I didn't *completely* hate it.

Rating: 3/10 (19 December 2001)

First of all let me say I'm a huge fan of Cameron Crowe (the film's screenwriter/director). I loved Say Anything, Singles, Almost Famous, and even Jerry Maguire and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. However, Vanilla Sky is so completely different from all of Crowe''s other movies that by the end it was just plain vanilla. My main complaints? 1) the script. Bad dialogue, for one. The script although not particularly stellar in the first half of the movie, waxed cheesy, sci-fi, and flat l towards the end, and elements of "A.I." and "Memento" (the latter of which I loved) took over in what many people, including me, were anticipating to be a much more traditional love story. 2) NO character development. I particularly don't like new characters being introduced near the film's end, especially ones who offer a weak explanation of the movie's deep, profound, spiritual meaning. Blech. 3) Length. I frequently find exceptions to my personal rule that if a movie takes more than 2 hours to tell its story then it's way too long, but I was ready for this to be over about an hour before it ended. I did love certain scenes, including the beginning and ending sequences, the soundtrack was incredible, and certain shots make me want to go back and more closely examine the film. for some movies, I would do this. But I don't care about the characters at all, and found the movie to be grasping at straws seeking profundity, so at this point i don't care to waste my time and money again.