new face to: "and it was all a dream"

Rating: 1/10 (15 December 2001)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** When I was in grammar school, my friends and I went through a phase where all of our journal entries, the stories we wrote for class, would end in "and it was all a dream", or "and then I woke up". I'm sure you're familiar with this device... make a crazy scenario, make the audience wonder how the hero/heroine will escape, and then "wake up".
Suppose we had been able to, back then, replace "and then I woke up" with "and then I realized that I was cryogenically frozen and was experiencing a programmed brain-input deally". We'd have written Vanilla Sky.
Basically, that's your whole movie. Guy gets into weird situation, you think he's killed someone, you're teased with a mystery (who did he kill, and did he), teased with conspiracy (did they frame him), and then it ALL GETS THROWN OUT THE WINDOW for the same ending my pals and I used in the FOURTH GRADE!!
The advertisements for this film tease you into thinking it will be an action-drama with a murder mystery. Just when the film gets you compelled with this apparent plot development (not an easy task with drawn-out boring scenes, typically crappy Cruise acting, and a lead character that probably 1% of America can identify with)... just as it gets you into that, it says "gotcha", and goes into a laughable (people in my theater did groan and laugh) sci-fi bailout.
This could have been a good movie. I was expecting a REAL twist with a plot against David and a switcheroo of sorts with the women in his life. They could have gone so many interesting places with this situation, and then they throw it out instead of exploring it (and they throw it out fast, before we can even enjoy the suspense) and go into what equates to "it was all a dream".
And then they even spoon-feed you the details!! "When did the Lucid Dream begin?", David asks... AND THE GUY TELLS YOU!! "Well, it was when you woke up in the street". Why, oh why, couln't I have been left to at least try to figure that out for myself?? Why did they have to GIVE it to me?
And why wasn't the relationship with David and Sophia (which was actually a Lucid Dream) explored more? There was like 2 scenes, and then we got into the murder crap. Why was I supposed to feel anything for David and Sophia (and feel his pain) when they barely developed that relationship?
The reason they are saying that reviewers should "not reveal secrets" about this movies plot is because (a) if you said one or two sentences, the whole movies would be shot, as it takes only that one lame turn... and (b) if people knew that the ending was this cheezy, they would never come into the theater to see it.