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SCANNER DARKLY tests again! The reaction is... animated...
SPOILER ALERT !!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a trinity of reviews for Richard Linklater's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A SCANNER DARKLY. We may get more reviews sent, but for now there are three. One doesn't like it much, but the other two are very happy with it as it stands. Can't wait to see it my own self, especially with that rumor that recently surfaced about Radiohead doing the score! Here's review number one!
Ahoy, lads. Constable Kreegal riding through with another adventure for you.
Hot on the heels of rumors concerning Radiohead scoring Richard
Linklater's newest opus, there was a screening of "A Scanner Darkly"
at the Arclight in Hollywood last night.
I saddled the horse in the early evening and headed that way, as this
was a film I have been looking forward to ever since Philip K. Dick
would sit on my lap and dream about android sheep with me.
Before anyone asks, no, it's not "Beyond Sunset" or "The Matrixcois"
or "Dazed and BadNewsBears". It's not even "Waking Life", although
it's just as pretty.
In this tale of addiction and conspiracy set in a
not-too-distant-future Orange County, Keanu Reeves lives with Woody
Harrelson and Robert Downey, Jr. His girlfriend is Winona Ryder.
They have a drug-fiend friend, Rory Cochrane, who starts off the film
covered in bugs.
Everyone in the film is on drugs and/or incredibly paranoid. There is
a new designer drug in the world that is 100% addictive. Keanu works
for a drug enforcement agency, as do others, to spy on his friends.
He wears a chameleon coat of always changing faces and bodies to avoid
suspicion in a world where everyone is suspicious of everything.
Eventually, since no one is supposed to know the identity of the
informants, not even the police, Reeves is asked to spy on himself.
Thus we begin to roll down the mudslide of extreme paranoia into
sweat-inducing, pulse-pounding absurdity.
But that's a great thing.
This film is beautiful in the same way that Sin City was beautiful.
Hell, it even deals with some of the same issues of corruption. The
animation is just skewed enough to keep you off-balance as a viewer,
and so realistic at times you don't even know what you're watching
anymore.
The acting is superb in this film. Keanu and Winona are good. Woody
is great. Robert Downey, Jr. is fucking brilliant. He not only
channels a manic, 12-Monkian Brad Pitt, a drug-addled Hunter Thompson
AND French Stewart, but he plunges himself into it as well. The
dialogue between Woody and Robert is A Material. Just hysterical.
And funny, too.
Philip K. Dick was a brilliant sci-fi writer with a scathing social
commentary rumbling around in his brain at all times, and, much like
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and "Minority Report", it's very
much alive here.
Not only does it take its shots at the government and the war on
drugs, but it takes its shots at society as a whole, where we are
built to trust our friends and those that should take care of us, only
to find out that things were never what we thought. It's a hard
lesson to learn, and you always have to learn it the hardest way.
All in all, this is a truly inspiring piece of work on behalf the
actors, the director, the animators and the writer. It'll be worth
your $10 in March or whenever it's supposed to come out.
It does what all true, old-school sci-fi should do... it makes you
think. And there is no score from Radiohead.... yet.
What does a scanner see? A scanner sees your soul.
Now for the next...
I scanned a screening of "A Scanner Darkly" last night in LA. As usual,
we're told this isn't final animation, not final music or mix. Still, it
looked pretty finished to me, right along with the tacked on "explain to us
dumbasses" ending, probably created and added from comments by an earlier
focus group.
Super Extra Non Spoilery Review
TOTALLY DISSAPPOINTED.
End of Super Extra Non Spoilery Review
Yep.
That's all I got for you non spoiler people.
Please scroll down.....
For my opinion......
On...
A SCANNER DARKLY....
Which I had to explain.....
With a bunch o spoilers...
Here we go, slappies.....
Begin Spoilers:
The Story:
Having not read the PKD book, I can only go from the plot presented
onscreen. A strange and scary world set seven years from whenever you end up
watching this (read: cautionary timeless or cautionary current). A
government that doesn't trust itself, nor its public, who are too busy being
doped up on brain hemisphere splitting hallucenogenic drugs called "Death"
or "D". The very credit sequence of the film is a giveaway to what you'll be
experiencing for the next 90 minutes, as a floaty and wiggly lined drug
addict washes himself of tiny green jumping aphids repeatedly, then washes
himself and his floaty wiggly dog too. So if this annoys you, leave the
theater immediately. I'd say that the animation process/style was the
biggest problem I had with this film, because it was distracting and
annoying. If this kind of floaty squiggle tracing animation is "cool and
different" for you, you might like the film.
The first scene with Keanu is actually confusing, as Keanu is
introducing some cops (and us) to the scanner suit which he is wearing. He
is interrupted by himself, loses focus, and this really long pause is
adequate enough to completely derail my concentration from what the fuck is
going on in the first place. We find that he is in charge of "watching
himself", since he is an undercover scanner cop in a multipersonality suit,
talking with other scanner cops who could also be anybody under that suit
(tell me you didn't see the end coming a million miles a second aimed
directly at your cortex after this little bit is introduced). He is also an
addict to "D", along with his very strange and equally addicted roommates,
played by Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson. The story becomes far more
absorbing, as we see these characters interact with each other, and are
given more to see of this horrible mind controlled world. Keanu is spying on
himself, and we as the viewer are supposed to lose track alongside him as to
who and where we are in this strange self confessional mindfuck. Paranoid is
the key word to everyone in this vision of the future, where no one trusts
each other, mind control is a norm, and everyone is on some type of drug.
The last third actually became incredible well written, piecing together all
the moments into some kind of freaked out logic, until the quick ending
stunk up the place by giving us to much too late. The ending has Keanu at
the New Path Farm, which we see is a halographic hiding place for the
hallucenogenic flowers which are used to make the "Death" drug. He is pretty
lost after ODing on D, just shambling about with his drool bucket like a
smiley mongoloid. Then we have this lame tacked on explaino-vision scene
with Winona Ryder and some goofball cop, where they tell us everything that
has happened over the last hour and why, and can Keanu escape and bring them
back the info they need to bust up the drug ring. LAME. If anybody involved
in producing this film is reading this, please cut this scene out. The
people who do go see this won't need a childs explanation and a "tuck in its
bedtime" from you. Just let Keanu walk off into the distance. We don't need
the weak retell, thanks.
The Animation:
Annoying, boring, in many scenes amatuerishly done, and most importantly
completely unnecessary. This story definitely lends itself to this animation
style in idea only. Seeing it is really kind of a nightmare in itself. It is
also sadly distracting from what are truly amazing performances from Robert
Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson. Instead of helping the story along, it
becomes a distraction itself, and hampers what could have been a truly great
film. They've refined it since "Waking Life", but it is still has a
nauseating headache inducing quality to it. Its great for 30 second
commercials, but try 90 minutes of this shitty rotoscoped weird floaty
bullshit, and you'll feel ill. My feeling overall is that this look is a
complete and total waste of time, and that this film would actually be
better if they just used the DV footage they shot. The animation is
unnecessary, annoying, and distracting from what is actually an interesting
concept in paranoia.
The acting from Robert Downey Jr is fantastic, funny, and at times
brilliant. Having this great acting traced over by some squigllevision
college kids just sucks completely.Keanu is okay, not great not bad, just
is. Woody brings out his bizarro animal child style to this role, and when
these three are onscreen together and interacting about all their strange
paranoias, the film really does takeoff. Winona is passable in this film,
and we get a few rotoscoped animo shots of naked, you can tell the animators
took extra time to get those breasts all glisteny and shiny, with the all
the weight and movement of real breasts. Hats off to these sweaty pixel
clicken geebs! Many of the other scenes unfortunately look like a retarded
monkey tracing with his gnarled feet onto wiggly parchment, totally awesome!
Even the Scanner Suits themselves, which have a strange discombobulating
effect shown as thousands of different kinds of ethnicities, clothing, and
hair styles all patchworked together, changing constantly, all mixed
together randomly, this look itself would have been amazing if done as live
action compositing. As it exists right now, it looks creepy and cool, and
goes along with the floaty and pretty lame tracing style of the rest of the
film.
If there are any other scenes like the "Alien with a thousand eyes" that
were cut, please add them, because this film needs to get trippier by a long
shot, and that scene was really funny, made use of the animation technique,
and worked well with the characters. Please make this film stranger if you
can, because it needs that in my opinion.
I love animated films, and this is a film that I can truly say is
destroyed by its own process.
I hope that Richard Linklater does a cut of this film as just the edited
DV footage and puts that on the DVD when its released, because that will
actually be the film I watch again, and am most interested in seeing.
End Spoilers:
I wanted to like this, but ended up really just wanting to forget it all
together, just like the two Matrix sequels, LXG, and Brothers Grimm. If you
use this, call me MegaSwarm
And one more that really likes it, unlike the above... Last one!
Harry!
Just saw the Richard Linklater directed A SCANNER DARKLY last night over at the Arclight in Los Angeles. I saw the preview like, what, over nine months ago? Then the thing just fell off the radar. Anyway, I guess the pic is being distributed by some artsy sub company of Universal. Whatever. Anyway, point being, I am a huge Philip K. Dick fan and likewise feel that Blade Runner is the ultimate. Phil Dick's stories are not conducive to the Michael Bay Island type of Matrix extravaganza that really should make you feel like throwing in a Scwarzenegger, and that's probably a good thing. Fans of the Dick book (can I say that?) will be pleased to include A SCANNER DARKLY into the PKD family of films, although those not familiar with them (or the books) will be more than a little lost, most likely.
The film is done with that crazy rotoscoped animation much in the style of that one movie (Waking Life?), and to the effect of washing everything over in the movie with a surreal psychedelic morning after kind of feel. What is interesting to note, at least it seemed to me, that in order to not go overboard with the animation, they would tweak it here and there to make it either more or less subtle where needed. Watching a whole movie like this could have been a headache, but in this case it was a joy.
The story (sans spoilers) concerns a not-too-distant-in-the future undercover drug enforcement agent Bob Arctor(Keanu Reeves), and his dealings in the underworld of 21st Century Southern California (Yeay Anaheim!). To his dismay and the audiences delight, Arctor's path crosses the likes of many swarthy and mindnumbed individuals (Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Slater from Dazed and Confused) being burnt out on a new kind of psychedelic fad drug, "Substance D". The Director, Rich Linklater (Dazed and Confused, School of Rock) pays homage to Phil Dick by making this very nearly the best on screen adaptation of one of his works.
I still say Blade Runner is a better movie, but this one is actually closer to the book. Needless to say, the movie (although without final sound and edits) is a sheer joy, an absolute trip and thrill to be engaged in. Definitely not the type of movie for people who want their bullets spoonfed to them (?), but absolutely for the people who want to experience something new, tripped out, fun and just plain weird. I loved it.
P.S. When you see it, keep an eye out for the Voight-Kampf...its in there.
Never written a review before, but you can call me...
THE IMPERIAL PIMP
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+ Expand All
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to see this one. It has a very cool look to it. I'll be there opening weekend.
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thats 2 in one day. I feel special. And I forgot that Robert Downy Jr. was in this. I really like him, especially in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Can't wait for this one. Sorta reminds me of Sin City.
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Dec 15, 2005 12:42:49 AM CST
Yeah, it sounds good. Radiohead IS GOING TO SCORE IT???
by iamnicksaicnsn
Is that true? That'd be insane! And Robert Downey Jr was just a kick ass piece of the bad-ass-ness that was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
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http://www.ateaseweb.com/news/archive/2005/12/radiohead_decli_1.php
That would've been awesome. -
PKD is the shit
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I'll always take a couple hours out of my life for Linklater.
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...Might be old news, but they've refused to do the score - they're in the middle of recording their next album, for Alvis' sake!!..Anyways, I'm way more excited to see this than Link's other animated opus, Waking Life (good ideas, novel technique, masturbatory presentation)...Alright, rock on...without Radiohead, apparently...
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They were asked to do it but turned it down because they're too busy working on their next album. Bummer.
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The alien scene is there. That's all I needed to know! Sweeeeet!
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Dec 15, 2005 1:28:06 AM CST
Keanu Reeves is terrifyingly, unwatchably bad in almost everythi
by stan the bat
I rented Constantine a while ago and made it as far as his first tortured conversation with the angel in the library before I had to take it back to the store. Granted, there is a chance that he'll be convincing as a brain-damaged drug addict.
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Good. Who wants to listen to a mewling cat over electronic beeps and bloops anyway? Most over-rated band ever.
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Though Keanu is awesomely bad, Constantine was cursed by trying to give the movie treatment to something that came out of Alan Moore's brain.
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I don't know- I don't see any reason why a good adaptation of an Alan Moore book couldn't be made. It's just chickenheartedness that prevents it. All that would be necessary would be to follow the source material. -Okay, it'll never happen- I've accepted it.
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Looks beautiful, love Linklater...maybe it'll actually get the respect it (hopefully) deserves? We'll see. www.unseenfilms.com
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Dec 15, 2005 3:55:17 AM CST
"I still say Blade Runner is a better movie, but this one is act
by magic muppet
Er, Bladerunner was based on a different book! But I think you meant that ASD is a better adaptation of a Dick story compared to Bladerunner, even though that was a better film. Yeah.
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What happened to the Radiohead track on the Life Aquatic?
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Dec 15, 2005 6:37:36 AM CST
I still think that Do Androids Dream could make a great movie
by monkey butler
But it'll obviously never happen because of Blade Runner. Pity.
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The coolest pothead in cinematic history in THIS film, I'm there!!! Slater you fucking hippy, give me drugs man!
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And will now see everything he does. Count me in.
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Ok as I was about to say,
Robert Downey Jr. as a drug addict? Man, Hollywood and its wild imagination. The way the make actors stretch to fit their role is amazing. (note sarcasm). -
As far as complaints go about the expositing between Winona's character and a cop.....If I remember correctly, that's in the book. In fact, it was kind of twist ending regarding Winona's character, who she worked for, what happened to the D addicts (slave labor cultivating the drug that destroyed their lives)and the fact that Keanu's character was orchestrated into being a drooling D addict/ slave laborer for purpose of DEA info by the powers that be. If the last scene in the movie "explains" all that, then it is *exactly* how it's written in the book.
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I feel that since no one has contradicted kintar0's claim that Radiohead is the most over-rated band ever it is my duty to do so now.
Proclamation:
Radiohead is by far the greatest and most awesome band ever brought forth into our dimension by hideous demons, and if you disagree you are so retarded that I will use my super time travel powers to prevent your fucked up birth.
ANOTHER PROCLAMATION:
A Scanner Darkly will be awesome despite the lack of Radiohead because Philip K. Dick is the master of the Universe. -
I didn't read the reviews- don't need to- being a big PKD fan and a somewhat fan of linklater (love Waking Life- saw it twice in theatres)- I'm there. I just hope that the scene with the aphids are in it... I hear the producer of this film plans on doing Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch as well- although as a live action- that would be insane- and as for Radiohead- if they the score- that's cool- if not- well they peaked with Kid A and then didn't know where else to go and became a tired cartoon of themselves- Amnesiac was half fuller- half slit your wrists leftovers from Kid A and hail to the Thief was a composite cartoon with absolutely no surprises- The Radiohead who made The Bends, OK Computer and Kid A were a band on a journey. The journey has long since been over. It's a shame because at their peak they had b-sides better than most bands' show-dogs.
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I thought that was pretty cool, and this sounds kinda similar...
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You are right, at the end of the movie there's a conversation between Donna and the guy who was an insider at New Path and they explain everything. That's the same as the book. Knowing that even the alien with many eyes is there, as Arctor going nuts at the end, it makes me more anxious to see the movie. The book is great and I even understand some not liking the animation but IMO it fits the story very well.
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I didn't know about this flick. Now I can't wait to see it.
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Was just thinking- I personally love L:inklater's rotoscopic animation technique- but I brought this chick once on a date to see Waking Life- and I got her stoned before the movie started- she kept telling me how nauseous she felt! LOL I was so into the movie and I kept looking at her covering her eyes and mouth! Hilarious. After that I took her out to Indian food and really put the kabosh on it...
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...we could have rotoscopic adaptations of Ubik and Martian Time-Slip...
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Why is Winona in this movie? Donna is supposed to be 19, and Winona is in her 30s, I think. Then again, Donna is a habitual thief, so maybe they were just casting to type.
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Dec 15, 2005 10:20:47 AM CST
is it "Radiohead IS not going to score" or "Radiohead ARE not go
by calami-shami
If they are not due to a new album then fuck yeah Id rather that they put all their energy into the next album. Weren't they going to score FIGHT CLUB at some point? THE DUST BROTHERS, now there's an idea. Sure they produced HANSON but FIGHT CLUB was great.
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I was surprised by how good that was. Good flick, GREAT ending.
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Damm I can't wait to see Winona's boobies - even if they are animated. I have a feeling I will be animated too - animated in my pants!!!!
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Damn collage keeping me out of the loop... WHAT!?!? Radiohead doing score!?!? WHAT!?!? Radiohead not doing score!?!? WHAT!?!? Radiohead working on new album!?!? Anyone got an herbal pillow or something. That's too many doubletakes to wake up from sleeping in to. Radioheads made my top ten favorite bands list for a ong ass time. Kid A/Amnesiac era was a littly trying but some of their best work is hidden in those albums. Also, they really don't yous synths and beat mechines as much as people think. A lot of it is just their guitars run through computers to make spacey/whatever sounds. The Bends is still perhaps my favorite though. Hail to the Theif was really great. They need to return more to sounding like a band and not a composer like Reznor. In some respects they are for indie garrage what the Clash was for punk. They do what they want, and they helped make it a medium that other experimental bands could profit in. Not to mention the fact that they are political. Still, Clash sits higher on the list. Kind or a drag they aren't doing the score, it would be interesting to see what they'ed do. Scanner needs a sonic range that I think they could have covered. You want something like a Sonic Youth score for some story arcs, but at other times something more sci-fi and then also endering, and Radiohead has shown that kind of range. Still, can't wait for another album by them, sure did like those little bits of accustic on their last. Any suggestions for who should score this film, I really do think it should be a band. Wilco would intersting. Peace.
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Waking Life, Slacker, School of Rock, Bad News Bears, now this.......ughhhh.
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I love the guy but playing a "manic, 12-Monkian Brad Pitt, a drug-addled Hunter Thompson AND French Stewart" doesn't seem like too much of a stretch for him.
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"The dialogue between Woody and Robert is A Material. Just hysterical. And funny, too."
'Hysterical' and 'funny' no longer have similar meanings? -
Dec 15, 2005 5:27:38 PM CST
Richard Linklater must have a twin who is a shitty director.
by one9deuce
They live their life as one person like the Mantle brothers in Dead Ringers. One Linklater is an interesting director who made the very good 'Before Sunrise', the brilliant 'Before Sunset', the funny 'School of Rock', and the very funny 'Dazed and Confused'. The other Linklater made 'Waking Life' which made me want to gouge my eyes out, the WAY overrated 'Slacker' which is so horrible I had to force myself to watch it all the way through, and the student thesis feature 'It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books' which I DEFY any of you fanboys to make it all the way through. I just thought it was a crappy, intensly boring, student short film. I was having a hell of a time getting through it, so I checked the display to see how long it was. An hour and a half. Of nothing. A shot of an empty room for MINUTES. A shot of somebody waiting for MINUTES. Philip K. Dick is always interesting, and I think A Scanner Darkly would be good except I hate the animation style. Rotoscoping over live action footage looks like shit.
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Mewling cats and bleeps? I'm sure not everyone is a musician here, but let me assure you that technically, Radiohead is fairly incomparable to any other band (surely any other band whose albums debut at #1). Even if they are not your cup of tea (they can be a bit hard even for me to listen to on a few tracks!), they still deserve respect for being the most different band out there these days. They're like the biggest indie band in the world. Cheers to them for having the cajones to re-write the pop genre by doing a 180 after their biggest album (OK Computer) instead of following a formula. I, also, would love to see them return as a rock band again, but I'm also happy to hear anything new from them. (Just to keep the ASD thread...) I think it would have been cool to hear Radiohead score this movie.
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that talkbacker was cool. they should unban him already.
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Hysterical and funny only have a similar meanings if you use the informal meaning of the word. For example something is histericaly funny --> histerical though litteraly, histerical pertains to histeria which I believe litteraly means wandering uterus (or womb).
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Dec 15, 2005 8:44:27 PM CST
This is pimp as hell. Speaking of pimp as hell, the dominos in
by reze11even
Man that's awesome. I am setting those bastards up on my table right now.
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Did that guy just say they were told that the animation is not complete and then complain about the animation? ............ maybe I'm just tired. Done with these reviews anyway. Hey site type guys, I know this place runs on reviews like these...but could ya be a bit more selective maybe? Yeesh.
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I like Linklatter, but I really dont think I can handle that animation for an entire film. It was annoying enough when they were using it in commercials.
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I still want to put my pee pee between her big bazoombas and move it until it erupts.
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I've been waiting for this one for a long time, now. And new of Radiohead turning down the score is even better.
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