Eyes Wide Shut (and should stay that way)

Rating: 2/10 (29 June 2005)

This is a more personal view of the classic movie. It focuses on the effects of the "war" on a single family. Unfortunately, it isn't clear why we should particularly care for this family other than the father is the same arrogant character that Cruise plays in most of his films and Dakota Fanning can appear wide-eyed and scared when she's not yelling at her father or acting wise beyond her years. Just as in E.T., Spielberg has the teenage boy rebel and disobey his parent. It was irritating in E.T., but here, it just makes one not really care whether he lives or dies. As a sci-fi film, it fails. As a study of a family in crisis, it fails more miserably. Don't waste your money on this one. It's not even worth a rental.