Should have been called-Lord of the flies-where they are now.

Rating: 4/10 (1 April 2004)

The Beach was a very odd movie experience for me. On the plus side, this was visually beautiful. What a feast for the eyes! Being a person who craves visually beautiful movies, that was a plus for me. Unfortunetly, the minuses are everything else. This movie was a letdown. It just was. It started out ok, not really great but maybe passable.Strong visuals from the start. Haunting. I thought it was going to be very David Lynch at first, it had that feel. Decaprio plays the drifter who wants to find paradise for the soul and he and a young french couple find it, in the form of a secluded beach populated by strange people, which comes to include the three above mentioned individuals.
Great premise-but the movie itself didn't pull it off. I'm still not sure what The Beach was trying to do. Or say. WARNING-THESE NEXT LINES WILL CONTAIN PLOT SPOILERS: The whole thing went from, if not spellbinding, at least surreal and a bit arty, to "Lord of the flies-where they are now". It was almost ridiculous. I soon tuned out, as the story became preposterous and almost a takeoff on a movie that I had seen in its ORIGINAL and loved dearly.

I have read many reviews on the beach, none very good, and I honestly understand why(although many times I don't agree with critics). This could have been SO SO good. It had an interesting story but ultimately dissolved into senselessness. The film didn't need to borrow from other films, it showed some promise of early magic-although I never felt it was GREAT, I did feel it had the potential to haunt me.
So, in closing, I have to say I didn't much like this movie but I may, unlike with most films I don't like, give it a second viewing(maybe not alone this time.) I would like to see what friends have to say about this one, so far nobody in my circle has seen it. It's a pity this disolved the way it did but if it turns out my feelings change on this one, I'll post another review. Right now I'd have to say about The Beach-Almost haunting, beautiflly crafted visually, movie that had promise-but went the way of absurd, disjointed Lord of the flies gone wrong.