"VANILLA SKY" DVD: My Dream Girl Is Your Fuck-Buddy (reviewed by AX)

I'm a huge fan of horror movies, and have been a subscriber of FANGORIA (America's #1 horror magazine) for most of my life. In 1998, Fango massively hyped a spanish film called ABRE LOS OJOS ("Open Your Eyes") within its pages for several months. It finally hit video later that year, and I liked the film quite a bit. While not exactly a horror movie, it was freaky enough for me. I became an instant fan of its director Alejandro Amenabar, and tried to push ABRE LOS OJOS (and Amenabar's creeped-out follow-up THESIS) on all my friends.

Skip to 2001. Amenabar releases his American film debut THE OTHERS to wide acclaim (this movie kics a lot of ass, check it out) while American director Cameron Crowe releases his re-make of ABRE LOS OJOS, entitled VANILLA SKY. Tom Cruise replaces Eduardo Noriega as the central character, yet Penelope Cruz retains her role as Sofia. Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell and Jason Lee round out the cast.

So how does VANILLA stack up against Amenabar's original? I can't really say, each one has its good & bad points. While Crowe's version spends a whole lot of time explaining to the audience what happened, Amenabar chose to leave the events more open to interpretation. ABRE LOS OJOS is definitely more of a "mind-fuck" film than VANILLA SKY is. Plus, Penelope Cruz has a lot more nudity in the Spanish version. But hey, whatever.

VANILLA SKY is awesome, though. The acting is great and the film is much more visually pleasing. I love the editing style and of course Crowe's excellent use of pop music (I was singing along to R.E.M.'s "Sweetness Follows" without even realizing it). One popular trend I can't stand is these manufactured movie soundtracks featuring a ton of bullshit new bands. It makes the movies seem dated and cheap and soulless. Crowe is the fuckin' man, all his movies have great music that actually fits with what's happening. And yes, sometimes that means using a song that's (gasp!) from the 1960s if necessary. And speaking of music, Cameron Crowe following up ALMOST FAMOUS with this film is awesome to me. They are totally different but they both rock. That's talent.

As for the DVD itself, there are some cool features to be checked out. All the "making of" stuff is pretty short. Nothing gets too in-depth, but luckily you can listen to full-length commentary by Cameron Crowe & his wife Nancy Wilson (yes, from the kickass band HEART!!!) for some real insight into how the movie came about. Also there's a cool segment that chronicles the "Press Tour" for the movie. Basically it's videotape of girls from several countries around the globe going apeshit when they see Tom Cruise. The parts I liked were when they showed foreign journalists asking weird questions (one interesting bit was three seconds of Alejandro Amenabar standing with Crowe when they visited Spain. I would like to know what Amenabar thought of this re-make). The rest of the features include some unexciting still photos, a very short Entertainment Tonight interview with Paul McCartney about his Oscar-nominated original song for the film, and a music video for some Afrika Bambaata song that I didn't even watch. This disc gets 4 out of 5 stars. Definitely cool.

(5.28.02)