Do not open your eyes! Close them and DON'T watch this film!

Rating: 1/10 (17 January 2010)

It's a fact. The few ones that consider "Vanilla Sky" a good movie (or even great ¿?) have not seen the "real" movie, Spaniard "Abre los ojos" by Alejandro Amenábar.
It's common in the American film industry to see remakes of foreign films, due to the fact that usually, the traditional American film consumer will not watch a subtitled film. It happened with Amenábar's firs film "Thesis" with a very poor result. It is the same with Vanilla Sky.
First, the performers. We have a non convincing Tom Cruise, which has had much better roles in his career (just remember "Magnolia" and you'll understand what I'm talking about). Cameron Diaz -considered by many as a not serious actress- plays a whore, not the interesting, bitter character played by Najwa Rimji in "Abre los ojos". Penelope Cruz, doing the same role, fails to achieve the complex performance in the original film. Finally, while McCabe (Kurt Russell) is just ridiculous, Jason Lee does a decent job as Brian Shelby.
Second, Crowe proves everyone (and perhaps himself) that he's just a mediocre director: the story is too complex for his abilities. His script is just awful: it makes the story just stupid! In his next work, "Elizabethtown", he's just a decent director. But the bitter taste of this awful movie is still in me. You won't miss much if you don't watch this tittle. Rent "Abre los ojos" and you'll understand what I'm saying.