Stars: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton

Director: Jan De Bont

Summary: A city is held to ransom by an explosives expert. His latest victims are a group of people on a city bus. Only a LAPD SWAT cop and a female civilian can save the passengers now...

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Richard Linklater goes off-kilter with his sixth film, Waking Life. Without a linear plot line, stable images and offering the kind of conversations you normally only find in a University seminar, it's clear that Linklater--despite his commercial success with independent films--is determined not move into the mainstream. By taking Wiley Wiggins away from his Dazed and Confusedlife into a dream which has no structure, and flitting from one philosophical question to another, Linklater presents a filmic discussion into the nature of physical awareness, consciousness and unconsciousness that most surrealist artists would be proud of. However, Linklater goes one step further and removes all notions of the real world by filming the actors then transferring them into animation, employing 31 artists to input their vision onto the film.

The result is a startlingly honest portrayal of the confusion we all face about the difference between life and death, dreaming and awareness, and the unknown as a whole. All the characters Wiggins meets seem to have their own thesis on the unknown, just as in life we are all aware or feel differently about our own self. In addition there are discussions regarding film as a dream-like form, with theorists aligning the sensation of watching a film to that of dreaming, taking your own consciousness into the lives of others. This is what makes Waking Lifesuch a brave and well-structured film. By breaking down the barriers of narrative and reality, Linklater has probably made one of the most realistic films in recent history.

On the DVD:Waking Lifetransfers well onto to DVD but disappointingly has no extra features. With just a language selection, scene selection and play all section the only real added advantage of the DVD format is the ability to play back the dream sequences to allow for greater understanding, something impossible to do in the "waking life". --Nikki Disney

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1994
Release Date:	May 3, 2004
Runtime:	110 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	08638 C D V D X
Keywords:	Special, Action, Two, General, Edition, Speed, Adventure, Discs
Genre:	Action/Adventure