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Vanilla Sky Customer Reviews (67 - 69 of 96 Reviews)

IF YOU LIKE PLOT TWISTS YOU WILL LIKE THIS MOVIE.
"Vanilla Sky" is a remake of the Spanish film "Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)", and if you have seen the original film, you know that "Vanilla Sky" was made almost in the same way, but there a few key differences. The camera angles, the plot and most of scenes are almost the same in both movies, but "Vanilla Sky" uses a different music, this movie has a rock-oriented music score. Also, the character played by Cameron Diaz is an improvement over the original character, because Cameron adds more depth with her performance. Of course, since "Vanilla Sky" is a Hollywood movie, the visual effects and the budget are bigger this time.

"Vanilla Sky" offers a lot of plot twists, so the first screening might be mind-blowing to some viewers, if you like simple plots perhaps "Vanilla Sky" is not your movie. But if you like to be tricked with the characters and the plot, this film is for you. "Vanilla Sky" plays with the time, the movie goes back and forth between past and present, and sometimes you don't know if some events really happened or if the main character is just having a nightmare.

The cast in "Vanilla Sky" is very interesting: Tom Cruise is David, the main character, and Cruise gave one of his most inspired performances in recent years. Cameron Diaz is outstanding as Julie, she improved the character from "Open Your Eyes". Penelope Cruz plays exactly the same role, yes, the same role in both movies, one might think that she would improve her performance this time, but nop, she reprises her role step by step. Jason Lee plays Brian, the best friend of David, and he does a good job here, he adds sympathy and charm to his character. Kurt Russell plays McCabe, the psychiatrist that tries to solve the puzzle.

"Vanilla Sky" is an effective thriller, packed with plot twists and good music, if you like this movie, I strongly recommend you to see the original film "Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)", you might find that both films share similarities, but they are different movie experiences.

What Is Real?
Vanilla Sky is a visually and intellectually fascinating film that many viewers and critics found too confusing to enjoy. What starts out as a surreal mystery turns out to be an exploration into the nature of reality. In this way, it is similar to The Matrix, Dark City and some other recent films where the characters are never sure what is real and what is a dream (or computer-generated fantasy). Vanilla Sky also has some David Lynch-like features, as when people's identities seem to randomly morph. Unlike Lynch films such as Mulholland Drive, however, Cameron Crowe's story at least offers an explanation for the confusion. The explanation won't satisfy everyone (as some of the harsh criticism of the film shows), but to focus too much on this is to miss the point, which is to make us ponder some big questions regarding truth and reality. Helped by some very good performances by Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz, and some stunning visual effects (such as a truly eerie scene of a deserted New York City), Vanilla Sky is an entertaining and intellectually stimulated film. Just don't expect a straightforward, linear story.

Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)
Before fans of this film savage me, can I just start off by saying that I so much wanted to love this movie. I am a Cameron Crowe fan, I like Cameron Diaz, loved Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire and looked forward to seeing Penelope Cruz in a decent role. The preview trailers were excellent, although misleading, and made me optimistically look forward to an excellent romantic thriller with a stellar leading cast; Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and the very sultry Penelope Cruz and on that basis this movie looked like a sure fire winner. Ultimately though this movie has a character crisis, unable to decide whether it's one thing or another (thriller or morality tale, science fiction or romance) it falls into the gulf between.

I don't like to spoil the movies for those who haven't seen them before by revealing too many plot details but for what its worth the outline story, told in flashback, is as follows; Tom Cruise is David Aames a rich, handsome New Yorker, who has inherited a magazine empire from his father and has everything he wants: A great life, a great car, a beautiful occasional girlfriend (Cameron Diaz) and a great art collection, including a Monet, from whence the films Vanilla Sky title comes. However at his glamorous birthday party, he falls for his best friend's girl, Sofia (the beautiful Penelope Cruz, reprising her role from Open Your Eyes). Unfortunately though, this excites the jealousy of David's latest conquest, Julie (Cameron Diaz), a would-be singer and bunny boiler, leading to the 'not very stable' Julie driving off a bridge, with him in the passenger seat, permanently (?) disfiguring him. Doctors provide him with a prosthetic mask and then set about restoring his appearance and David learns the true meaning of love and the superficiality of good looks but something is rotten in the state of Denmark (okay maybe not Denmark but you get the point), as David's life starts to unravel with terrifying hallucinations, opening up a Chinese box of puzzles: He is arrested for murdering Julie/Sofia/Julie/Sofia (he's not quite sure which one) and his only ally is Kurt Russell as a very unlikely psychiatrist assigned to his case and given to making profound observations like: 'The subconscious is a powerful thing.' Wow, that's like...really...ahem...deep...don't you think?

As previously mentioned, I am a fan of both actor and Director, particularly Crowe for Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire but I have also enjoyed the ex Mr Kidman in the likes of Rain Man too. The idea of the star and Director of Jerry Maguire re-uniting seemed irresistible but frankly it just doesn't work. One of the big deals of this movie is supposed to be that Tom Cruise gets his face mashed in a car accident leaving him hideously disfigured, sobbing in front of the mirror at the horror of his own appearance but the irony is that although disfigured it isn't very hideous. In fact for much of the movie every opportunity it seems is given to Mr Cruise to peel off his shirt and ripple his six pack (okay, I admit to being jealous on that point). I can't claim the cultural and intellectual high ground in having not seen the original but by all apparent counts though Vanilla Sky is a glossier but inferior version of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) directed by Alejandro Amenábar, who subsequently went onto stylishly direct the Nicole Kidman movie, The Others. An oddity however is that although Amenábar and his co-writer, Mateo Gil, are credited, the credits also proudly proclaim that it is "written for the screen and directed by Cameron Crowe" as if the story had come from some obscure European source material (like a book or a cave painting).

Another of the oddities of this movie is that you can't fault the cast, they all give decent performances, although Kurt Russell was undoubtedly miscast. Ultimately though, the movie falls down because it doesn't know what it is, plus you've seen it before and you've seen it done better. The plot twist doesn't work and is a disappointment and if you want to see a movie that twists and turns between nightmare, hallucination and reality go rent (or even better buy) Jacob's Ladder it would be money better spent. I'm also led to believe that as movie fables go John Frankenheimer's 1966 film, Seconds, in which a clandestine organisation provides youthful bodies for the ageing rich and arranges for them to fulfil their dreams with new lifestyles, is a much more rewarding watch. Vanilla Sky on the other hand is a major disappointment, not awful just disappointing...

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