Vanilla Sky

greenspun.com : LUSENET : The Art of Film : One Thread

This won't be out for a while, but I thought it was worth mentioning...

One of my favorite movies, Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes", is being remade by Cameron Crowe as "Vanilla Sky". It will star Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz (reprising her role in the original), & is scheduled for an October release.

If you've seen Open Your Eyes, you know why I'm excited: It was a brilliant, genre-defying film, mixing romance, mystery, scifi and horror. I doubt Crowe will be able to top the original (given his track record, he'll probably play up the romantic element), but the fact they're doing it at all gives me goosebumps. What next, a remake of Utena?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), April 13, 2001

Answers

Inukko, you're absolutely right! I saw your 'Open your Eyes'a few months back and that movie left my 'mouth open'(maybe that's what they should have titled the movie).

But imagine my displeasure when I learnt the subtitle-hating Americans were going to do a remake, and with a star of the original movie! What are these guys playing at? Why can't they appreciate movies like the rest of us normal folks?

Anyway, that answer is best left to the Cruise-Cruz love birds. Let's see if their off-screen chemistry is as hot,on-screen.

I'll write again when our sky turns vanilla!

-- Ugo Okoro (ugookoro@yahoo.com), September 09, 2001.


Yeah well, you have to give them some credit. Few people have heard of the original, so having a big director like Crowe attached to it doesn't hurt. I just hope "Vanilla" is more than a retread of the original; rumor has it, Crowe is planning some wicked twists...

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), September 10, 2001.

I just saw a preview. It DOES look good.

-- Frostbite (krooks@agnesscott.edu), December 03, 2001.

First impression: couldn't they have made Tom Cruise a little uglier?

OK, I did like Vanilla Sky. After the pure crystallized insanity of Open Your Eyes, this one seemed a little tame, but it worked. And there was always something cool to look at, or listen to (music is king;) in Crowe's version. If anything, the twists are MORE predictable (did anyone not guess what "Ellie" was?)... it's all about the thrill of the ride here. I'd get more in-depth, but I don't wanna spoil it (and OYE) too much - maybe someone else can dissect this, if they're so inclined?

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), December 15, 2001.


I thought there was way too much music in it, and it was far too intrusive for me. I take it this is Cameron Crowe's "thing"... I think he did it in Jerry Macguire, too, and probably Almost Famous as well (considering it's a movie about music). I would even go so far to say that a complete change of music (something subtler, quiet, indeed even completely silent in parts) might have made this a great movie for me. But even then, I thought the plot was a bit cliched. I just didn't feel for anyone in that movie, and the bit about worlds within worlds has already been done to death lately. This movie offered me nothing new. The explanatory dialogue by the usually wonderful Tilda Swinton (from Orlando) concerning the Lucid Dream process was unfortunate -- I would rather have been left wondering. And, this is minor, but I wouldn't have worked the plot into a flashback story... I think playing it out in a linear fashion might have added a bit more umph to the whole thing. The futuristic jazz hologram seemed a bit out of place, but I suppose you could see it as a prop to promote the idea that they live in a "near future" setting, thus allowing the advanced Lucid Dream technology to exist (not that it needs to be justified -- at the mention of "150 years", I assumed that all of the lucid technology was being done on the "future end" of things, meaning that the company at the present time was simply freezing their subjects and hoping for the future availability of reanimation technologies... anyway...)

I am curious to see what the original was like, perhaps it was more promising. Hmmm...

-- Mat Rebholz (orangeloquat@yahoo.com), December 15, 2001.



The original was definitely better.

-- Inukko (nadisrec@worldnet.att.net), December 17, 2001.

i just saw the movie[did not see original} i liked it but have a couple questions..... where did title[vanilla sky ]come from? do recall at least one reference to it cruise {"my mothers favorite sky"}what is a vanilla sky?and a painting in his apartment [i believe he said by monet???]did monet actually do such a painting? thanks for your help.

-- john e. gruninger (hawkg@aol.com), December 23, 2001.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ