Dull, undramatic, cliched

Rating: 2/10 (8 February 2000)

Leonardo DiCaprio is effortlessly charismatic, but the whole 'Beach" colony, as a New Age-y Club Med with a band of international pot-smoking vagabonds is tired. The plot is schematic, forced -- armed marijuana growers, indeed. Movie might appeal to Ecstasy-addled dimwits in search of cliched utopias and endless raves. Score is good, photography beautiful, but the movie is ultimately empty. One cannot care too much about the characters; they are barely defined. The Beach-combers are indistinguishable except for a few quaintly offense national characteristics. The escape from civilization has no urgency, the perils of utopian living have no freshness