A Complete Butchery of Abre Los Ojos

Rating: 1/10 (27 January 2002)

The absolute most annoying thing about this film is that some people think it is so `original.' The entire film is a re-make of a highly superior film from Spain called Abre Los Ojos. As a matter of fact, re-make is too nice a word. I would say it is a shameless destruction of another person's ideas. This person is Alejandro Amenábar, the Spanish director who recently made The Others. The film Abre Los Ojos was made only a few years ago, hardly warranting a re-make. Abre Los Ojos is original, entertaining and well made, with far less of a budget than Vanilla Sky.
Now Cameron Crowe has taken this excellent film and literally destroyed everything great about. The plot is needlessly lengthened to the point of absurdity. Tom Cruse shows off his usual inability to deliver any sort of quality whatsoever (the only time I've ever seen him do anything worth watching was in Magnolia). The ending is given a ridiculous happy spin and is dragged out. The only person remotely worth watching in this film is Jason Lee, who actually does his part justice beyond the actor in the original.
In the past, when Cameron Crowe has worked with material of his own, the results have not been too bad. However, as Crowe attempts to show, or should I say steal another persons story, he fails miserably. The film is injected with pop songs and references. Okay I get it Crowe. So, if you put a bunch of songs that people like, you think some of that quality will rub off onto your film? Keep dreaming. The songs are placed horribly and have almost nothing to do with what occurs. It is not like in Rushmore, where the songs seem to match the mood of the scene. In Vanilla Sky, the Beach Boy's `Good Vibrations' blasts through the speakers while Tom Cruse runs around all confused. Oh yeah, Beach Boys. That's exactly what I think of when I'm having a nervous breakdown.
Trying to re-create Abre Los Ojos the way Cameron Crowe does is like attempting to draw a beautiful work of art with an Etch-A-Sketch. It looks terrible and probably should not be attempted in the first place. The penalty for stealing in some countries is to have your hands cut off. If this sentence were carried out with Cameron Crowe, he would be getting off lightly.