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Vanilla Sky Customer Reviews (52 - 54 of 96 Reviews)

If I Could Give It Zero Stars, I Would
Cameron Crowe is one of my favorite filmmakers. His films are usually filled with characters who are believable, characters you can care about and a story that makes you feel good. "Vanilla Sky" is a complete departure for Crowe as it has none of these things.

David Aames (Tom Cruise), the young, rich head of a publisher producing three popular magazines, lives life to the fullest. Work is a secondary consideration for him and his board of trustees, `the Seven Dwarves', as he calls them, is not very happy about it. His occasional sex buddy, Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), is young and beautiful, but is becoming too attached for his own comfort. At his birthday party, David's best friend, Brian Shelby (Jason Lee), a writer, brings a new friend, Sofia (Penelope Cruz). David begins to flirt with Sofia and falls in love. Julie notices this and soon becomes jealous.

"Vanilla Sky" is meant to be an `erotic thriller', yet I have difficulty labeling it that. There is virtually no sex and very little romance. Many of the scenes between David and Sofia (or Cruise Squared as I like to call them) involve them talking about nothing. But, you see, this is meant to mean they are talking about everything. In their post-coital bliss, they mutter sweet nothings to each other which sound like the worst poetry two love sick teenagers utter to one another. It becomes annoying fast.

It is also difficult to care about David Aames. Young, brash and full of himself, he isn't a very likable person. This is fine at the beginning or end of a film, if the character has changed during the course of our viewing. But Aames doesn't really change. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes more desperate, but he doesn't really become a better or worse person.

Technically, the film is fine. Crowe's films are always very well-made and he doesn't disappoint here. A very early scene shows Cruise walking through an empty Times Square. The shot is arresting and interesting and apparently they were able to shut down Times Square to get the shot. This is just one example of the technical skills employed by Crowe throughout his films.

The film takes a very different turn during the last thirty minutes, by way of explaining all of the strange goings-on. The turn is alluded to very briefly in earlier scenes, but the explanation is so ludicrous that it would be laughable if the film were not so serious about it. I have talked before about believing in what a film is trying to sell you, but I wasn't able to buy into this. For this change in storyline to work, it needs to be more prevalent throughout the film. A few toss-away lines can not build up to the new ending.

"Vanilla Sky" is really an incomprehensibly bad film. A very disappointing effort from Crowe and Cruise


Vanilla Sky- Interesting and Perplexing
Vaniia Sky, starring Tom Cruise and from writer/director Cameron Crowe was interesting. The plot at first seemed very simple and straightfoward, yet it was confusing and bewildering, but yet entertaining. I liked the film, it was handsome and fairly sophisticated. The film was better than I anticipated and hoped. Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Jason Lee all make this movie great.
Tom Cruise stars as David Ames, an arrogant and narcissistic
executive of an elite company. He has a girlfriend or make like a casual bed partner named Julie, played by gorgeous Cameron DIaz. At his birthday party he soons departs from his previous relationshop with Julie and falls for attractive and appealing, Sofia, played by beautiful Penelope Cruz. He falls in love intimately with her. Soon his ex-lover, Julie becomes suicidal and desperate and invites him for a ride in her car. Soon the rides from a death-defying stunts, in other words she drives off a bridge. She dies, but Cruise survives with a grotesque and gruesomely disfigured face. He begins to live in a world of dreams and nightmares and can't comprehend the differences between reality and dreams.
A good suspsnse thriller, with pulse-pounding drama and effects. Love, Hate, Dreams, Life, Work, Play, Friendshiip, Sex is what this film is about. Vanilla Sky, rated R for Sexuality and Strong Language. So, a choice which requires research first.
Own Vanilly Sky now, on Video and DVD.

A Rough Draft of a great movie... 2.5 stars
In the last 3-4 years, many of the movies made have began with great plots, only to sacrifice it by using the theme of the reckless advancement of technology and and its dangers in playing with the protagonist's psyche. Ai and the Thirteenth Floor tried to do this earlier and both failed miserably. Gattaca and Fight Club, on the other hand did this well. Vanilla Sky should not have taken this route. It begins with a twisted murder case only to have the audience hoping for an ingenious end, but instead cops out to a sci-fi ending.

Still, regardless of my discontent with the ending, the acting is credible. Tom Cruise plays a careless, well-to-do, play boy inheriting his father's business and struggling to prove himself as his dad's equal, then later struggling to figure out his identity. Some of his best acting is hidden behind a mask and his character is felt through his voice and body language. Cameron Diaz does well as the neurotic jealous girlfriend type and Penelope Cruz is endearing as "the one" for Tom's character.

Furthermore, the themes carried through the film were strong. I love that the movie twists around one small wrong decision much like the cleverly plotted Bonfire of the Vanities by Thomas Wolfe. The guilt and regret over this one decision ultimately lead Cruise to his "rebirth" to the world. Also it deals with love and sex, and the dire consequences that come out of a "carpe diem" attitude vs a delayed gratification one.

All in all, I left the theatre feeling indifferent, and somewhat hopeful that what I had just viewed was only a rough draft of the blockbuster soon to come. Maybe the next rendition will be better?

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