A Scanner Darkly

Advantages: Good Special Effects
Disadvantages: Not many

..."A Scanner Darkly" is based on the novel by Philip K Dick. Richard Linklater's film stars Keanu Reeves as undercover narcotics policeman; Bob Arctor. This is an interesting film but it didn't really move me deeply. There was some good acting but the story line was simply not exceptional. On deep reflection it is not a film that I would recommend. But if you want to watch it do so at your own risk. 1 hour forty mins Rating (15) The Product details The Actors: Rory Cochrane, Robert Downey Jr., Mitch Baker, Keanu Reeves, Sean Allen (II) Directors: Richard Linklater Format: PAL, Widescreen Language English Region: Region 2 ( DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: Wide Screen:1 Number of discs: 1 Classification: 15 Studio: Warner Home Video DVD Release Date: 22 Jan 2007 Run Time: 120 minutes...

Nazuku 13.12.2007 (21.12.2007) · Read review
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Review of A Scanner Darkly (DVD)

Great Scanner

Advantages: good quality scanning
Disadvantages: software is rubbish, can take for ever to scan an image

...I bought myself this to scan various things (old photos, documents and some sheet music) and this does the job pretty well. It was a bit on the expensive side but I needed something that would give me good quality and I could trust that it would work well so I went for HP as they are well known for good quality products. TECHNICAL INFORMATION It can scan at up to 4,800 dpi (dots per inch) It has 96 bit colour It has a 216x311mm scanning screen Connects by USB It is 303x508x108mm (wxdxh) It weighs 5.2 kg So it can give you very good quality, it gets a lot of colours, it's got a decent sized scanning screen, it's pretty big and it's not a light weight utility. There is nothing in there to put me off though because I still bought it. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT IT Scanners have been dying out because they are getting beaten by...

dbirse 11.03.2007 (11.04.2007) · Read review
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Review of HP ScanJet G4050 Photo Scanner

A Scanner Darkly

Advantages: Very Stylistic, gerat soundtrack
Disadvantages: difficult to follow

...Having read Philip K Dicks book, A Scanner Darkly, I was eagerly awaiting the film adaptation. Upon hearing that George Clooney had optioned it no less, and that Richard Linklater was down to direct it I was kind of ecstatic. I have a lot of respect for George Clooney, following his efforts to turn out less main stream Hollywood films, in favour of thought provoking and interesting films. So when I heard that Keanu Reeves had go the lead role as Bob Arctor, my heart sank. To be fair to Reeves, his last couple of films have been stinkers. Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions were not bad down to his acting, more to the clunky direction of the Wachowski Brothers. But the lead character for A Scanner Darkly, in my opinion would always have needed someone who had a half decent range, and not someone who cam across as a bit of an airhead...

Lloyd1979 26.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of A Scanner Darkly (DVD)

Super Scanner!

Advantages: Good looks, nice price
Disadvantages: A bit slow

...The UMAX AstraSlim 1200 SE is quite a fashionable scanner, which can be brought on a budget for around £35. I decided to buy one when I found out or suddenly became aware of how useful owning a scanner is. But, as usual, I was on a budget, and gave myself the task of buying a scanner which, is not only inexpensive but also is of good quality . After looking through the catalogues, I stumbled across this scanner. The package looked good and it was relatively cheap for a scanner so I brought it. It was money well spent. The scanner has plenty of functions and it does exactly what I wanted it to do! Features: -No power supply needed, connects through USB cable -Photo-copy option -Direct Scan option -Direct e-mail option -OCR function -Photo express CD A little information on the UMAX then: Speed: 6 out of 10---The scanner?s...

master-ryan 27.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of UMAX AstraSlim 1200SE

A Scanner Darkly

Advantages: Interesting depiction of future drug use and relationships
Disadvantages: Slightly dated dialogue, introverted like all Phillip K. Dick

...'A Scanner Darkly' is sci-fi, to be sure, and it's good sci-fi, no doubt about it- it gels together fantastic concepts and well thought out ideas with the mores and values of modern society, creating a fairly seamless blend of present and future. But mostly, it's about drugs. And that is partly why I would recommend it. The writing is classic Dick- snappy, looping dialogue, themes of paranoia, conspiracy and shifting interpersonal relationships. But the autobiographical element of the novel is what is most interesting, and that is largely centered around drug use. Despite a final epilogue where Dick laments the effects of drug abuse on himself and his circle, the writing is remarkably even handed during the novel itself. The side affects of 'Substance D' are the real driving force of the novel and its effects on the drug users...

earthbound23 19.06.2008 · Read review
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Review of A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick

More Scanners, not quite as good though

Advantages: Some good plot twists
Disadvantages: Doesn't add anything new to the previous movie

...The great thing about the original Scanners movie is it was a totally new idea combining elements of horror & science fiction with telepathy & telekinesis which gave the sinister but rather compelling story of good versus evil and brother against brother. Throw into that mix one of the first film roles for the awesome Micheal Ironside (as the evil brother) as well as the great film making ability of David Cronenburg and it made for a great underground cult horror 80's video nasty. The Scanners ability was caused by pregnant mothers taking a drug called Ephemerol, the child becoming a Scanner was its side effect. In this 2nd movie we mainly follow a lone good Scanner called David Kellum who it turns out is the son of the 2 surviving Male & Female Scanners from the original movie, he struggles to contain his power as we also see...

atytyut2434 02.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Scanners 2 - The New Order (DVD)

It's a scanner and it's got a flat bed...

Advantages: Good quality and a transparency adapter
Disadvantages: Poor handling of negatives

...The Umax Astra 3450 is a mid-range consumer flatbed scanner. Launched this year (2001) it is one of a range of products that includes both consumer and professional standard equipment. I have owned and used flatbed scanners for about 6 years. I only decided to replace my previous model because it had a SCSI interface and I don?t have a SCSI card in my new PC. Having used a scanner for some time I had a pretty clear idea of what features I wanted, in this case I decided to go for a USB interface (might as well use those empty ports on the PC) and 600 dpi optical resolution. I wasn?t too concerned about higher resolutions as experience had shown that past 150dpi there was little difference when it came to the final printed result. One additional feature I was interested in was a transparency adapter. This allows for the scanning...

pauljm 05.09.2001 (12.09.2001) · Read review
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Review of UMAX Astra 3450

Umax Astra 2000P

Advantages: good price
Disadvantages: persistent failure

...Hi I used to have a Umax Astra 2000P parallel-port flatbed scanner, but after the third one went wrong, I asked Umax's UK support provider to give me something else, because the darn thing would always go wrong when I most needed to copy a document or scan something. I don't know if this is the experience of other users, but the parallel port model was nothing but trouble from the start. The problem was always scanner connection. VSaccess used to suddenly and without warning say the scanner was undetectable and that was it. The last problem occurred during a scan - my machine hung whilst it was scanning happily, but following reboot the scanner was permanently undetectable. I now have a 2200 instead, which has worked fine (so far), but did need me to go and buy a scsi card....

markedwards 05.01.2001 · Read review
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Review of UMAX Astra 2000P

Umax Astra 1220P

Advantages: Good resolution, good build quality, good drivers, price
Disadvantages: A little slow

...I bought this scanner for about £90 December 2000. The scanner is quite a big machine in comparison to others like Canon but at least it's sturdy and well built. The quality of the scans are very good although the scanner is very slow. The parallel interface is partly the problem but the scanner head moves slowly anyway. Fortunately, speed isn't much of an issue here but because of the interface you can't do anything else with the computer while you are scanning. The software is great! It's very easy to use and has some good features. There is an online scanner manual as well as the paper manual and an online driver manual. The driver is an industry standard TWAIN driver so it can be used in all supported applications. The scanner features a 1200 x 1200 PPI (optical resolution) scan head which offers single pass 36 bit...

KarlRyan 06.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Umax Astra 1220P

Reasonable scanner

Advantages: Very Good photo reproduction
Disadvantages: Transparencies very poor

...I wanted a scanner that should be cheap, and versatile so I chose the UMAX Astra 3450. Retails for around £80 - £90 but I brought it from EBAY auction site, new, and for £46. I will keep my review brief as the previous report (pauljm) says it all and I don’t want to be repetitive. The scanner is a 600 X 1200dpi scanner with a built in transparency cover, 42 bit colour depth with USB interface. A4 is really the maximum size that can be scanned. Setting up was very easy, comes with drivers etc, and also with picture scanning software by Adobe, which is good. Also with OCR software that worked very well. OCR is software that recognises typed documents that are scanned in and attempts to recognise each individual letter and place it into your word processor package so you can edit, add and the like. I didn’t have any...

Robin.Watts 08.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of UMAX Astra 3450