This movie can't decide what it wants to be about

Rating: 5/10 (22 November 2001)

'The beach' has really left me with mixed feelings. I wanted to hate the movie because Leonardo diCaprio plays in it, but in spite of his presence, The Beach is not as bad as I expected. One thing that's remarkable is that Leo's character is kind of a jerk, which is a welcome change from the one-dimensional idiot he played in 'Titanic'
The first half hour of the movie is terrible, however. Corny dialogs, stereotype tourist character and an annoying voice-over. After that, the movie gets a little better, especially the scenery (the tropical island) is breathtaking, and the movie even manages to be funny sometimes. Plus, there is a certain charm in the idea of a hippy commune living on a beautiful, deserted island.
Unfortunately, the movie can't decide what it wants to be: an action movie, a romantic drama, a satire on the consumer society, a 'Blue Lagoon'- clone etc. It contains parts of all these movies/genres, but it moves constantly from one genre to the other.
All in all, I found the Beach to be moderately enjoyable, mostly because I just wanted to see what happened next, even though that what happened usually didn't make much sense. with a LOT more focus on psychology, the Beach would have been a good movie. As it is now, it's confusing and a little boring, but not total crap
*1/2 out of **** stars