Better off getting teeth pulled

Rating: 1/10 (9 June 2002)

Tom Cruise is at his best here (which sadly means he is horrible) in this painfully watchable film. Could this be the worst acted movie of the year? Yes. Could it be Cameron Crowe still doesn't know how to direct a movie? Yes. Could you find a more silly movie out there this year? No. What we have here is a sorry remake of a better film. It goes from being The Game, to Phantom of the Opera, to Total Recall and despite that ambitious combination, it can't pull it off. The structure is quite laughable, the film could have ended any way and there would be nothing to contradict the finale. Before he jumps at the end, I wondered when the Klingons would begin landing. Any film that requires fifteen minutes (FIFTEEN!) to explain itself at the end is a waste of my time. Fight Club did it in a minute, The Others did it in a minute, The Usual Suspects did it in a minute, The Sixth Sense did it in a minute. Hell in Empire Strikes Back they didn't waste fifteen minutes on why Darth Vader is Luke's pop. Why then does VANILLA SKY need fifteen minutes to lay out the logic of the story? Now theres the really mystery. They would have been better off with an ambiguous ending, explaining the whole thing merely cheapens most of the film to "HA! IT WAS ALL FAKE!" status and they can't even pull that off like Usual Suspects did. One good thing: Great shots of the 250 GTO at the beginning, it looks magnificent in that dark blue.