Ponderous, pretentious failure

Rating: 4/10 (12 December 2001)

Tom Cruise is very good, as are several of the other actors (Russell, Diaz, Cruz), but Cameron Crowe fails to create any sense of excitement. The pacing is extremely slow, with long pauses between lines of dialog, and slow pacing of movement and action within the scenes. Also, the story shuttles back and forth between what may be dream and what may be reality so often that after a while, the audience simply ceases to care whether what they're watching is "real" or not.
The idea is hardly original. Yes, this is a remake, but the basic ideas of the story go back to 1940s pulp magazines, where they were usually developed in a more compelling and exciting fashion.
Crowe wanted to call the far superior "Almost Famous" "Vanilla Sky," which indicates just how meaningless the title is.