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DVD Review:
Vanilla Sky

Starring: Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz
Director: Cameron Crowe
Encoding: Region 1 (US and Canada only)
Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby
Rated: R. Not for sale to persons under age 18.
Studio: Paramount Home Video
DVD Features: Commentary by director Cameron Crowe and composer Nancy Wilson, featuring a conversation with Tom Cruise

Theatrical trailer(s), TV spot(s): Two featurettes: -- "Prelude To A Dream" an introduction -- "Hitting It Hard" behind-the-scenes look An interview with Paul McCartney Music video "Afrika Shox" by Leftfield/ Afrika Bambaataa Photo gallery with audio introduction by photographer Neal Preston Unreleased teaser trailer International theatrical trailer Widescreen anamorphic format Other Formats: VHS, VHS subtitled in Spanish

David Aames is wealthy by birth, and has inheirited a very successful Fortune 500 entertainment magazine. He's a guy that's very used to getting his way, and being a very rich, influential, and attractive, playboy millionaire. He's president of the magazine company, but surrounded by "stiffs" that feel he's too playful to take the position seriously, and would love to usurp him.

Other than that, he's "living the dream" as it were, and all is going well until a new love interest inspires him to look beyond his own superficiality. He discovers that the things he's held as important, are not quite as important as he'd once thought. He learns the value of true feelings, versus the superficial mask he once wore. He wants to adopt some of his lover's attitudes and become a better person, both for her, and to get more out of life. He resolves to change himself, and no sooner has he come to that decision, then suddenly a single lowering of his guard causes him to lose everything he now holds dear.

His life begins to spin out of control, and he begins to doubt his own sanity as he plunges headlong into madness where nothing is as it seems.

OK, that sets the stage for you, but definitely doesn't do the film justice. This movie was incredible. When I rented the DVD, it was almost an afterthought. The only thing I knew about the storyline was that everyone's that's seen it says: "Pay super-close attention to everything, or it won't make any sense." The only other thing I knew was that Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were in it, but it's almost as if I rented the DVD DESPITE the fact they were in it.

In retrospect, I finally understood why folks were saying that you had to watch the film closely, but what they were really telling me is: "I went out for popcorn and when I came back I was totally lost for the rest of the film." They probably felt like morons. The truth is, you don't have to be too detail-oriented, just be sure that you keep watching the film, and pause it when your pizza arrives (or other interruptions ocurr). It was kind of funny though, due to the warnings, I was watching the movie like a hawk, at a ridiculous level of detail, and found lots of inconsistencies throughout the film, but nothing that really affected the overall storyline. I was determined not to have to watch the film again to make sense of it. I was watching every little corner of the screen for clues, and all sorts of nonsense. All of that was for nothing though, as I said, the key is to just keep watching/listening to the film as you normally would.

I'm no Tom Cruise fan and I usually groan aloud when he's in a film, but he certainly surprised me on this one. His character felt like a blend of most of his other better characters, especially the Tony Macguire one, and is just VERY believable and great to watch, except that Tom likes to "pose" whenever his shirt is off. He tightens muscles all over the place, and stands there like a moron, and I just wanna' tell him to BREATHE. I hate that crap, although Tom definitely works out, and has an VERY impressive physique, it's out of character to suddenly tighten your upper shoulders and tense your arms BEHIND you in order to make the lines of muscle show up on your shoulders on the side the camera's on.

Cameron Diaz is here, and does her usual work. A lot of folks like her, but personally, she's just not for me. The role she plays here was well-conceived, and she was definitely well-cast. She should stop inflating her lips though--those bad boys are gonna' pop..

Penelope Cruise is also in this film, and the character she plays is an ideal of what most men would look for in a gal. She brought a wonderful presence to the film. The connection her character and Tom's character make is great to watch.

Jason Lee is also in here as "the best friend" of David Aames (he's in everything these days). He's a great casual actor that can joke and "play" very well on a superficial level, and then really surprise you with sudden depth when you're not expecting it.

Kurt Russell is also in the mix, as a psychologist, and like everyone says "He's the best kept secret in Hollywood". The older he gets the more convincingly he can act, I'm guessing it's got more to do with his appearance than his acting ability, but whatever it is, his ability to portray emotional depth seems to be getting better all the time.

If you're able to get this on DVD, this is a director's commentary worth hearing. It was sort of refreshing to hear the totally unscripted monologue. At a couple of points he was calling people on the phone as he recorded the commentary, I believe that one person he called didn't even answer the phone. Tom Cruise answered his call and was able to discuss the scene that was playing at that point.

Apparently, the actors had quite a bit of influence on the scripts while shooting, and quite a bit of their time was devoted to theorizing on the concepts presented in the film. In fact, one of the more notable lines of the film: "I'll tell you after we die and we come back as cats", was something that Penelope cruise said off-camera after a shoot, that the director decided he wanted to appear in the film in a couple of places. In the opening sequence, Tom cruise apparently designed the TV stand that can be seen there, which may seem trivial, but the design arose from discussing the opening scene with the director before the film was shot, and the director was asking Tom for his ideas on it. When coupled with other aspects of the film, this really speaks volumes about the amount of "leeway" and "power" the actors had over the finished product.

In any event, according to the director's commentary, the film is almost a straight rip-off of an earlier Spanish film (the name escapes me). The director of the original film was even on location sometimes to answer questions, and watch some of the shooting. I'm not sure what kind of deal they worked out, but apparently the original director was very flattered by the fact they were essentially reshooting the film. I haven't seen the original film, and I'm not sure how similar the two films are, but apparently it's only similar on a conceptual level, as opposed to the actual screenplay, or storyline.

I refuse to spoil anything about the film, but I will say that the film isn't headed the way you first think it is. This was carried out so well that folks apparently left during the early screenings because they refused to accept the storyline changes because they LOVED where it had been heading. Nice impact.

In any event, I rate this one at a solid 3 1/2 stars, and strongly recommend it to anyone that has the possibility of dying one day. Hmm.. I suspect that covers quite a few of you..

Oh.. side note....favorite quote of the week (spoken in a dramatic announcer's voiceover during a commerical for yet another war movie): "Critics everywhere are calling this a war movie."