Naked Lunch (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Awesome movie

Part allegory, part biography, part drug fueled hallucination with comparisons to "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "A Scanner Darkly" and "Trainspotting" this is a difficult movie to define. Less a direct conversion of the novel by Burroughs (because honestly, how?) and more an homage to the authors life and works, this film manages to do justice to the material and retain Cronenberg's weird and often grotesque style. Earns its "R' rating from the outset with adult themes and probably not suitable for every adult. Absolutely worth watching, and then rewatching. Criterion collection adds insight in the liner notes and bonus commentary.

This show was made from a book by a one of a kind author who lived a unique life & combined his life & his talent to create this story. William S. Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" was a novel many wanted to turn into a movie but it had to wait for F/X & a Director capable of filming its unreal expression of the Author's inner turmoil. David Cronenberg & modern film making combined to make it a unique & shining reality. The cast is dynamite & do a tremendous job of portraying Mr. Burroughs characters. Peter Weller from Robocop as Bill Lee, Judy Davis as Joan Lee/Frost their wife, Ian Holm of Bilbo fame as Tom Frost, Julian Sands as Yves Cloquet & Roy Scheider as a Doctor of deception & others you'll know. WARNING this show takes flight earlier & does not return. Get drinks first. A married exterminator & drug addict hooked on using his "bug powder" for intoxication as well as work begins his journey into psychosis on the train of hallucinations. His wife, then perceived as a problem, is easily removed at the direction of Bill's controller. It then becomes time to go undercover in a truly foreign country. Once there he will send out reports on enemy agents hiding in the same culture he is in. There are new customs, new friends, new enemies but still the same old Bill to try & deal with it all. That's this story line in a nutshell. It gives you No Idea about what is visually contained in this movie. All of these scenes play out in an exquisitely detailed & totally outlandish manner thanks to the direction of David Cronenberg. He was truly the one director to handle the job of book story to finished film here. What he accomplished before doing this film was only training for the making of "Naked Lunch". This movie is not ethereal & otherworldly the images are recognizable by anyone (I'm assuming you know what a typewriter is). Bill Lee our lead character is truly a stranger in his own strange land (pardon me Mr. Heinlein). To watch this show is to be in the middle of a psychotic mind visually. If you are a fan of the weird, the unusual, the bizarre & the unique you will love this. If you are a David Cronenberg fan this show is a non-stop Cronenberg fantasy you shouldn't miss. This was worth the wait & a BIG thanks to all the people that backed off trying this because they knew it wasn't time to try yet. 5 BIG STARS!

This was a haunted and truly disturbed man according to this film. Well acted and astonishingly executed by all involved. It definitely requires more than one viewing to get the full impact of this one. Depicting a nightmare of visual allegory presented as a narrative, it has been confused as a Sci Fi film as well as a horror flick. There are aspects of both. But it is neither. A brilliant hallucinogenic film that is one of a kind. But not well received on it's original release. Enjoy at your own risk.

When going into David Cronenberg's vision of William Burroughs' hallucinatory novel, it's a good idea to keep the above tagline in mind. Like Cronenberg's other films, Naked Lunch is not for the weak stomached, but it's a triumph of a director's vision as he brings this long dubbed "unfilmable" book to life. The film is nearly impossible to describe, with Peter Weller in the starring role as an exterminator. He and his wife (Judy Davis) play a William Tell game which ends with her dead, followed by a trip to "Interzone", in which he experiences all sorts of insanity, including meeting an exact look-alike of his wife, typewriters which morph into cockroaches, etc. The makeup and visual effects are spectacularly done, and Cronenberg is at his near best as a director here as he brings Burroughs' nightmarish vision to life. Weller is exceptionally good, and the rest of the cast, including Davis, Roy Schieder, and Julian Sands in a scene you surely won't forget, no matter how hard you may try. Like the DVD release of Cronenberg's Videodrone, Criterion has lavished this first time DVD release of Naked Lunch, including a commentary by Cronenberg and Weller, as well as a fantastic documentary, and the usual array of extras.

I like this classic acid trip like story about a mans decent into madness wonderfully done by David Cronenberg. A rare story.

Where on earth do you start with this? I think that you either ' get ' William S. Burroughs or you don't and luckily for me he couldn't do anything wrong.Whether writing, painting, acting,' singing ' or just talking this man was a true genius. Cronenberg's Naked Lunch is a mixture of Bill's cut-up novel, autobiography and the writing of the novel and to my mind is absolutely sublime. The Criterion bluray isn't perfect but it's much better than any other release currently on sale and I highly recommend it. I was going to list all the details, extras etc. But www.Bluray.com does it far better than I, so leave me, go there, read and order this immediately!

Criterion Collection: Naked Lunch

Amazing sound, amazing picture, lots of neat special features and really liked the disc art sadly I did not enjoy the movie but a great film remaster nonetheless with nice extras

Full recommendation!