Vanilla Sky

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Vanilla Sky reunites director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) with über-playboy Tom Cruise, adds another sexy Cruz (Penélope) and Cameron Diaz for good measure, and delivers a wildly entertaining, bizarre venture into erotic science fiction. Adapted near exactly from Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 romantic thriller Open Your Eyes, the film follows David Aames (Cruise) as he falls from his graceful Manhattan perch of inordinate wealth, good looks, and newfound love with Sofia (Cruz) because of severe facial disfigurement in a car accident caused by a suicidal ex-lover (Diaz). What at first promises to be a conventional allegory of redemption via true love is turned on its head as Cruise's character, reduced to wearing a latex mask and spurned by his friends, wins back his princess only after a miracle of plastic surgery restores his former beauty. A series of plot twists follows as waking life, technological advances, and nightmares flip-flop to dizzying effect and David ultimately comes face to face with his own mortality. Despite a final conceit to some vague morality, the appeal of the film is the wonderfully callous message conveyed by the rest of it (money and physical beauty equal happiness) through an unabashed vanity perfectly embodied by Cruise and Cruz. A delicious, decadent treat. --Fionn Meade

Customer Reviews:

Don't Waste Your Time!.......2007-09-16

This has to be one of the most awful, convoluted and bizarre films that I have ever seen in my entire life! While I really respect Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous") I really have to wonder what in the world happened to him to direct such a terrible film. You watch this movie and none of it rings true and none of it makes any sense: from the central character played by Tom Cruise to the storyline or even the main theme or plot of the whole enterprise. First it's a conventional story which turns into a mystery that becomes a thriller that's really a sci-fi - and none of it's any good and none of the pieces even fit together. Don't waste your time watching this. Find something else to watch or read a good book.

I really enjoyed it.......2007-08-06

So I sat down to give Vanilla Sky a viewing, without reading much about it and just hoping it was even mildly interesting and thought-provoking. It turned out to be a well made movie, with some good performances, and decently thought-provoking as well!

Tom plays a wealthy playboy heir with one of his big hobbies being to get laid all the time and then cast the women aside when he gets bored of them. One day he appears to have broken one heart too many and his life is changed forever. He ends up in an accident, disfigured, in excruciating pain. He thinks the board of directors is out to steal his inherited company. Him and his friend have fallen for the same woman and he thinks he'll lose her because of his problems now. And from there it's down the rabbit hole... some force in his mind is degenerating... his dreams become nightmares and he can't tell what sanity is. Kurt Russell plays a psychologist who tries to coax it out of him and solve a crime.

That's about as far as I can go without explaining the truth of the plot revealed at the end. Suffice to say, it's something out of left field. I thought Cruise, while being his usual androidal self that does a good job at least of pretending to be human, did a capable job and the rest of cast are even better. Even Cameron Diaz had an effective scene which is remarkable. Penélope Cruz does the best job though, lighting up a relationship triangle with her humor and naturalness.

I'll have to see the original some time since it seems by a lot of consensus, Cruise took some rather crude liberties with the film. However, watching it as I did, without any of that in mind, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

Romance + Science Fiction.......2007-08-03

You will probably either love or hate Vanilla Sky, but giving away too much about the plot to help you decide might ruin the experience of watching it for the first time. My advice: if you liked both Sabrina (or Sabrina) and The Matrix, give this movie a chance. It's a mixture of romance and science fiction that won't appeal to everyone, but if it works for you it will work very well.

I avoided Vanilla Sky at the theater because I'm not a big fan of Cruise or Diaz, but both are well-cast here--as is most of the cast, from Penélope Cruz (reprising her role from the original version, Open Your Eyes) to minor roles like "the seven dwarves" and the bartender in the club scene. There's a lot packed into this movie (check out the director's commentary) and I suspect everyone will take away something different as the most important theme. It's definitely a movie I'll watch more than once.

A Must See Once in Your Life!.......2007-07-05

A unique concept - Crazy - Multiple Twists - What is going on here!
Those are all the things I thought as I saw this movie about 4 times. The concept is not as unique as the presentation of the concept is! At times you'll think the presentation is very crazy, but you have to find out what in the world is going on in this movie, because of all the twists and turns! Did it or did it not! Is he or is he not! I can't give it 5 stars because it was a tad too crazy! This is probably a love it or hate it movie! Enjoy, I did!

you have to be open-minded.......2007-05-30

extremely complex film, very cameron crowe with the wonderful music selections and infinite details you would never pick up on until the fifth or sixth or twentieth viewing

i may be biased bc i enjoy penelope cruz very much. i thought it was a great film and something very different. atleast view it once!

Average customer rating:

Open Your Eyes
Okay, so I'm the one guy who didn't think it was all that and a bag of chips.
An Experience that will Stay With You For Some Time To Come...
loved it
Ridiculous ending, not worth watching!

Open Your Eyes
Starring: Carola Angulo (II) , Gérard Barray , Joserra Cadiñanos , Penélope Cruz , and Ion Gabella
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005LZOD
Release Date: 2001-08-21

Amazon.com

Imagine if an actor's director like Eric Rohmer--whose films consist almost entirely of conversation between pairs or small groups of people--made a film that incorporated elements from movies like Dark City, eXistenZ, The Thirteenth Floor, The Truman Show, and Total Recall. The result might resemble Alejandro Amenabar's remarkable second feature, Open Your Eyes, which favors ideas over effects and offers twist upon twist with mind-warping agility. This film rewards multiple viewings, pushing the viewer toward one perception of reality, then switching to another until reality itself is called into question. Melodrama, love story, and psychological thriller combine with a dash of science fiction, forming a plot that is both disorienting and deceptively precise.

Set in Madrid, the story defies description, but this much can be revealed: young, handsome Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) is vain, rich, charming, and--following a botched suicide-murder scheme by a jilted lover--horribly disfigured. He'd fallen in love with Sofia (Penélope Cruz) but is now an embittered husk of his former self, stuck in a "psychiatric penitentiary" on a murder charge and hiding behind an expressionless mask. His reality has crumbled, but as the film's agenda is gradually revealed, we realize that there are other factors in play. Exposing that agenda would be a criminal offense against those who haven't seen the film; suffice it to say that Open Your Eyes takes you into the twilight zone and beyond, and does so cleverly enough to prompt Tom Cruise to produce and star in an English-language remake, Vanilla Sky. The 2001 remake, directed by Cameron Crowe, costars Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz, who reprises her original role. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Open Your Eyes.......2007-07-13

At the tender age of twenty-five, Amenabar released the mind-bending "Eyes," later Americanized into the inferior "Vanilla Sky." A multilayered, nightmarish whodunit, the intense Noriega makes Cesar's psychic torture palpable, while Cruz personifies the ideal of feminine beauty--ephemeral, tantalizing, and just out of reach. This dark, boldly inventive film, accented with intriguing futuristic elements, keeps its audience engrossed and guessing until the very last frame.

Okay, so I'm the one guy who didn't think it was all that and a bag of chips........2006-12-21

Abre los Ojos (Alejandro Amenabar, 1997)

Okay, I have to say this first: Eduardo Noriega is the male lead in the new Brad Anderson movie Trans-Siberian. I don't need to know anything else, because Brad Anderson is about as close to being a god as movie directors get. If Anderson thinks Eduardo Noriega is the goods, then Eduardo Noriega is the goods.

He's also the star of the much-talked-about Alejandro Amenabar film Abre los Ojos, which everyone and his mother complained was desecrated when remade in America as Vanilla Sky a few years ago. And while I can't find anything wrong with slagging a Tom Cruise flick, I'm not terribly sure why this movie is being held up as the gold standard. Maybe it's a relativity thing; I have (to the value of my sanity, according to friends) managed to avoid seeing Vanilla Sky.

In any case, the plot: Cesar (Noriega, who, did I mention, is in the new Brad Anderson movie?) is an arrogant, handsome womanizer who meets the woman of his dreams, Sofia (Penelope Cruz). Problem is, the girl he jilted for Sofia, Nuria (Before Night Falls' Najwa Nimri), isn't too happy with the arrangement. While offering him a lift home, she commits suicide by crashing her car, an accident that leaves handsome Cesar horribly disfigured.

Now, intercut with all this are scenes of Cesar being interviewed by a doctor, so we know there's a lot more to this story than we're being let in on. And that's all well and good, except that the movie keeps raising two questions for each one it answers. At that rate, you're going to be left with a whole lot of unanswered questions when the movie ends. And that's exactly what we get. It's not so much that the film is ambiguous, which it is, but it's that the ambiguousness of the ending is the part about which we can feel we have the clearest grasp on. There's an "as you know, Bob" character at the end to explain everything, but Amenabar has given us a very strong feeling throughout his tenure in the film that the guy is, quite simply, lying his tuckus off. And where does that leave us? (Knowing nothing but our interpretation of the ambiguous ending, of course.)

What we do get is some rather fine shots of Penelope Cruz showing a lot more skin than we've seen from her before, a handful of really good performances (including Noriega's), and a mystery that, were it to come to any sort of conclusion, would be a cracker. Now, I'll be the first to admit that it's entirely possible I missed some small detail that makes the whole thing make perfect sense, but until someone points it out to me, 'm still wondering what it is about this movie (aside, of course, from Penelope Cruz naked) that gets peoples' juices up.

And did I mention that Eduardo Noriega is in the new Brad Anderson flick? ** ½

An Experience that will Stay With You For Some Time To Come..........2006-10-02

Abre Los Ojos came to my attention after seeying it's American Remake, Vanilla Sky. Vanilla Sky had amazed me and had been spinning in my mind for a long time after I had seen it. Then I found this dvd of the original, and bought it here on Amazon.
When it arrived I immidiately watched it, ready to be pulled into that world which Vanilla Sky had pulled me in about a year ealier. Only this time, this movie stunned me even more than Vanilla Sky did, it captured me, moved me and gave the world of dreaming and love a totally different perspective than it gave me when I watched Vanilla Sky.
The reason?
The original is simply more powerfull than it's remake.

Abre Los Ojos is one of those movies that is everlasting. It is a tense thriller, a beautiful love story, an emotional drama, a big mystery and can even be placed under the catagory Horror at some moments.
The story is the most original and one of the most powerfull stories I've ever seen. It's complex, it's tempting, it's confusesing, it's powerful... It's everything that makes a story worthwhile and is absolutely something to remember and think back to.
The cast is fantastic. Penelope Cruz plays the exact same role that she plays in Vanilla Sky. The thing that makes her better in this one than the remake is that she has no problem pronouncing her scentences. Spanish is her motherlanguage, the language she was raised with and the language she can pronouce with pure pasion and fantastic acting. She also did a fantastic job in Vanilla Sky, don't get me wrong, but here you can feel her emotions fluently and she gives her absolute best and in Vanilla Sky you can't really feel that even though she acts absolutely great in that movie.
The leading role is for Eduardo Noriega, an actor that is absolutely convincing and realistic for the part he plays. He was a great casting choice and gives his very best. The thing that makes him believable is that you will feel for his character during the movie. He portrais his character in such a way that is only said in one word: powerful.

The other aspects of the movie: the setdesign, the locations, the lighting, the music, the cameramovements, the editing, the atmosphere and everything else is all maqnificent and leaves a powerfull impression. It helpes the story live and feel real to the audience.
Everything has been taken care of to make every small detail look stunning which helps you even more with falling in love with this movie.
Don't you worry about the language (the whole movie is spoken in Spanish), cause when you are into this movie you won't even notice that you are still reading the subtitles.

My only left advice to you is: Watch Abre Los Ojos first, and after that Vanilla Sky. I did it in the other direction and all I can say is that I think it's a pitty that I did so. So don't make the same mistake that I did and watch Abre Los Ojos first! You will understand what I mean when you will watch Vanilla Sky secondly.

So open your eyes and be moved by this absolute masterpiece of filmmaking. Yes people, this is what the movies are all about!
WOW, what a film!

loved it.......2006-08-28

This film, which in my opinion is way better than Vanilla Sky, flat-out spreads important questions to the viewer. the most important being: how far are you willing to go, how much of your life will you allow beauty to control?

Ridiculous ending, not worth watching!.......2006-08-10

This movie was captivating and interesting for the first 3/4ths of it. It is a psychological thriller/mystery and you obviously want to find out the big explanation at the end that resolves all your questions. Well, the ending was so incredibly far-fetched and crazy that I can't believe that anyone who read the WHOLE script actually wanted to work on this movie. It ends up being a stupid "sci-fi" type ending. So, if you want to get all into a movie, only to have them resolve it with the most ridiculous scenario possible, buy this one!! ....or....DON'T.

Charlie Rose with Tom Cruise & Cameron Crowe (December 3, 2001)

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Charlie Rose with Tom Cruise & Cameron Crowe (December 3, 2001)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Description

Charlie Rose talks with actor and producer Tom Cruise and filmmaker, Cameron Crowe, about their new movie Vanilla Sky. The two, who also worked together on the movie Jerry Maguire, paired up once again to create a re-make of the Spanish thriller, Open Your Eyes. Vanilla Sky is a story of sexual obsession, a search for truth and pop culture.

Abre los Ojos (Edición Especial Coleccionistas)

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Abre los Ojos (Edición Especial Coleccionistas)

Manufacturer: Twentieth Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Commentary Track
"Luna" short

ASIN: B000HJE6T0

Product Description

Heredero de una considerable fortuna, bien parecido, con éxito entre las mujeres, César es un joven a quien la vida le sonríe. Una noche, Pelayo, su mejor amigo, le presenta a Sofía, de quien César se enamora al instante. Esa misma noche, Nuria, la última chica con la que César había mantenido una relación y que sigue aferrada a él de forma obsesiva, se ofrece para acompañarlo a casa. ~ En el transcurso del trayecto, Nuria gira el volante y lanza el coche por un precipicio en cuyo fondo se inicia para César la peor pesadilla que podía imaginar.

Singles (Matt Dillon, Bridget Fonda) / Just Married (Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy) "2 DVD Set"

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Singles (Matt Dillon, Bridget Fonda) / Just Married (Ashton Kutcher, Brittany Murphy) "2 DVD Set"

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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A group of twenty-something friends, most of whom live in the same apartment complex, search for love and success in grunge-era Seattle. Plot Synopsis: Romantic comedy about six of the city's young people, most of whom live in the same apartement building and whose lives revolve around Seattle's ever-expanding music scene. The inter-related stories about each character's progress through the singles scene are intriguing and often very funny, and the soundtrack is a grunge fanatic's dream, with the likes of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney. A happy young couple, Sarah and Tom (Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher) marry against the wishes of Sarah's friends and family and go to Europe for their Honeymoon. Unfortunately for them, Sarah's parents send Sarah's ex-boyfriend Peter Prentis (played by Christian Kane) to break up the happy marriage.

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Vanilla Sky [Region 2]
Starring: Tom Cruise , Penélope Cruz , Cameron Diaz , Kurt Russell , and Jason Lee
Director: Cameron Crowe
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005U8P6

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Vanilla Sky-Dvd

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000USU9I0

DVD:

DVD

DVD