Review of Altered States (1980) by Braden A — 08 Mar 2006

A very interesting concept that is hurt by overly-technical dialogue and a terrible ending.

William Hurt is great, and pulls off the "is he a genius or a madman?" act perfectly. Bob Balaban is also great - and I think he is a very underrated actor who is typecast too often. He was fantastic in 2010.

I just found that the dialogue got so technical into the science of the subject matter, that it was like a conversation between textbooks. I realize that a) the characters are supposed to be brilliant, and b) it's trying to appeal to a more intelligent audience...but at heart, it's still a sci-fi B movie, and it didn't seem to know how seriously to take itself. It was almost caught between being a Terry Gilliam movie, and something written by Arthur C. Clarke.

That being said, the concept is sound, and it really made me think, which I suppose means it succeeded in its original mission. I just found the ending to be such an incredible letdown that I had a hard time seeing past that.

6.5.