This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Prot: Kevin Spacey
Dr. Mark Powell: Jeff Bridges
Rachel Powell: Mary McCormack
Howie: David Patrick Kelly
Ernie: Saul Williams
Sal: Peter Gerety
Bess: Melanee Murray
I wasn't quite sure what to expect with K-PAX,
but in this review I'll make sure I don't spoil it for those who still want to
see it.
Kevin Spacey plays an alien creature called Prot (pronounced "prote")
who claims to come from a planet 1000 light years away called K-PAX. Arriving
in a train station looking like a dishellved bum the first thing he does
,after being spotted by a wheelchair-bound tramp, is to help up an old lady
who has been knocked down by a couple of thugs stealing her bag. Mistakenly,
the police believe he's done the dirty deed and take him back to the station,
a situation not helped by him stating that he's come from a far off planet.
We then see him three weeks later after he's failed to respond to typical
medical treatment and he's palmed off to psychiatrist Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff
Bridges, rather sleepwalking through his role) to see if any headway can
be made with yet another patient who claims to come from another world. This
one appears to be more intriguing and convincing than the average nutter,
though.
Kevin Spacey has a banana... sideways.
What follows is an incredibly disappointing two-hour movie, only lifted
occasionally by the presence of Spacey on the odd occasion when he gets a
chance to shine, but aside from the basics, we don't find out too much about
his planet and the people, only that he's on Earth to make a report for his
people who have a different societal structure than us, he can't go out in
bright light without his glasses, that he's about ten
times as old as he looks - but then of course he's only assumed an earthling
form so as to fit in - and that when July 27th comes around, he intends to
head back home with one of the accompanying mental patients in tow, from the
mental hospital in which he's currently locked up.
You keep waiting for some kind of pay-off to occur to make it worth the while
of sitting on your bum for two hours, but all you find out is that he's
hiding some kind of secret which needs to be unlocked from his mind, much
rather like what a psychiatrist does on a daily basis then, but with the
sci-fi element this makes it feel like one of those Quantum Leap
episodes with a half-baked storyline stretched out for over twice as long.
On top of this, the film panders too much to Hollywood's belief that Americans
want little more than something to hang on the "feel-good factor" hook,
there's an age-old "bad idea" scenario where the suspected alien is taken
to the psychiatrist's home for the day and things go wrong - so no surprises
there - and I lost count of the number of times we were shown Jeff Bridges
putting on and taking off his glasses.
Kevin Spacey relaxes in his new home.
Most of the cast don't have a great deal to do. Powell's wife Rachel
(Mary McCormack) just limps about babbling on about how he's never around
for the family (hence, the film tries to teach you that all things in life
matter) and various other mental patients are influenced in certain ways
but without much effect.
Maybe if you like your films so undemanding they'll make you fall asleep,
then this one's for you, but I can't think why it took them two hours to tell
it. It looks like it would have fitted into a 45-minute timeslot with room
to spare, hence the aforementioned TV reference.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
