HTF REVIEW: "K-PAX" (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Actually, the alternate ending with Bridges looking into the sky at the stars is still present after the end credits are done.

Totally missed that, Crawdaddy. I usually

turn the DVD off as the credits roll. This is

a bad habit I should stop.

 

[Jon_B]

Not a bad movie. I wish the ending would have resolved more. :frowning: If Prot was an alien why did he leave his body behind and not the woman's who supposedly left with him?

Jon

 

[David Lambert]

Hey, there Ron...just thought you should know that neither me nor my wife have seen this at all yet, and she's over there across the room on the other computer and reading your review.
She's cursing you because your review reveals stuff about the ending and/or alternate ending without any spoiler warnings.
Though you'd want to know!

 

[Oscar]

I think that "K-PAX" was one of the best films of 2001, but for me,its only worth watching once, because at the second time i saw it, i felt kinda of desinterested, anyways, Universal made a great DVD, and i also liked that they included a DTS track, i mean why listen do Dolby, when you have DTS?, i found quite a huge difference between Dolby and DTS in the K-Pax DVD, the Dolby track was very good

 

[MikeM]

I bought this movie sight unseen, and have mixed emotions about it.

On one hand this has to be one of the best transfers I have ever seen on DVD. It was flawless to my eyes. The DTS sound was excellent, and technically, this disc is fantastic.

...on the other hand, the movie itself left me bored. I can respect a film for having an ending that is left uneplained. However, it didn't play in my mind as an experience that left me thinking afterwards. It left me more debating whether or not I should care.

Again, I have to praise Universal for putting out such a high quality transfer. The quality of the disc is top notch.

 

[Oscar]

I respect your opinion

 

[ozar]

Originally posted by Jon_B:
If Prot was an alien why did he leave his body behind and not the woman's who supposedly left with him?
Hi Jon_B:
I may be way off base here, but I was thinking that the alien used Robert Porter's body for five years, then left it behind, and went on about his business in the female mental patient's body - that's why he could only take one person with him.
Anyone have any different ideas about the ending?

 

[BobH]

Good review Ron but you may have missed something that makes the Bonus section even more interesting:

Besides the trailers for the other seven movies, there are short clips of the extra features for five of those movies too! Some are outtakes, one is a piece of the old movie it copies, etc. Somebody had some fun putting that together.

More, Universal, more!

 

[Stephen Orr]

We rented and watched K-PAX this past weekend. Enjoyable in a minor sort of way. Had we seen this before we watched HEARTS IN ATLANTIS, I think we might have enjoyed it more. However, we felt HIA was a superior film, as did Ron....

 

[Mike Graham]

Hey Bob Johnson,

Wow, that's definitely an interesting theory that really makes the ending much better; definitely leans towards the idea that Prot was an alien

 

[Jon_B]

That theory makes sense Bob Johnson.
Jon

 

[ozar]

Hi Mike & Jon - I had the feeling that...
Prot must have been alien to this world because it was clear from the reaction of the astronomers that no human could have known that information he drew out for them on the tablet. It would have been unlikely too that a human could have drawn it out so quickly with that kind of accuracy. In addition, Prot seemed to be really communicating with the family's pet dog to the fullest degree (and this was a dog that didn't relate well to humans in general). I got the feeling that he was traveling by way of light beams or waves, but that the light source he used was much faster than the speed of light as we know it. It appeared to me that Prot was incapable of making false statements. He simply told it like it was, and he knew the precise date and time that his light beam would reappear to take him away. Again, my theory may be way off the mark, but it's the way I saw it.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

I am starting to find that I agree with Ron's movie reviews more and more (with Moulin Rouge being a major exception! )
Pretty good movie overall, but could have been better.
The transfer is flawless, and I was also very impressed with the subtle, yet impressive surround mix.
Nice disc!
BTW, Prot was definitely an alien!

 

[ozar]

Just watched it again... and this time I watched the deleted scenes on the DVD. It was clear from the content of some of them that the editors took them out so that that the ending wasn't so decisive that he was indeed an alien. Perhaps their intent was to leave viewers wondering about Prot's true status.
I actually enjoyed it more the second time around...

 

[Tiffany A]

Hey Bob! I totally agree with you. I bought this movie (sight unseen) and just loved it. I have seen it twice and concur with your opinions. It was a GREAT piece of sci-fi work...along the lines of Starman , which also featured Bridges! I highly recommend it to any sci-fi fans!

 

[BrentPollard]

Hi Jon_B:
Spoiler:
I may be way off base here, but I was thinking that the alien used Robert Porter's body for five years, then left it behind, and went on about his business in the female mental patient's body - that's why he could only take one person with him.

Spoiler

OK I too like that theory because Ialso beleive he's an alien. Another bit of evidence to prove he is alien is that he could see the ultra violet spectrum of light which as they said humans cannot. But he also said he was going home, would he need the girls body then? If he's gonna stay on earth using the girl makes perfect sense as she was just a shell anyway?

 

[Jeff Pounds]

but that the light source he used was much faster than the speed of light as we know it.

 

[JJR512]

It was my general feeling, too, that Prot was an alien, but the physical form he was in was human, which turned out to be the body of Robert Porter. I believe Porter, after having been in the water so long, was almost brain dead; that could explain his state after the "spirit" (for lack of a better term) of Prot left him. But the one thing which shoots this theory down is what BrentPollard just mentioned, which was that he could see in the UV spectrum. We can take that as a fact; that's something they could scientifically measure and quantitatively define. But, as mentioned, humans can't see in that spectrum. So if Prot was an non-corporeal life form "possessing" the body of Robert Porter, how could it (Porter's body) see UV? The only way I can think of to explain this is that perhaps the lack of UV sensitivity is not a problem with the eye, but rather of the brain; maybe the human brain doesn't process light in the UV wavelength, although the eye does see it and transmits it to the brain (all speculation here as part of a theory). Maybe Prot, while possessing the body of Porter, could, with his alien mind, interpret those UV signals from the eyes.