Jacob's Ladder without the edge and madness.

Kind of trash, but I would say you can watch it if lack anything better to do at the moment.

Intentional or not this plays out like an idiotic and overlong justification to get really God damn high. Maybe in the post-1970's when the concept of the psychonaut still had a glimpse of scientific credibility this might have been interesting but nowadays the thought of someone getting so high they are able to physically change their physical being is simply laughable to me. No, you're not in a new state of consciousness, you're staring at a wall. Still, it's got some cool imagery.

Bored me to tears although Hurt did a decent job. Can't really recommend it.

The trip sequences are pretty crazy, but as a whole the film plays much too straight, failing to really say anything about human consciousness.

Interesting, sure. Enjoyable? Not so much.

interesting story, however it appeared to be a surreal sci fi story, but near the end it turned into a generic horror film, it was entertaining but it wasn't that great

If it weren't for that damn gorilla...

I've come to the conclusion that Altered States is either proto-"Just Say No" propaganda or is trying to extol the virtues of family over post-flower power hedonism. Or both. Whatever the case, any movie that features a weremonkey, really sweaty geek sex, eviscerated lizards and sensory deprivation tanks that resemble convenience store ice coolers, all while asking questions about the possibility of expanding human consciousness through the use of psychedelic drugs, gets my ringing endorsement.

The first part is a decent metaphysical pscychodrama, the next part is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the rest is, well, the end of Akira. While the first and last parts work together, the middle one does not, and the film feels disjointed. I want to know what the filmmakers thought while filming the zoo scene, which is one of the shittiest scenes in a decent film, ever.

Very entertaining, but perhaps a little too much goofy excess.

Cool concept, but the execution is uneven. The trip sequences are actually pretty well done, a bit funny sometimes, but still intriguing. The physical transformation scenes feel cheesy and forced. The personal drama between Hurt and his wife is similarly bland and unconvincing. It's definitely an interesting watch, but at times it feels dated.

Gets overblown minute by minute but at least visually a rarity.

The traditional mad scientist dressed up in new clothes, or rather, divested of his clothes and floating naked in an isolation tank. That's just for starters. It's quite nice the way the metaphysical odyssey of this so-called "Faust freak" keeps expanding into new territory, moving through a Dr. Leary psychedelic phase to a Dr. Jekyll metamorphic phase (clever use of a video screen, at one point, to effect the transformation), and well beyond that, to terra incognita and very much infirma.

"A perfectly suitable movie for Russell, where hallucinations and bizarre, overwrought transformations are part of the story. Scientists experiment with extreme sense-deprivation until one of them finds his mind and physical body changing to another evolutionary stage, and then to another existential level, while his girlfriend watches in horror. Powerfully strange and fascinating, with a superb William Hurt."

Despite the structure of the story is a bit odd this really has it's moments of true fucking awesomeness. Especially towards the end.

A bunch of chatter boxes! It did not work as a love story, it did not work as a sci-fi flick. There was also some fantasy elements, but even as the acid trip it was lame. It blew my mind some thirty years ago, but now it's just shattered images. And Drew Barrymore's got even some lines. When there was no trip on the directing was solid, and I liked the semi-morfed William Hurt.

Chayefsky disowned this, so yeah...

The steamy Hurt/Brown relationship delivers all the emotional impact of reading the ingredients off a Maalox package. Besides that, Ken Russell really needs to update his stock crucifixion cd's(see also "Lair of the White Worm"). Finally, according to the "science" at work here, our human genetic-coding can be traced back to a land of Stay Puff marshmallow human/hybrids. Sigh.

The first act is good, and there are some great psychedelic sequences, but this just gets more and more hysterical by the minute. Everyone except for Hurt overacts to the point of irritation. It wants to be the 2001 of drugs; it is not.

Definitely a strange film, but the visual style is fantastic and despite the craziness it is a pretty straightforward exploration of identity with an offbeat romance.