Must-see DVD

I missed "A Scanner Darkly" when it was in theaters earlier this year because my work schedule was too insane to visit the big screen. I did, however, manage to read the re-release of the classic "sci-fi" novel by Philip K. Dick, and I really enjoyed it.

This film works because the director took extra special care to craft the screen adaptation mirroring Dick's novel. He even collaborated, in a sense, with Dick's remaining family to ensure the big-screen version was true to the text.

Many portions of the film seem to use the original conversations and narration present in the novel. If you have ever read the book, it is very entertaining to see the great performances carry through all the intensely different back-and-forth of these memorable characters.

And you might expect a character-driven film to fail due to the presence of one Keanu Reeves, but have no fear -- he doesn't make this one a mess. Each character is performed perfectly; there are no weak performance, there are no bad on-screen moments. Rarely will you ever find a film with so many solid acting jobs as you find here.

It may take a moment to get used to some of the more sense-defying aspects of the animation techniques applied in the film. But before it's over, you will begin to enjoy the near painting-like quality of the production. I mean, how else are you really going to present the scramble suit technology without having a string of Jar Jar Binks-esque bad CG moments?

As a side note: You may remember the street preacher-type character abducted shortly before Arctor gets in the car with Donna and they have the landmark discussion of moving to a farm up north.

The abduction scene featured a cameo by none other than Austin resident, Alex Jones. (The film was made in Austin, by the way.) Jones is a great choice for this role as much of what his character had to say is very similar to the kinds of topics he covers in the real world with his radio programs, websites and documentary films.