The Diva's review of "Vanilla Sky"

(click here to skip to this movie's rating) Vanilla Sky (2001) Viewed at Pacific Place Genre: Thriller/ Suspense Rated R;running time of 130 minutes. Written by:Cameron Crowe, based on Open Your Eyes by Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gil Rodríguez Directed by: Cameron Crowe Starring: Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell, Cameron Diaz, Jason Lee, Noah Taylor, Tilda Swinton (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**) The Digest David Ames (Tom Cruise) is at the top of his game. At 33,he is the majority stockholder in a successful publishing company; he has his choice of beautiful women; he's filthy rich; and to top it all off he is drop dead gorgeous. What a life. All this may change with the chance meeting of a girl named Sofia (Penelope Cruz). Up until the night he met Sophia, David had been casually dating Julia (Cameron Diaz). Julia starts to act a little weird when she notices David checking out Sophia, but at first it doesn't seem that bizarre. While Julie is slightly freaking out, David is becoming obsessed with Sophia. She is, bright, witty, and beautiful. To top it all off, she's a normal human being. He is so smitten with her that he ignores the fact that his best friend Brian (Jason Lee) brought her to the party and he too is smitten with her. David decides to make his move by escorting Sophia home. He ends up spending the night at her place, but all they do is talk and get to know each other. This is clearly something new for David. When David leaves the next morning, Julia who has parked outside of Sophia’s place all night confronts him. Julie convinces David to get in the car with her. A decision he will regret for the rest of his life because Julie flips out and runs the car off the road, trying to kill both of them. What remains to be seen is if David can put his life back together after this tragic event. The Dish First let me state that there are some major twists in this movie that I can't even discuss. I'm going to try my best to keep you in the dark and only discuss the few spoilers I've already mentioned. Having said that... Oh brother this movie was just plain annoying. I had many problems with this flick. Here are just a few: The complete and total lack of character development. One minute Julia is nice as pie, the next minute, that heifah is crashing through central park trying to kill herself with David along for the ride. I was left wondering why she snapped. She was making some comments and clearly she stalked him that day, but we saw her like two times before she went nuts and she was fairly normal those two times. David's meltdown after the accident. It was never clearly established that he was that fond of his looks. He would pluck his gray hair every morning, but he was never shown to be so vain that he would want to stay locked up after becoming disfigured. The plastic surgeons indicating that they couldn't fix his face seemed a bit much. I've seen worse injuries fixed on Jerry Springer's dime. I really like Cameron Crowe, but I'm getting annoyed by the fact that in his reality, black people don't really exist in New York. I disliked how the movie was schizophrenic. It was the most original movie I've seen in a long time and at the same time it was one of the most unoriginal movies I've seen in quite some time. Whenever something cropped up that I thought was pretty cool, 5 seconds later I could point to a movie exactly like it. The plot twist of the movie was very annoying to me. Have you ever seen The Usual Suspects if so, you know how it all comes together at the end and you are like "Daaaammmmn" well that was sorely lacking here. When everything was finally explained, I was pretty much done. It was so far fetched and drawn out that by the time we were let in on the secret, I didn't care about the secret anymore. It spent so much time trying to confuse the audience that it confused itself until it just didn't make any sense. The bottom line is that I left feeling confused and cheated. I suspect I'll hear from the legion of Fight Club lovers who will disagree with me like I called their mama out. Oh well. Cruise was pretty good. I haven't seen enough of his movies to determine whether or not this was his greatest performance ever. Jason Lee turned in a solid performance as the "forever suffering best friend" I didn't find anything remarkable about Penelope Cruz or Cameron Diaz. Kurt Russell gives a decent turn as the Psychiatrist that tries to help David after his accident. The Directive I've been told that the Spanish film that this is based on Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes) is much better. This is good movie to go to with a group of friends and then see what types of philosophical discussions are sparked. Just make sure you see a matinee. Bland and lacking flavor. back to top Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2001 EMAIL: thediva@3blackchicks.com ICQ: 8690410 http://www.3blackchicks.com/ Use the feedback form below to send your comments to The Diva

Bams' reviews:
Vanilla Sky

Cass' reviews:
Vanilla Sky | What's Love Got To Do With It?