User reviews

I had heard some not too good things about this movie and had probably seen the low score here at IMDb and that's why I had avoided it. Today they showed Vanilla Sky on TV and as I had nothing better to do... and as it turned out, I would have had a hard time finding anything better to do. Vanilla Sky is a frightening, sad and touching movie, actually one of the best I've seen in a while. I was surprised by how I was affected watching it. It's hard to explain, but during the movie your feelings towards the characters and your perception of what is going on changes and it's quite an emotional journey. Vanilla Sky really touched me in a way that is very rare for a movie, or any media for that matter.

I really recommend everyone to watch this movie. Regardless of what you have heard about it.

It is too underrated and that is unfortunate; it has suspense, drama, and Tom Cruise's performance is excellent; it is highly recommended.

Its score of 4.5 on Filmaffinity is completely RIDICULOUS.

There is not a single movie that blew my mind more than Vanilla Sky, even after watching it for the second or maybe third time. Until half an hour passed, you understand almost everything that is happening, but then you get lost on purpose, the director wants you to get lost, just like Tom gets lost in his life. He drives you left and right, up and down, your starting to lose your patience with the movie and then, pop, your back in the driving seat again, why ?, because wow, you just understood something, you connected a few puzzling scenes and your feeling confident about the movie again. You feel for Tom, you are feeling sad like all of that is happening to you, not in some movie that already lost you a few times, but managed to get you back in the last moment. The ending explains it all, makes everything so perfectly clear, but many things leave you feeling pointless about the movie now, and that is why I don't like the ending. It is to sci-fi, to unreal and to supernatural to be implemented as an ending for this beauty.. but I guess there was not a better option to end the movie then this one...

Recently the BBC in UK held a poll for worst film ever, and while Titanic *won*, this came 4th. I just don't understand how anyone can dislike this movie...

Vanilla Sky is a dark psychological drama about dreams, reality and 'what might have been'.

Tom Cruise is Dave, a yuppie who has it all. He has a 51% stake in his father's company, therefore the majority shareholder, and constantly finds himself in a battle to main his control over the '7 dwarves' who make up the rest of the board. His personal life is a mess, with a shallow relationship with Julie (Cameron Diaz) the closest he gets to love, while his best friend Brian (Jason Lee) who adores Julie sticks by him regardless.

However, on holding a birthday party he's introduced to Sofia (The perfect Penelope Cruz) and falls instantly for her.

This is all very well but the plot is parallel to a side story of Dave wearing a white mask in a cell with Dr McCabe (Kurt Russell) who's accusing him of murder and wants to understand why it happened.

Dave begins on a journey to make sense of his life.

I admit there is a 'Hollywoody' feel to this film, and given it's a remake of a Mexican/Spanish original also featuring Penelope Cruz it's probably disappointing to purists. But only viewing this on its own terms I absolutely love this movie. It keeps you guessing, and the ending is very conclusive.

It may not be to everyone's taste, but I loved it.

Director Cameron Crowe strikes gold with an intelligent, erotic and frustrating romantic drama. This is one of those love or hate movies. I absolutely love it. Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a multi-millionaire that seems to have the whole world by the tail. Inheriting leadership of a multi-faceted publishing business at such a young age has not endeared him with the seven member board of directors. His womanizing is legendary and subject to much speculation. He is stalked by an obsessive lover(Cameron Diaz)and his life soon becomes very scrambled when he meets an attractive Penelope Cruz at his birthday party. The Diaz character gets fed up with competing for lover boy's affection and decides to commit suicide by driving off of a bridge with him in the car. Aames is left disfigured and charged with murder.

Whirlwind flashback sequences accompanied with a tremendous soundtrack pace this mind wrecking, nerve snarling, and confusing, but interesting piece of storytelling. Cruise is totally in control of his talents. This is one of his best performances. Miss Cruz is adequate and highly overrated. The perky, gorgeous Diaz is sexy and haunting. Kurt Russell is compassionate and strong as Dr. McCabe. Jason Lee is underrated and deserves kudos for his part as the best friend of the egotistical lead character that seems to always be there to be s**it on and humiliated.

The star studded soundtrack features music by R.E.M., Peter Gabriel, Jeff Buckley, Nancy Wilson, Bob Dylan and the haunting movie theme song "Vanilla Sky" by Sir Paul McCartney. This project also features the singing debut of Miss Diaz singing "I Fall Apart" written by Cameron Crowe and Nancy Wilson.

Like this one or not; understand this one or not...this movie will give you something to contemplate and more than enough to talk about.

The original "Abre los ojos" was a great but not perfect movie. It had a bit of a dragging beginning and especially middle-part. Unfortunately this remake suffers from the same problem and is even a bit worse with its dragging parts. In the first hour and an halve it's still mainly unclear where the movie is heading to and makes perhaps a bit of a pointless impression. Just like in the original, the ending compensates for this even though the ending for this movie isn't build up as a good and executed as in the original was the case.

Yes, it's a pointless remake. "Abre los ojos" is perfectly watchable for everyone. You don't have to be a fan of European cinema to enjoy that movie. The original is also just a tiny bit better but that doesn't mean that "Vanilla Sky" itself is a bad movie on its own. It has some great acting performances from Tom Cruise and especially Cameron Diaz in it. Quite honestly, I have never seen Diaz acting better in any other movie. Other well know actors in this movie are Penélope Cruz (who reprises her role from the original but she isn't halve as good in this movie as she was in the original.), Kurt Russell, Noah Taylor, Jason Lee and Timothy Spall with who Cruise later teamed up again for "The Last Samurai".

The atmosphere is good. New York is the perfect background for the movie its story. The story is good and surprising enough for everyone to enjoy even though at times it tries too hard to be confusing.

It's a good movie but you're still better of watching the original. Are the many difference between this movie its story and that of the original? Hardly, both movies are very similar with the story, sequences and even dialog. Still "Abre los ojos" is a better movie because it builds up the story and characters better and has a better, more powerful and surprising executed ending.

7/10

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This movie was so divisive. People either loved it or despised it. You can either accept the ending or you can't. The movie really makes you think and wonder, "what's going on?" You are not always supposed to know what is going on. A lot of people do not want to have to think too much lol. Great movie, good soundtrack. I love rarely when movies change the way you listen to a song. Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys came across in the moment as so eerie, I still think of that now when i hear it. It is a movie that is definitely worth watching.

I remember liking it when I saw it way back then and I enjoyed it again upon recent viewing. I never knew it was a remake and still haven't seen the original so I can't compare but Vanilla Sky on its own is a pretty solid movie. It is very strange in its pacing and cinematography but it didn't bother me or felt boring as these exercises in style often do. Great thriller with very good acting performances overall, and unhinged Tom Cruise was the perfect guy for this crazy role in this crazy movie.

David Aames Jr, a wealthy, carefree stakeholder in a massive publishing firm is accused of murder, he recounts his tale to A Police Psychologist, and explains that he was almost killed by a jealous lover, what's reality, what's fantasy?

Vanilla Sky always seems to pop up on various lists of worst films, worst Tom Cruise films, worst remakes etc, but the reviews here are generally favourable, and the score is pretty high, as it stands it has a higher rating than The Firm, a Cruise thriller that's generally well liked.

I don't think it's casual viewing, it's not a film you can pop on to chill out to, or have on just in the background, you need to be concentrating, or you won't have a clue what's going on, even if it has your full attention, you will be scratching your head a few times.

It's not the easiest film to follow, it's definitely complex and twisted, David isn't sure what's reality or fantasy, the same can be said for the viewer I guess, it's not exactly straightforward.

I love that scene where Tom Cruise leaves his apartment and enters into an empty street, it's wonderfully surreal and trippy, it looks great.

I liked the lead performances, I think Cruise does a good job, as do Cruz and Diaz, I liked the supporting cast also, the likes of Timothy Spall and Kurt Russell are very good.

Overall, I get why some don't like it, some elements of it are pretty frustrating, but I quite enjoy it still, it deserves points for complex storytelling.

6/10.

Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky leads you on an incredibly picturesque journey into the life of a wealthy publishing heir, played with impressive emotional heft by Tom Cruise. He once had an idyllic life that gave way to some tragic events, and is now in a way station of existential despair, lamenting his sad tale to a sympathetic psychiatrist (Kurt Russell) and daydreaming of his gleaming past. Crowe's films always have an impossibly bright, strikingly beautiful sheen in their composition, displayed here by a distinct urge to forge the melodrama, and melancholy not with dark, muted tones like some craftsmen might, but to keep a vibrantly lit, dreamy aesthetic that never lets go of beauty, even in dark places. Cruise is forced to contend with a jilted, unstable lover (Cameron Diaz) whilst pursuing his angelic dream girl (Penelope Cruz) into realms of thought, feeling and action that ripple through his life like scintillating reflections in a sunlit meadow pond. I'm purposefully being vague and poetic as not to disturb the veil hanging over plot and resolution, for the surprises which lay in wait for you are a riveting rop-a-dope and should be explored with a blank canvas of expectation and complete lack of any previous knowledge about the story. The supporting cast sees very memorable work from Timothy Spall, Jason Lee, Alicia Witt, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, Ivana Milicivec, Johnny Galecki, W. Earl Brown, Tommy Lee and Noah Taylor. Cruise is compelling, finding the confused soul in his creation, Diaz scares wonderfully as the unpredictable live wire, but Cruz steals the show with her usual sweet disposition. This film is based on a Spanish one called "Abre Los Ojos" which also starred Cruz in the same role she plays here. This, however, is the superior version, for me a masterpiece and a personal favourite. Crowe makes poetry of light and colour, painting visual splendour that flows flawlessly in tandem with the achingly beautiful soundtrack, another aspect of film he always excels in. And as for the deep well of secrets that is the story? I'll tell you in another life, when we are both cats.

I thought that the premise and some elements of David's story felt compelling and worthy of my interest...up to a certain point. It eventually lost me when more and more details emerged and with what was really going on with him. It was basically a photocopy of the Matrix with less action (which many films were at that point in time but ended up not being really as cool). Plus, I'm normally a big fan of Tom Cruise and admire both his physical roles and roles involving just acting and dialogue, however even I have to admit that he comes across as a arrogant and egotistical character in this movie who's not very worthy of my sympathy.

Abre Los Ojos was a great film, with solid performances, haunting atmospherics and a unexpected, original ending. Vanilla Sky is the remake, a film that tries to copy Abre Los Ojos and fails rather miserably.

In fact, you can say it very simple : if you have only watched Vanilla Sky, than you're in for a movie that reaches some nice intellectual heights for an American movie with an original ending. But, if you see this movie and then see the original (or if you had already seen that one), Vanilla Sky suddenly becomes a quite lame movie. Which is a shame actually, because I like Tom Cruise and certainly because he has given the attention to Amenabar he deserves. Cruise has always been to me one of better actors in America. But Cruise should have known that the quality of the original could never have been injected in the remake. There are a lot of things which make the original better, but now I'm going to give the 3 main points why this movie is way underneath the original :

1)the performances : how hard Cruise tries, he never puts as much tragedy and quality in his role as Eduardo Noriega. But this goes for every actor here (also Cruz, who had a more sharp, vivid character in the original)

2)the approach : the original is more scary, leaves more to the imagination of the audience and has a better ending (yes, vanilla sky manages to remove some of the intensity of the original ending!!)

3)the music!!! : although the songs on their own are good (2 songs from my fave band REM), the music is just totally inappropriate and actually ruins some of the scenes. you know what i'm talking about when you can compare the 2 movies

therefore 1 advice : just go see Abre Los Ojos and wait until Vanilla Sky comes on television, late at night. Ironically, that's what the special featurette on the VHS edition suggests!!!

If English speaking cinema-goers could learn how to read subtitles, we would be spared having to watch remakes of films that were made perfectly well in the first place. There is nothing particularly wrong with Crowe's version, and if it had been an original piece of work I would be hailing it as a challenging, left-field, atypical Hollywood product. However, comparison has to made with Amenabar's film, which in my opinion is superior in almost all aspects. The main protagonist of "abre los ojos", Cesar, is an unlikable character, whom it is difficult to warm to. Contrast this with Cruise's David, all of whose actions have some reason other than his being a spoilt playboy. Crowe, who is a filmmaker I admire, has lost all the ambiguity, and a good deal of the mystery, of the Spanish original. He spells out everything,as if a multiplex crowd could not be expected to draw its own conclusions, or even leave the theatre without any conclusion. I would compare this to "Donnie Darko", where the movie seemed so much better before everything was clarified on the DVD release. So my wish for Hollywood is to stop plundering other nations' film archives, and for English speakers to overcome their prejudices against movies in other languages.

Brilliant from start to finish. One of the top movies of all time.

I'm not a massive fan of movies that spend the whole time making me wonder what was real and what wasn't. It always makes me feel disconnected to the story and the characters for the majority of the running time.

This will continue to the end where it concludes well or it doesn't.

Vanilla Sky has an ok ending and for me that made it an ok movie.

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 remake of the great 1997 movie, Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). And in my opinion, a much more human and emotional version. Tom Cruise plays David Aames, a selfish egomaniac who takes other people's emotions for granted, and thinks only of himself. Jason Lee plays Brian Shelby, David's best, and in many ways, only friend. Penelope Cruz plays Sofia Serrano, Brian's girlfriend whom accompanies him to David's birthday party. Cameron Diaz plays Julie Gianni, David's occasional bed buddy. Kurt Russell plays Dr. Curtis McCabe, a psychologist interviewing David. All of their interactions, and the consequences of them, make Vanilla Sky one of the most emotional, and complex thrillers ever made. I won't explain anymore of the plot, because it's far more compelling, the less you know. Ignore all people that call this film too confusing to follow. If you pay attention, you won't be confused. The film is very complex, but not confusing. And in my opinion, one of the best movies ever made.

Tom Cruise has done his career no harm over the last 3 years with the choice of films he has decided to do and Vanilla Sky is no exception although it's by no means his best. This is an odd film that is confusing for the most part but it's not a film that you can say is dull. It does have you guessing right to the end as to what is happening. Is he dreaming? Is he going mad? Is it actually happening? In the end the answer didnt really matter as the film was unique and highly watchable and very well acted. Penelope Cruz looks stunning and her acting is of the highest order and charms the viewer nearly as much as she Charms her on and off screen boyfriend. 7 out of 10.

I was originally very curious about this film when it first came out because I loved the original, Abre Los Ojos was enthralling melodic and enchanting, and Vanilla sky tried very hard but it just kept missing the mark.

Even when you compare the amazing Penelope Cruz's two performances there was so much more in the first film. She had this sweet haunting eloquence that was not present in the latter. Then we come to Tom Cruise who can ofttimes be so hit and miss with his acting (yes I know this will earn me scorn, but its true), there are films he's done where he is brilliant, The Last Samurai, Born on the 4th of July. This felt like one of his more pedestrian performances, much could be said for Cameron Diaz in this as well.

Perhaps if I had not seen Abre Los Ojos my opinion of this would have been vastly different I really can't be sure, but it was sad for me because I desperately wanted to like this.