), arrives on earth, entering human body (robert pourson), and when he leaves, he also leaves the human body, and returns to his K-Pax one -- the important distinction is he moved, he didn't transform. When he and bess leave, bess's whole body is missing, and she'll be put in a K-Paxian body on K-Pax, while Prot doesn't need to because he's normally one.
As for the hypnosis, that's a way to get past the superficial alien vissage, and get down to the person that's inside. Also, strong experiences (the water bit) can bring this out too. It could also be argued that perhaps that prot's personality is overrided in certain parts by his host. (explaining the vegetarian bit, or perhaps that was just from his love of life in the universe -- although he didn't seem to be annoyed at the talk of the balance of organisms eating each other on Earth)
Why didn't the government or SETI get involved?
Why didn't the in-law scientist ask any more questions at the July 4th thing?
How come hypnotism worked on the human host part of him, but the KPAKean wasn't aware of it?
Why was he so keen to talk about everything (except lightwave travel) and many other KPACeans are on earth, but we assume that none of the other aliens reveal themselves?
That's what I thought when I read the synopsis of K-PAX: Man Facing Southeast. It's a delightful Argentinian film. See it if you get a chance. I always thought it was as close to Philip K. Dick (his quirky philosophical schizophrenic novels, not Bladerunner or Total Recall) without being based on an actual Dick story.
The ending turns out to be the most inventive part of the movie. It's actually quite ingenuous, leaving people wondering about what they really saw and ought to conclude from it.
No, that's not supposed to be a u.
If all you wanna write is fucking crummy movie reviews why dont you get a job at People Magazine or some fuckheaded place like that?
The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
Yeah, maybe. Whatever.
While his essays and general observations are not up to the standards of hardcore journalism, I nonetheless enjoy his passion and the general leaning of his biases, which are often close to my own.
And I like his film reviews as well. I don't often agree with him, but then I don't often agree with any reviewer. It's fun to read people's opinions nonetheless.
This whole site has an attitude and quality which I think his hack-style fits with very well. If you want plastic-people news, there's plenty of other sites you can go to.
Slashdot rocks, it's reliable and constantly updating, and it wouldn't be the same without Katz.
Just my opinion.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be hunting for a warez site to snag a copy of K-Pax.
-Fantastic Lad -I swear! I'll not give another dime to Hollywood until I feel properly compensated for all the crap they've tricked me into paying over-inflated ticket prices to watch!
Has anyone seen this movie. It was made in Argentina back in the 80s and was about some alien guy named Rantes and the pyschiatrist who tried to treat him. Can anyone who has seen both movies tell me if the plot lines are similar?
"Or how their superior minds somehow overcame the violent tendencies they charge us with; instincts that would've initially been necessary for the survival of their species (evolution is a dangerous road)."
So one wonders how a plant species would turn out? I never saw a tree mug anyone.
Anyone care to compare & contrast this to the movie "powder"?
One thing no seems to be mentioning is that K-Pax is the bad remake of a wonderful 1986 Argentinian film "Hombre mirando al sudeste" (Man Facing Southeast).
The orginal was quite subtle. It really sounds like this remake has been substantially dumbed down. Surprise surprise. Thanks again Hollywood.
For those of you having trouble understanding
the ending, it means you don't watch enough
Star Trek and other science fiction. Prot
gave it away at the very beginning when he
explains to the doctor that a soap bubble
assumes the shape it does because it
is the "most energy efficient configuration."
Assume being the key word there. The body
served as a fine host for the alien while
Prot moved about the planet; and was left
behind after he returned to K-Pax.
in a long time. Accipiter, not Katz, should be writing movie reviews for /.
This isn't really about K-Pax, but about the lead in on the review:
"idea that lunatics in asylums are the only really sane people in this crazy world has become a staple of American movies"
This is a very old theatrical convention in Western storytelling, at least 500 years (the fool in "King Lear") or 2500 years old (the various travelling companions in Aristophanes' "Clouds", "Frogs", "Birds", etc.), and even the ancient Greek theater was drawing on older traditions.
Standard plot: the sane people do bad things to each other, but the rules of social convention prevent them from recognizing the depth of the stupidity, deception, evil, etc. The only person who really knows what's going on and can really see the world for what it is gets regarded as a fool, insane, etc., and is either locked up or disregarded. Usually, but not always, the rational world ends up being so unfair, unpleasant, or harmful, that the protagonist is forced to realize that the irrational viewpoint is the clearer one, the saner one. At that point, he will either become an overt outcast, or a covert convert.
God bless that liberal arts education.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Trees - and other flora - often engage in some rather vicious chemical warfare. And "strangling vines" aren't called that without reason. See also "venus flytraps". The time scale is long, often much longer, but plants can be every bit as lethal as animals.
K-PAX sucked. He should have just disappeared, the whole catatonic thing SUCKED. Not to mention Kevin Spacey looked like he was on amphetamines the entire movie.
Dr. Mark Powell, not Dr. Mark Powers. I knew I wasn't crazy when I heard that he has the same last name as my grandparents. http://imdb.com even agrees with me.
I still have not seen K-Pax but the more I hear the more similar they sound.
Hombre mirando al sudeste (1986) is a link to the imdb page. The plot summary is:
A new patient mysteriously appears in a psychiatric ward. He claims to come from another planet to study humans and their behavior. The alien is gentle but criticizes humans for their harsh treatment of each other. The assigned psychiatrist is himself unhappy, and affected by the patient's insight. But he is ordered to treat the patient according to institutional procedure.
K-PAX was an exceptionally mellow movie. It was about (for me) the wonder of the world and sitting back and appreciating the here and now, and not stressing out so much. I walked out of the movie in a very pleasant and tranquil mood.
Ultimately it was a good movie, the fact that everything was not answered and it was also not a excrutiating Hollywood ending where it was overly sappy. I give it a very favorable rating.
Do you have any information or references to the bit about the parachute drops using cataract-surgery spotters? That's *cool*.
K-PAX much like "The Usual Suspects" http://us.imdb.com/Title?0114814 completely depends on Spacey's ability to act straight faced and not give a thing away, I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't have worked with any other actor. Very good movie, but a little disturbing at the end, with recent events I was hoping for more of a comedy or sci-fi mystery.
This is nothing new. I remember a full decade ago when F-Prot (distant relative perhaps? perhaps the one facing southwest?) helped my computer to see what was making it ill.
Of course F-Prot was from Sweden and rode the phone lines at a remarkably slow 14,400 bits/second.
But then, several years later, F-Prot left, and I've never heard from it again.
The science of astronomy is practiced by "astronomers". The superstition of astrology is practiced by "astrologers".
Sorry, one of my pet peeves.
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
Yes, interesting. At first I was going to write an angry reply saying that still doesn't explain his abilities, but then I read the end. Yes, interesting.