Vanilla Sky

Rating:
Summary: ....
Review: FYI for any one who thought that Vanilla Sky was confusing, It was one of the best put together movies Ive eve seen. While it had many twists and turns the absolute best thing about the movie was the way the end put the entire movie focus. The last ten minutes of the movie were brilliant, ...!

Rating:
Summary: The value of life
Review: I walked away from this movie with a greater appreciation for life. At the end of the movie, Cruise is presented with a choice - do you accept life with the reality that his love has now been dead for 200 years; or do you continue to dream your own reality. His choice shows the value of life: life with its twists and turns is more valuable than controlling my reality. Uncertainty makes life enjoyable. He chooses to live in reality rather than a dream - a choice that signifies how precious living really is.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing at best.
Review: I really was expecting a love-triangle type of story. But this film just turned all sci-fi towards the end, and left me scratching my head. A lot of my friends have said this film is a "love it or hate it" type of film. I'm inclined to say the latter. As much as I enjoy the idea of Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz in the same film, I have to admit that the plot was a little overboard. I've seen Cameron Crowe being interviewed on Jay Leno saying this film is about the "personal journey" of one man in search for the truth. I didn't realize he was talking more about the X-Files type of truth being out there. I don't want to give anything away about the film, but Tom Cruise being facially disfigured is the least of your worries when watching this film and trying to find some meaning to it.

Rating:
Summary: You know you're in trouble when...
Review: This is an empty remake of the Spanish-language film "Open Your Eyes", the 1998 thriller that also featured Penelope Cruz (in the same part, no less). Having seen both, the original was pretty good. The same cannot be said for Vanilla Sky. While well directed, this is another case where Hollywood tried to remake a film that they must have felt was too "arty" but had mass market potential. The original was hardly "arty", and "Sky" ups the ante of the original by gross exaggeration - the main character isn't just prosperous, he's fantastically wealthy; his best friend isn't just slightly less successful... You get the idea. Tom Cruise is way too talented to spend his career as a character actor, which he seems determined to do, his performance in "Magnolia" notwithstanding. He almost pulls off the confusion one would expect from a man who one minute is trying to scoop his best friends' date and the next is a scarred, crippled mess in a psychiatric prison on trial for murder. Penelope Cruz is great in both films and stands out especially in "Sky" since she's the only person who truly acts like, well, a person. The almost-but-not-quite nature of the film is also apparent in the execution. Perception-versus-reality is a recurring theme in the film, but "Sky", like the original, only quotes from this theme, rather than exploring it. The fundamental shallowness of "Sky" becomes clear two thirds through, when a new character shows up and spends 20 minutes explaining the film to the audience - a scene executed much better in the original. I can almost hear a studio troll saying "If it doesn't explode or show skin, Americans won't understand it..." Films are a VISUAL medium (Duh!) - here, they might as well have named the character "Exposition" and called it a day. This is unfortunate, as there were some clever touches in the direction and design of "Sky" that would have made it great - the best of which is the explanation of the title and its use in the film. See if you figure it out before "Exposition" grinds your nose in it - if you did, and I hope you did, you'll see why this film is a train wreck. If the studio wanted to truly make a killing on this film, they should have rereleased the original film, dubbed into English and digitally imposed Tom Cruise' face on the lead actor. Horrific as that would have been, it would still be better than "Sky".

Rating:
Summary: WHY ALL THE HATE?
Review: Right off the bat, I'll tell you that this is my second favorite movie ever (first is "American Beauty", third is "Run Lola Run", just for an example of my taste in movies). This is one of the first movies that has come out of Hollywood that actually made me think. It's kind of in the spirit of "The Game," "Fight Club," or "The Matrix", in how it makes you begin to question what exactly reality is. I've yet to see the original, but would like to, seeing as how the majority believe it's much better than this version. I would agree that there would be many people who could better take the lead than Tom Cruise, but you'll forget it's him. The music is great; really odd, the cinematography and art direction are wonderful, and it's just generally disturbing fun.

Rating:
Summary: Vanilla Sky is fantastic
Review: Once in a while a film comes along that causes a great amount of uproar... this year the film was 'Vanilla Sky'. No one could agree on the film; critic's bagged it, the public were confused. Half the public hated it, didn't either understand why the film was made, or why Tom Cruise went against his normal style of film in creating 'Vanilla Sky'. For the other half the film was a triumph, a film that worked on every level. One that was a great departure from the average linear narrative that we are often subjected to.

'Vanilla Sky'is like nothing the modern film audiences have seen in a long time. This is not an easy film to understand, it does require a bit of thought. This is perhaps why many didn't like the film, we live in a society that needs everything simplified to the enth degree, so it's nice to see a film that doesn't buy into it.

'Vanilla Sky' was a bold move on the parts of everyone envolved. It was Cameron Crowe's film for this year... we all know his previous successes with 'Jerry McGuire' and 'Almost Famous' so working on 'Vanilla Sky' was a risk. The story centres around David Aimes (Cruise) and his quest to find himself. Like all multi-millionares always wants more. We meet up with him in a casual relationship with Jullie Gianni (Cameron Diaz) when he meet Sophia (Penelope Cruz) he goes on a journey of mystery and intugue.

Every time I thought I had the film worked out it took another twist. I loved this technique. I also loved how Cruise shyed away from his hearthrob status; I mean how do you annoy a group of people who mearly went to see the film for Tom and his sexiest man on earth status??? That's right you make yourself disfigured so people will concentrate on his acting ability.

The film overall was savvy, smart, sophisticated and brilliant. It was easy to see why people didn't like it. But if your in the mood to see something groundbreaking, that will take you on more twists and turns than we've ever seen before see 'Vanilla Sky'

Rating:
Summary: Certainly one of the most confusing things you'll see
Review: Vanilla Sky's plot reads like an art house movie. It's concept reads like an art house movie. It's script sounds like an art house movie. But, crucially, it's cast list reads like a blockbuster. Cruise, Cruz and Diaz act well, though one suspects it may be Cammeron Crowe who is most responsible for the film.

The film concerns all sorts of theories and thoughts: the place of vanity and looks being one of the themes it explores. The outcome is disturbing and difficult to get to grips with, and it is certainly true that some people will find this film just too difficult to get on with.

But don't get me wrong: Vanilla Sky is an exellent, moral film which explores the boundaries of reality and can be a treat for those that approach and appreciate it correctly.

Rating:
Summary: The worst film I ever watched
Review: This film deserves no stars because it has no good points. It is not bad in the way most films are - boring, predictable, bad acting/directing/production etc because not only does it have all these together but it also manages to evoke feelings of hate and the desire to just run screaming out of the theatre. It does this by putting images into your eyes (like tom cruise in his stupid mask), sounds in your ears (the terrible out-of-place music) and ideas into your head (the ridiculous "twists", flashbacks and ending). I

.... If I had to pick the worst thing, it would be the mix of future and past flashes, dreams, and alternate realities (not dreams anyway because they are real) real things and fake things, fake things that become real, real things that become fake, dreams that are reality blah blah blah. Its just a mess that it never untangled.

Memento is clever, Sixth Sense makes sensetwist. Vanilla Sky is shockingly grotesque in every way.

Rating:
Summary: I liked the color of the vanilla sky
Review: Directed by Cameron Crowe, "Vanilla Sky" is good but there is something missing. I'd seen the original 1997 Spanish version, "Abre los Ojos," and found it riveting to the very end. As a result, I was interested in seeing what the American version had to offer.

"Vanilla Sky" is basically about materialism, trying to control the state of mind, the future and finding out what is really important in life.

We meet a good-looking, vain, carefree, rich young man David Aames (played by Tom Cruise). After an accident, David becomes disfigured. Unable to deal with reality, he enters a world of dreams where he tries to rectify his world as perfect once again. He wants to return to a world with a vanilla sky (I have to say that the color was striking.) This description is taken from the color of the sky in one of David's expensive paintings in his apartment. (It was a favorite of the David's deceased mother.) The vanilla sky comes to symbolize a beautiful and perfect world.

However, there is a glitch in David's dream world and again his life seems to be turned upside down. The viewers, along with David have to figure out what is going on - what is reality and what is a delusion? In the end, the viewers and David are able to find out what has happened. David then has to make another important decision, which will affect his life again.

Despite my preference for the original film, "Vanilla Sky" as a whole is not bad at all. If you like erotic thrillers, science fiction and movies in which you have to pay very close attention but don't want to see it in a foreign language, then you might be interested in "Vanilla Sky." Many authentic scenes are shot in New York City - from Central Park West to Times Square.

Oh yes, if you like Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz you might want to catch this film too.

Fafa Demasio

Rating:
Summary: "Tommy and the Cruzers"
Review: The late Paulene Kael once wrote thhat she got the impression from Tom Cruise's screen performances that Cruise was so narcissistic that even when he acts in a scene with others, he seems to be performing with himself.

Cruise's ego-centered movie star presence is the center of Cameron Crowe's convulted mess of a movie "Vanilla Sky."

Cruise is David Ames, who has inherited his father's billion dollar publishing empire.

Ames lives in a hyper exspensive apartment in the Dakota, drives an ultra-hip sports car, casually beds women other men only fantasize about, and carries on a paranoia laden battle with his company's board of directors.

The emptiness of Ames' life is depicted in the film's opening dream sequence, a beautifully produced piece of movie making which has Cruise running through the streets of a Manhattan ghost town which has Cruise as its only inhabitant.

Ames' emptiness is eased when he meets and falls in love with a beautiful dancer played by Penelope Cruz (their scenes together are so charged, one tends to beleive all the tabloid publicity surrounding their off screen romance).

But Ames blows his chance at true love by accepting an invitation to take a ride with a seductive psycho-stalker, played by Cameron Diaz, who drives the car off a Manhattan bridge at 80 MPH killing herself and leaving Ames horribly disfigured...not TOO horribly though; Cruise and his agents would never allow it.

The rest of the film becomes harder to follow than a rabid dog on steroids--a prosthetic mask; a mysterious death; a high tech cryrogenic company...was it ALL a dream???

"Vanilla Sky" is in many ways a profoundly bad movie, but I didn't mind watching it.

Cruise and Cruz ignite some sparks, and Crowe cleverly packs the film with enough pop culture references to put in a time capsule (Ames concocts his 'dream' life with the help of a Bob Dylan album cover and Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch in 'To Kill A Mockingbird').

Tom Cruise has become the quintessential movie star (and in many ways, a fine actor)...Paulene Kael may have been right, but 'Vanilla Sky' wouldn't be quite so interesting without that charismatic narcissism at its core.

And make no mistake--even a disfigured Tom Cruise would make out better in a local singles bar than the rest of us ordinary yahoos.