Rating: 
Summary: TURNS, TWISTS AND TRICKERY
Review: This is one movie where you don't dare blink or you will miss a twist or turn in the plot, and don't even think about going to the rest room for when you return you will think you are seeing a different movie. With that all said, I did like the picture. However the last 30 minutes or so threw me for a loop, I can't explain more without giving the ending away, but I thought it was reaching for something that was not there. Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz had great chemistry, even more than the script called for. It was by no means a block-buster, but it wasn't a bomb either.
Rating:
Summary: Vanilla skyborg
Review: This odd, winding, and weaving film ends up with the viewer weeping tears of joy that his (Tom Cruise's) ordeal and ours is finally over. Despite the let's get on with it plot, Cruise(David) makes the film wholly watchable and reminded me at times of Lestat, that vampire guy. Despite his wealth and priviledge, no one has heard David for a long time(like his whole life)so he fails to hear others. His selfishness (among his other deadly sins) has reared its ugly head and its time to pay. David's "best" friend and prison (of course)psychologist(Russell) manipulate David into what seems like an EST bombardment. Cameron Diaz 's character mesmerized me like a mercurial sacrifice. She's the only one not present in the final scene because her character gets used up by the you know, seven dwarves. Although the Dark Angel (Penelope Cruz), is the love Cruise does not deserve, she helps free him from his tortured soul. Only through tragedy as old as Samson's hair being cut or Icarus's wings melting can we see benefit in the film's intricate contortions.
Rating: 
Summary: Vanilla sky is a beautiful film
Review: My name is Ariya. (...) I saw vanilla Sky and absolutely loved it. Cameron, Tom, and Penelope are all brilliant. This is my favorite film of the year. Cameron Crowe has made another terrific picture. I think that this film should definetly be nominated for best picture. Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, and Penlope Cruz should all be nominated for their brilliant performances. I hope I can act as well as they did someday!!!The film is a little strong, but I guarnatee everyone will enjoy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Story about what's real and artificial.
Review: Vanilla Sky, like it's Spanish counterpart, blends movie genres, from mystery, drama, all the way to sci-fi. At times, it seems that Crowe bit off more than he can chew, but for the most part, VS is a compelling piece of cinema that has a moral backbone. At the center of the story is David, a man that has it all. And because of his wealth and good looks, he's somewhat of a paranoid character, wondering if the company his father started would be stolen right beneath his own feet. He's also quite the ladies man, bedding Julie (Diaz). In a chance encounter, he falls for Sofia, the other Cruz, and ends up driving Julie crazy. Here's where the come-drama ends and the mystery begins. What you need to know at this point is that David is horribly disfigured, leaving him in a state of self-pity and loathing. The movie works as a moral tale. David's disfigurement reflects the inner monster he was to women. The character's ponder what happiness is. It's up to the audience to decide what is real and what is artificial in terms of their own happiness. David is stripped of all that made him happy. Faced with his own nakedness, he feels completely and utterly alone. But isn't that how he felt when he had it all? What is happiness? Is it something within or is it something we create? Of course, the movie can also be interpretted as a tale of narcissism gone arye, where the player gets played, not by a woman, but by god. In either case, the movie isn't for the average movie goer. Like Memento, even Mullholand Drive, a movie of this scope requires a complete explanation, but only leaves us with snippets of what closely resembles an answer. I strongly recommend it to anyone willing to put the effort into it. However, if you like to watch movies passively, you're better off picking another movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Cameron's still only riding on the bus
Review: I caught the tail end of "Abre los ojos" on Spanish cable TV a couple of years ago, and I caught the trailer for "Vanilla Sky" in one of those chain multiplexes that look more like train stations a couple of weeks ago. Neither one exactly gave me the impression that Cameron Crowe's name was written all over this project. After all, it's always seemed as though Crowe has specialized in making these nice little movies with strong characters, cute scenes and moments that could just shine into your heart if you let them. (I haven't met a girl yet who wouldn't LOVE to have a guy stand outside her window blasting a boom box.) "Abre los ojos" didn't seem to be remotely in the same light year as anything by him: Indeed, the first image of it that I saw showed a woman with a pillow over her face, clawing weakly at the man who was smothering her with it and then dying -- all apparently while they were having sex. Given all of this input, I just didn't think that Cameron Crowe had the darkness in him for "Vanilla Sky." And now that I've finally seen the movie, unfortunately I still don't.
After it was over, I kept thinking of one of William Miller's lines from "Almost Famous" and how especially apropos it seemed this time around: "Sweet?!? Where do you GET OFF?!? I'm DARK and MYSTERIOUS and PISSED OFF, and I could be very dangerous to all of you! I'm not sweet . . . and you should know that about me!" That is to say, on the one hand, it's obvious what kind of vision Cameron Crowe has and is trying to achieve with this movie, and he is the wonder boy after all. But on the other hand, it just seems like that kind of vision is so far beyond his grasp that you almost have to smile, pat him on the head and give him the vote of consolation for trying. Because with this movie, he's still working on his story, still wandering around the back of the bus, still trying in spite of the fatigue to get in that one last conversation with Wilder or maybe to broach some dialogue with Godard (Truffaut got off too soon) on what that OTHER kind of New Wave was all about. In any case, as for what happens in the movie itself, if you've seen the TV promos, then you know at least that Cameron Diaz goes to bed with Tom Cruise and then drives him off a bridge. In the latest commercial, Peter Travers, the film critic for "Rolling Stone" (no further reference is necessary), even advises that no reviewer should give away some of the film's secrets. I'm sure that enough of them will agree to that and present an "official" synopsis of the movie, which you'll read or hear enough times to get an idea. So I'll just say that Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a young, rich, arrogant magazine publisher (Tom gets three out of four of those elements down to a science), and the accident leaves him cosmetically disfigured and seeming to float between the realms of tranquil dreams and horrible reality. Cameron Diaz plays Julie Gianni, an apparently fading starlet whose type of passionate but obsessive relationship with David is unpublishable here (it rhymes with "duck muddy"). She's very good with the duality and manages to exude an earthy kind of sexuality totally unrelated to the fact that, say, "People" magazine tells you she's sexy. It's easy to see how she lures David into the car, and her tangible involvement in his life doesn't necessarily end with the accident. As for Penelope Cruz, who plays a regular girl named Sofia Serrano (and did the same in "Abre los ojos"), she doesn't quite make your eyes as wide as Kate Hudson did (or even as she herself has done in the past), and her letter-perfect but heavily accented English is rather stilted. But she does have a kind of demure charm, and there are moments that make her real-life "romance" with Tom Cruise seem like not so much of a promotional tie-in with the movie. And for those of you still wanting tastes of "Almost Famous," Jason Lee and Noah Taylor (the guy who played the road manager) co-star, as does Kate Hudson's stepfather, Kurt Russell. As for the kind of atmosphere that "Vanilla Sky" seeks to create, probably the most familiar and recent example would be "Memento" -- mysterious, dramatic, nonlinear. But the difference is that "Memento" took the relatively simple motif of a story line that moves backwards and added so many layers to it throughout the movie that it always kept you guessing. With "Vanilla Sky," it's the opposite: The whole thing starts out confusing but gradually gets explained away, with the ending tying up all of the loose ends except the ones that remind you that it's only a movie. Meaning that if you understand it at all, you'll probably just about get the gist of it, and it won't mess with your head. I somehow suspect that this movie will be too off-putting and obtuse to survive the holiday season and will probably resurface in a few decades as an arthouse curiosity. But even still, I can't fault Cameron Crowe for trying something new and maybe branching out in a different direction, as he obviously considers himself a Director by now. I give this movie an extra half star because I've been a fan of much of his work, as well as because I could see this movie as a sort of transition point into more complex, less sentimental fare. I just think that before any of that happens, he needs to get off the bus for a while.
Rating:
Summary: He's So Vain
Review: When a film is remade, it would be wise to at least try to make it better than the original, or at least different. A director has to be a tad bit vain to even try a remake. Why copy someone else's work when you could make something original? Director Cameron Crowe displays the same vanity that his main character does in his new film Vanilla Sky.
In case you weren't aware, Vanilla Sky is a remake of a 1997 film from Spain, Open Your Eyes or Abre Los Ojos. Penélope Cruz also starred in the original as the same character, Sofia. The original was decent as a psychological thriller, but ultimately failed at its finale. So my question is, why make the same film, with almost all the same scenes. Was Crowe trying to do a Gus Van Sant Psycho here? Don't get me wrong, Crowe changed a few things. He moved the setting to New York and made Cesar, now David Ames, a magazine publishing mogul who inherited the business from his father. He added an unnecessary subplot about a board of directors, named the Seven Dwarves, which is a stolen title from the seven big CEO's of tobacco in The Insider, a true story. And he took out a scene of violence near the end, probably to be politically correct, which actually heightened the climax in the original. Were these changes really worthy of remaking the whole film? If not, then why did Crowe remake it? How about as a vehicle for Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise fits the David Ames character well: no one else could bring to the role his star power and bright smile, the ladder being made fun of again in this film, as well as in M:I2. The difference between the man and the character is, Tom Cruise has a right to be arrogant, because of the risks he takes in films like Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, and David is just vain. David didn't work for everything he has, so he has no appreciation of it. He's the worse kind of playboy; he uses women and then spits them out, and is only concerned with having fun. So we're supposed to feel sorry for him when a deranged sex buddy of his decides to take her revenge. Let's just say when Julie Gianni (Diaz) gets mad, she drives off a cliff. Thus, she dies and David is left deformed. This handsome player who used to get by on his looks no longer can, and a psychological mind game commences. Is his life a dream, or is it reality? Did he commit murder or is Julie still alive? These questions lead to an inevitable let down, that failed in Open Your Eyes, and fails here again. At least Amenábar was a little less obvious with the clues he inserted. Crowe is blatant, even adding a Conan O'Brien skit to set the stage for the ending. The only good thing about Vanilla Sky is the opening scene, where we see David drive into an empty Times Square. Apparently Crowe got the ok from the city to shut down Times Square for a couple of hours to shoot that scene. Just about everything after that is a recreation of Open Your Eyes. Many of the scenes are exactly the same. David and Sofia meet at a party, the mental hospital scenario that is actually better in the original because Cesar hid his masked face in the shadows which made it all the more mysterious, the bar scene with his best friend, the restaurant scene with the tech support guy, etc. One definition of vain reads without real value or worth. Vain describes Vanilla Sky along with its director Cameron Crowe and main character David Ames. Cape Fear is an example of what a remake should be. Scorsese took the story from the original, updated it, and added a visual style that upped the tension and terror of the original. Crowe took the original and basically made the same film with no originality and no skill.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Cameron Crowe can do no wrong. I just got back from Vanilla Sky, and it was one of those movies where you can't really say much for at least 15 minutes after the movie lets out because you're so lost in thought. It had a few pacing flaws in my opinion, but these were nothing compared to the overall effect the film achieved. I haven't seen the film this was based on, but I can say it is one of the best films I've seen in a long time and surely does its predecessor honor. Its amazing how Crowe keeps you just as confused as the main character through much of the film, yet still keeps you interested. The best way to describe this, though it really is a work unto itself, is a cross between American Beauty and The Matrix.
Rating: 
Summary: Even More Convoluted Than Mission Impossible 1
Review: At the end of each year Hollywood usually throws some great flicks at us that are either commercial hits, or critical darlings that garner oscar buzz. This year I was eagerly awaiting the Winter 2001 films because this year in movies especially (...). I got to see a Viacom screening of "Vanilla Sky" last night in Manhattan. A movie that seemed to have a lot going for it, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, the buzz about Tom and Penolope Cruz, the Director Cameron Crowe, and the films nifty trailer. Alas nothing worked as "Vanilla Sky" just (...). Ever sit in a theater and wonder where the hell the movie is going? Thats what I did countless times. Let me break down the plot for you, rich spoiled lothario (Cruise) is sleeping with some crazy model chick (Diaz) whom Cruise refers to as his (...) Buddy, he has a birthday party in which he meets the woman of his dreams. (...) Any how they meet make nicey nicey and jet off to Cruz's house for some introspective talk sessions, and witty banter laced with sexual tension. The 2 obviously like each other and have hit it off. When Cruise leaves her apartment the next morning to go to work, psycho model chick (Diaz) is waiting outside the apartment building, obviously she was stalking him. Here's where the movie starts the (...). With a Fatal Attraction like stalker chick following you would you get in the car with her? No right? Well Mr. Mission Impossible does and does not have the success of Ethan Hunt, Diaz drives the car over a bridge on Riverside Drive in Manhattan killing herself and disfiguring Tom. Whats the sexy guy to do now? His face is jakked up and will Cruz love him? This is just one of the stoylines in this convoluted tale. I think this movie tries too hard to fool the audience into believing something that ultimately makes no sense. Some girls after the screening were saying how they completely understood the film and whoever did not like the movie did not get it. Whats to understand though? Here are things that made no sense: Why did Tom Cruise get in to Psycho Models car? Why didn't he punch her in the face when she started to speed and take control of the vehicle? One more thing that made no sense, the whole ending. With some (...) new age propaganda that suggests some "Total Recall" like twist the movie just plummets and became truly unwatchable. (...) I was just sitting there waiting for the flick to get better, but with all this new age mumbojumbo thrown at you you end up feeling cheated and just wind up hating the movie. The movie has a couple things going for it. The soundtrack is pretty good. The scenes of NYC are cool. No matter what Tom Cruise is a mega watt star, so he made the movie watchable. If it was another actor I would have probably fallen asleep. One more thing, you can see some definate sparks between Cruise and Cruz. I have never seen the original version of this movie "Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)" but some in attendance did and said the original is very different from this american version. In closing guys, this movie is a waste of time. This weekend if you did not see "Oceans Eleven" last weekend go see it instead of this movie. And if you are in the mood for a true mind bending experience go rent "Memento" a far superior flick that makes better sense in the end than this hollywood hack job.
Rating:
Summary: "Open your eyes."
Review: I went to see "Vanilla Sky" having very little foreknowledge about the film. What I discovered was an intriguing and consistently watchable film that is an odd blend of psychosexual thriller, crime mystery, and science fiction tale. Sound weird? It is. Cameron Crowe directs a fine cast led by Tom Cruise. Cruise plays David, a man who has inherited a publishing empire from his late father. With his wealth and good looks, David seems to be living a charmed life. But this life turns into a horrific nightmare. Also in the cast are Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and Jason Lee. Kurt Russell is particularly impressive as a psychiatrist seeking the truth behind David's ordeal. I won't give away the many bizarre twists which the plot takes. The film is surreal and disorienting. Cruise impressed me in the title role. Initially quite unlikable as the obnoxious David, Cruise ultimately brings a real depth and intensity to his performance. "Vanilla Sky" seems to be having a polarizing effect on a lot of viewers, but I found it to be a compelling film. Give it a try if you feel like something offbeat.
Rating:
Summary: The best film in the history of cinema!
Review: This is not coming from a random person without knowledge of the movie industry. I am a huge movie fan. I see nearly 50 movies a year in theaters, most likely more. I own nearly 1000 DVDs. With all of these movies I've seen and own, Vanilla Sky is my favorite. It contains anything any moviegoer would want-suspense, romance, action, comedy, and science fiction. Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz have excellent chemistry. The story rapidly changes from a love story to a science fiction drama. It confuses and entertains the viewer. It make syou think and that is always admirable. Overall, I LOVE IT!
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