An awful remake of an awful movie. Cameron Crowe should be ashamed of himself.

Rating: 2/10 (28 December 2001)

Well, where do I start? Okay, for starters, how about that the original film "Open Your Eyes" by Alejandro Amenabar was an extremely pretentious, poorly shot, and deliberately confusing (even to the director himself) art film. Now, I have nothing against art films, if there made with style and that style is backed up with substance. But "Open Your Eyes" tries to be all of that, and fails by trying to be clever. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Penelope Cruz is in both films. But this review is not about "Open Your Eyes." Cameron Crowe had just won on oscar for what I felt was the best film of 2000, "Almost Famous." His other films, "Say Anything" "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (which he scripted, but didn't direct), "Jerry Maguire", and "Singles" are all very intelligent, witty films about dating and growing up. So, now Crowe decides to move out of the genre which he knows so well and make an art film. Fine, Paul Thomas Anderson did it with "Magnolia" and did a bang up job. So with that, I'll tell you that I was looking forward immensely to Vanilla Sky (I watched "Open Your Eyes" after "Vanilla Sky").
My high expectations were dashed to pieces with this incomprehensible plot and blatant symbolism which doesn't really make sense.
The story (if you can call it that) involves Tom Cruise as a vain daddy's boy, whose parents die, he inherents their thriving company and he basically makes a living making an ass out of himself. He's sleeping with Cameron Diaz, ditches her for Penelope Cruz (who after this and Captain Corelli's Mandolin, should be deported), and then wonders why Diaz drives them both off the road in a spectacularly silly slow-motion car wreck. The rest of the film has Cruise (now disfigured) trying to win back Cruz ... Then everything is summed up nicely at the end in an elaborate denouement which Crowe (or Amenabar) pulls out of his ass.
I'm not really sure who's to blame for this crap, Crowe, Amenabar, or Cruise for convincing Crowe to remake the film.
It's themes could have made a good movie. It has shades of better films ("Waking Life", "Dark City", Cruise's own "Eyes Wide Shut") but instead it takes all of its ideas and intentions and makes... no sense at all.
Cameron Crowe, please make another coming of age movie! That's what you're good at!
-Scott Gingold - 12/01