Oh dear.

Rating: 6/10 (26 October 2000)

Read "The Beach" by Alex Garland. Marvel at the strong, consistent plotline; at the well-defined and evolving characters. Fixate on the mastery with which Garland handles and twists Richard's descent into madness around the reader.
See that the movie comes from the same director/producer/screenwriter team as the superb 'Trainspotting', and get very excited.
Actually see the movie. Be very, very, very disappointed.
Realise that screenwriter John Hodge has not even read "The Beach" by Alex Garland. See that the only thing that the film retains from the book is the names of the characters and, of course, The Beach. Realise that while one or two of the events from the book remain, the film is so different, that there was no point.
It should have been called 'The Pretense'.