The Ultimate Paradise is the Ultimate Fascist Hell.

Rating: 3/10 (22 July 2003)

Leonardo DiCaprio is Richard, a back-packer that finds The Beach; "The Ultimate Paradise". The Beach is an urban myth, spread among the tourists in Thailand. Richard, of course, goes to The Beach.
Where the film starts off in a nice pace, building up a nice story, and even with a very nice monologue in the beginning, it soon becomes a tale about fascism, and how good it is. Even DiCaprio's character is in on this, and we never really see him turn his back against these ideas. He claims, in the middle of the movie, that The Beach isn't ruled by ism's or religions, no ideals, no ideas. But nevertheless, the inhabitants on The Beach play by fascist rules and think like nazis.
This isn't too obvious for the General Moviegoer, and hence, this movie is kind of dangerous, since it doesn't develope these ideas in the "correct way". Though, maybe the writer IS a nazi, but then, why the hell did this film get distribution?
The Beach is a movie that sucks. Big time. The violence is well made, but mean. The action is good, but uneven. The production is technically stunning, but slow, and in a very weird pace. And the editing, well, the editing is very weird. In the end we have a "computer game scene" to show us that DiCaprio is going insane. Why did they think this was a good idea in the first place?
The resolution of the movie is very sloppy made, or, as said before, the production team really likes the idea of fascism and that humans are not worth enough if you want to protect An Idea.
Don't see The Beach. Don't give The Fascists your money. They don't deserve it.
3 out of 10 - only because of very nice technologically produced film.