Product Details

• Actors: Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary McCormack, Alfre Woodard, David Patrick Kelly
• Directors: Iain Softley
• Writers: Gene Brewer, Charles Leavitt
• Producers: Gene Brewer, Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Michael Levy, Robert F. Colesberry
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: August 13, 2002
• Run Time: 120 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (146 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005JKIR
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,809 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Based on a novel by Gene Brewer, K-PAX works best as an adult drama of self-discovery, blessed by the talents of costars Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey. Bridges plays Manhattan psychiatrist Mark Powell, who thinks he's seen it all until he's assigned to analyze Prot (Spacey), a psychiatric patient who claims to be from a distant planet called K-PAX. Powell is convinced that Prot is "a convincing delusional," but his cynicism turns to open-minded fascination as Prot's case reveals a combination of otherworldly insight and all-too-human trauma, prompting an earthbound explanation for Prot's allegedly alien origins. As directed by Ian Softley (Wings of the Dove), this curiously engrossing drama allows Spacey to create a provocative and humorously eccentric enigma, while Bridges superbly conveys his character's compassionate empathy. Their finely shaded performances raise K-PAX above the forced ambiguity of its ending, which is both thought-provoking and vaguely anticlimactic. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker

As a creature named Prot who may have dropped in from another planet, Kevin Spacey has a good moment with a dog, kneeling down with the frisky beast and interpreting its barks as speech. But that's about it. What should have been spooky fun is mainly soft-brained and painstakingly earnest. Jeff Bridges, looking about thirty pounds heavier than usual, plays a workaholic psychiatrist who cannot figure out whether Prot is truly an alien or just a head case. Meanwhile, Prot liberates all the bedraggled psychotics who live in the mental ward with him. The director, Iain Softley, uses the lunatics as a kind of comic chorus-an offensive idea masquerading as daring humanism. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prot: Alien or Delusional Human?, December 7, 2005

By 

Janet Boyer "Author, Blogger, Radio Host" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: K-Pax (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

This was one of those powerful movies that I "took personally"--especially since the blue jay is my totem and the blue jay figures a prominent role in this movie.

Kevin Spacey plays a psychiatric patient named Prot--but Prot claims he's really an alien from the planet K-PAX. Jeff Bridges plays Prot's psychiatrist and is convinced that Prot is delusional. But the Doctor's cynicism soon turns into fascination. Could Prot possibly be an alien? Or is there a perfectly logical, "earthly" reason for Prot's belief that he's an alien?

I don't want to give away any plot points, but this movie is thought provoking and utterly fascinating. You'll be scratching your head at the end--but a part of you will "get" it even if your mind does not. Some mystical themes I enjoyed in this movie is the existence of aliens, the possible messages of aliens, the power of belief in something beyond yourself, and the power of the mind.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Be or Not to Be........, April 9, 2002

By 

Frank A. Terry Jr. (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: K-Pax (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

Some people have complained that this movies ending is ambiguous and the director doesn't tell the audience whether Prot is really from K-Pax or just the delusional Robert Porter. It's true, but that's what I found so fascinating about the movie and it's premise.

The story stars two of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. They put on these roles like a comfortable pair of shoes and it isn't long before we feel we've known them for years. Every actor brings their best work to the show and you can't help but be interested and drawn into the story. Whether you believe Prot is real or Robert Porter is just a very tortured man, there are plenty of ambiguities for everyone.

I usually like a movie to be tied up nicely and all the loose ends resolved by the time the credits role. K-Pax is the exception. I appreciated the director laying out the wonderful story with its drama, humor and sadness and letting us draw our own conclusions based on the events as they unfold.

Whatever conclusion you arrive at, K-Pax will entertain you with its intelligent script, wonderful actors and must have music.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Subtle and Imaginative Drama, September 24, 2002

By 

Kenneth James Michael MacLean (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: K-Pax (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

This superbly acted drama about an extraterrestrial named Prot, grabbed my attention from beginning to end. Kevin Spacey is rapidly becoming one of our very finest actors. The depth of his performance in this film deserved an Academy Award nomination. Jeff Bridges, as the psychiatrist in charge of Prot, gives another solid performance. This movie works on many levels. Prot claims to have come on a beam of light to earth, and he leaves in the same manner. Like the character in 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', Prot's consciousness comes in over that of Robert Porter, who is a catatonic. While on earth, Prot solves the perturbations in the orbit of the binary star of K-PAX, disappears for 3 days from a secure facility, and generally displays knowledge that no one on earth could possess. Yet no one will believe Prot is not from earth, despite all of the evidence. This is typical of the human mindset, which disavows anything that is not 'common knowledge'.
At the end of the movie, Porter (Spacey) is in a wheelchair, and Bridges smiles and tells him 'if you are willing to talk, I am always waiting.' The subtle, poignant smile that appears on Spacey's face is masterful, and is in microcosm a portrait of the human experience. It is worth seeing the entire movie just for that last scene. It brought a tear to my eye, I can tell you.
This is a wonderful movie with great depth, wonderfully acted, and it reminds us that there is a big, wide universe out there which we have not even begun to explore.