mark.waltz Perhaps too surrealistic for my provincial taste, this just left me cold and disgusted by its hideous use of revolting visuals to represent all sorts of symbolic repression. "Robo Cop" Peter Weller is a rather dour exterminator with writing ambitions whose wife finds herself addicted to his particular kind of bug spray. She takes him on a trip which results in his going on the run for her murder and facing psychological retribution for his latent and often poetic attempts to avoid his homosexuality. This brings him from gay old New York to exotic and perverted Morocco where the bug powder is overflowing and young boys seem available on every street corner...inside the Casbah.Disgusting but often fascinating visually, this was mesmerizing for its avant garde performances especially Weller, Judy Davis (in multiple roles), Roy Schneider and Ian Holm. A very pretty Julian Sands is enticing as one of Weller's possible liaisons. But every time I get drawn into the underlying themes, I find myself turning away every time a huge bug appears, especially one which appears to talk through its anus. The most revolting moment happens when Weller comes across Sands ravishing the sweet young street boy inside a cage, seemingly devouring him like a preying mantis. Whether an analogy of the dangers of drug use or perverted sexuality, this takes time to grab the average audience not expecting such an emotionally exhausting pseudo film noir. During my days working at a video store, I knew that David Cronenberg's movies would be a feast for the eyes yet psychologically challenging, and having avoided this one for years I prove myself to be right. It's ironic that living in New York I have no problem killing a bug even with my bare hand, but watching what goes on in this film just left me repulsed. Watching this while studying the work of the remarkable Judy Davis, I noticed how much even at this point in her career that she resembles Judy Garland when she was immortalized playing her in a brilliant television movie. But this is closer to her black comedy of the same time, "Barton Fink", and well I could get through that film with no issue, it took all the patience in the world for me to make it through the end of this. I did get a kick out of one strangle looking creature which reminded me of "The Tingler".

gavin6942 After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator (Peter Weller) accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.In order to recreate the beat movement, Cronenberg turned to jazz, as he saw beat writing as jazz with the typewriter as instrument. Howard Shore, Cronenberg's regular composer, did a fine job recruiting the necessary talent. (Weller, interestingly, has a background in jazz and even received a master's degree.) Cronenberg has used scenes from "Exterminator", "Junky" and others, as well as "Naked Lunch". So this film could have been titled just about anything, as it is not a straight transfer of the book it borrows its name from. He also created the idea of using bug powder as a drug; Burroughs wrote on drugs and exterminating, but had never himself combined the two. Indeed, the whole bug theme was greatly expanded by Cronenberg, leading to the creatures that are very much something up Cronenberg's traditional theme of the "new flesh".Roy Scheider came on board because he asked to be, having been a big fan of Burroughs. This is fortunate for everyone, as he is among the best actors in the business and makes an excellent Benway. Who else was up for the role is unknown.Prior to the shooting, Peter Weller met with William Burroughs, of whom he was a big fan. Burroughs apparently had slight objections to the casting because of Weller's looks, but Weller felt he was playing William Lee, not Burroughs, so there was no need to directly imitate the voice or looks of the author. This was a wise choice on Weller's part.The film presents women in an interesting way. Cronenberg relies on Burroughs' view of women as an alien species. Without ever getting misogynist or anti-women, the story does tend to create a sense of "the other" regarding women. What this says about Burroughs is unclear -- of course, he had a complicated sexuality, but was it something more? What is needed is more Julian Sands.

Harriet Deltubbo Without question this is one of the grimmest films ever. Here's a story about a place most people might not be able to conceive: where things are dying, where people survive off liquor and candy, where those who are supposed to love us shove knives into our backs. It will bring you to tears and make you laugh. All characters are unhappy souls, surviving in a grim world. It's an amazing work and everything I had hoped for. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them.

Liam Blackburn I recommend watching this in the early morning hours when your mind is glazed with the sheen of your early morning donuts. The surreal scenes work with the jazz music. It's about communication. The typewriters keep turning into fleshy organisms that talk themselves. They look like insects and the one hybrid typewriter is like a huge insectoid alien. The same one that gives him one mission thats sitting in the bar. Plus he gets his first mission which is to kill his wife. So he kills his wife, but I totally forgot that that was his mission. It is really cool how the movie maker accomplished this because I didn't clue into that he carried out his mission until later. He didn't even know it at the time and then it gets revealed to him by another insect machine that he was programmed to not even know he was carrying out a mission. The most effective agent is a unconscious agent. The most effective agent is an unconscious agent. Think about that. Then there's the story of the guy who teaches his rear how to talk. It just becomes this unconscious agent without a brain. Just a talking machine like the typewriter who keeps giving him the missions. The only difference between an operative and non- operative is they write reports. Then they mention the new world order near the end. It's like the whole New york media is in internal operation focused on these grotesque cockroach type machines that keep spewing intoxicating stories like drugs for the mind.