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Vanilla Sky
DVD Review by Yanman |
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“Even in my dreams, I know I'm an idiot who knows he's going to wake up to reality.” Some movies are just destined to be controversial, especially when the director and the star have seen success together in a different genre of film. This is the case with Vanilla Sky, with the re-teaming of director Cameron Crowe and mega-star Tom Cruise. While their first offering together, Jerry Maguire was a romantic comedy that appealed to a wide audience, Vanilla Sky defies such easy classification, leaving each viewer to decide for themselves. While many critics panned the film when it was released at the box-office, including our resident new movie reviewer, we feel that a final judgment on this one should be left to the viewer. While the plot may be leave you guessing (or worse, it may leave you high and dry), the actors perform well and the director does a good job with the visuals (Even if he did write the screenplay that is causing most of the controversy). Heir to a publishing conglomerate, David Aames (Cruise) seems to have it all, money, good looks, even a friend or two. Something is still missing though, that someone special, the girl of his dreams. When that girl (Penelope Cruz) enters his life, all the missing pieces to his puzzle of a life seem to be falling into place. But an unfortunate encounter with a scorned lover (Cameron Diaz) suddenly and completely changes life forever, taking him on an out of control ride of sex, dreams, love and intrigue…leading up to a astonishing ending you may never believe. Paramount has done a good job with the audio and video quality here, offering an anamorphic widescreen picture and a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of at least average quality. Extras include a director and composer feature-length commentary, two featurettes, an interview with Paul McCartney, and more. A remake of Abre los Ojos also staring Penélope Cruz as Sofía, Vanilla Sky has its rare brilliant moments. Unfortunately when you have a cast and crew this good everyone expects a lot more. If “what the heck were they thinking” endings are not your thing, or if you can’t approach a movie with an open mind, then this one is certainly not for you. Then again, even if you do like those things, and you do have an open mind, you still may not like this one – who knows. I good you bid evening…
This DVD was reviewed on Yanman.com's Reference Theater #1, using a Toshiba SD-4700 DVD player, Toshiba TW56X81, and M&K 750 THX Speakers. Panamax protects all systems at Yanman.com. |
Vanilla Sky Staring: Tom Cruise Directed By: Cameron Crowe Running time: 135 Min. Bonus Materials
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