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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 4076
Released: July 22, 2003 |
| Our Price: $6.63 |
| Used Price: $3.88 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
When college drop-out Ross becomes the local crystal meth cook's personal driver in exchange for free drugs, he has no idea what he's in for. Starring: John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge, Empire), Brittany Murphy (8 Mile, Just Married), Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie),Jason Schwartzman (Slackers, Rushmore), Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous, White Oleander), Debbie Harry (lead singer of rock group "Blondie"), Mickey Rourke (The Pledge, Get Carter),Eric Roberts (National Security, TV's "Less Than Perfect").
Description of Spun (Unrated Version):
Spun is an unclassifiable ensemble piece, intentionally bleached of soulfulness and high on visual invention and comic depravity. Set in north Los Angeles, where meth freaks lurch from one motel room to another in search of companionship and a score, the film stars Jason Schwartzman as Ross, whose life is rapidly disintegrating. Fielding phone messages from his mother and trying in vain to reach an old girlfriend, Ross spends most of his time on a feverish circuit with the half-mad Cookie (Mena Suvari) and Nikki (Brittany Murphy), the dangerously paranoid Spider Mike (John Leguizamo), and a macho drugmaker called the Cook (Mickey Rourke). Director Jonas Akerlund's story is nonexistent, but then again Spun is driven by the blurry, hellish energy of a life lived on speed. An obvious influence is Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, but Akerlund is interested in nightmarish set pieces than tiny horrors of misfired nerve endings and ravaged time. --Tom Keogh
Spun (Unrated Version) Reviews:
Holly **** 
2009-10-24 - Short and Simply...This movie is is awsome.It's extreme hardcore addiction,pornograph,and crazy as ever cartoon scenes and just freaky,off the wall stuff.This movie will totally make your head spin.
Holly ****
2009-10-24 - Short and Simply...This movie is is awsome.It's extreme hardcore addiction,pornograph,and crazy as ever cartoon scenes and just freaky,off the wall stuff.This movie will totally make your head spin.
What a rush 
2009-10-23 - this flick isnt for everyone but if you enjoy films such as Trainspotting, Requiem For A Dream, and Doom Generation, then this is a MUST SEE!!! It trumps them ALL!!!
The film is in my top 10 worst films of all time 
2009-05-01 - How anyone can give this more than 1 star is beyond me. This is flat out terrible on so many levels. I feel sorry for anyone who buys this without watching it first. There isn't one redeeming quality in this film that is worth mentioning.
Imagine if Picasso had a camcorder 
2009-04-28 - Tweakers...abruptly...move, about a landscape, in choppy steps, observing and experiencing a KaLeIdOsCoPe of cartoonish COLORSSSSZZZZZ, visual spectacles, as ji-tt-er-y as possible------while desperately yearning for the next RAIL (is that a squirrel?) that helps them @V0!D the irritability and CRA.Sh.ing that occurs when the Grim Reaper's crystal meth-covered scythe knocks loudly (BANG! BANG!) at the door.
Most drug movies take the stereotypical way out. Pot joke here. Lame message or lesson there. With Spun, however, and the brilliant cast led by Mickey Rourke and Brittany Murphy, there is a bit more grease on the wheel, and the previous paragraph is the best I can do to truly represent the bizarre trip that Spun represents.
The movie follows Ross (Jason Schwartzman) - a borderline psychotic meth-head - over the course of three or four days, as he meanders his way throughout the drug world for each successively needed hit. Starting off at the house of a frantic small-time dealer named Spider Mike (John Lequizamo), whose paranoia and persona are a mix of battered ping-pong ball and horny schizophrenic, Ross meets Spider Mike's junkie girlfriend Cookie (Mena Suvari, who was obviously affected by the Gateway drug in American Beauty), and a fellow addict named Frisbee. When Spider Mike loses his stash - drugs'll do that to ya' - Ross moves up to the big leagues through Nikki (Murphy) - who personifies the drug-addicted stripper in nearly every role she plays; so, she nails the character - to The Cook (Rourke). The Cook is the coolest burnout ever, spewing out prophecy and poetry, both wise and ignorant, while convincing Ross to be his personal chauffer, paying him in small bags of drugs, like a dog being rewarded for playing fetch.
The rest is all about burning the candle at both ends, following addicts as day and night blends together in a hallucinatory cartoon of never-ending cravings. For the most part, the acting is superb. As mentioned, Rourke and Murphy are great, but Suvari is unconvincing, and a bit role from Eric Roberts is simply horrible. How far he has fallen from Best of the Best (and I am dead serious).
Ingeniously filmed, the blending of every imaginable artistic expression is there, but that's the strength as well as the weakness. At times the trip is quite distracting from the message. When it comes down to it, however, maybe that's the point? Maybe the skittish delivery is meant to be a pure depiction of the rambling affects of addiction. I enjoyed it for what it's worth, but not enough to become addicted; I just needed a taste.
