Knick, Knack, Paddy Whack, Leave "Abres Los Ojos" Alone...

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2001)

SPOILERS... BEWARE! `Open your eyes' and you still won't get the picture! Yep, this movie is filled with sequences of flip-flop scenes that seem to direct you to a point of never-never-land. Yep, the flashbacks are so frequent, and so amateurishly integrated, that they can be rather annoying. The dialogue hints, at the very beginning, might prompt the viewers to consider the `differences between dreams and reality,' yet, everything about this flick lacks emotion, energy, and sensibility. Cameron Diaz's appearance is far too brief to be accredited with good performance. She is wasting her talent with her Julie role! Cruise's David lacks the flamboyance of his old style of acting; ducking in and out of his disenchanting dis-figured dullard images. Diaz's Sophia looks so completely superficial to even sustain the viewers' curiosity. Half the time, she recites her speech in monotone, subjecting her dialogue to appear clearly irrelevant! And Jason Lee's Brian lacks personality and depth. The only credible character is Russell's McCabe, but the camera fails to support his acting skills by shifting its focus onto David so consistently. Other cast members swing unimpressively in and out of scenes only to raise questions on the purpose of their presence. Absolutely flat performances overall! Even the bedroom scenes are shallow and without any artistic flare. This movie does little to heave up emotions, angst, intrigue, or suspense, subjecting the viewers' to lose total interest after about twenty minutes into it. The viewers will be smitten with restlessness and would, in all likelihood, focus their attention on the colorful objects and physical setups in the background than on the characters. Undoubtedly, Cameron Crowe has a flare for selecting the familiar song scores and these are more melodramatic than the plot's events and characters. Unfortunately, his favorable scores won't save this movie. The plot holds some very interesting aspects, but they are completely overshadowed by the actors' weak performances, and by the way the film is directed. This movie is flooded with so many flaws that it deserves nothing more than a D- rating!