Extras: 'Prelude To A Dream', 'Hitting It Hard', Photo Gallery, Unused Trailer,
Theatrical Trailer, Interview with Paul McCartney, Music Video, Audio Commentary
Director:
Cameron Crowe
Cast:
David Aames: Tom Cruise
Sofia Serrano: Penelope Cruz
Julie Gianni: Cameron Diaz
Dr Curtis McCabe: Kurt Russell
Brian Shelby: Jason Lee
Thomas Tipp: Timothy Spall
Rebecca Dearborn: Tilda Swinton
Libby: Alicia Witt
Guest at David Aames' party: Steven Spielberg (uncredited)
Cameron Crowe moved straight from directing
Almost Famous
into this altogether different piece starring Tom Cruise - who also headlined in
Crowe's prior comedy
Jerry Maguire.
Vanilla Sky is a remake of Alejandro Amenabar's foreign film Open Your Eyes, which starred
Penelope Cruz - who reprises her role for Crowe's remake.
Cruz again plays Sophia, a beautiful brunette who enchants Cruise's
character - David Aames, a rich playboy who has executive control of a
multi-million dollar company. Problems start when David's loose sexual
relationship with Julia (an effortlessly kooky Cameron Diaz) spirals out
of control after Julia becomes insanely jealous of Sophia and commits
suicide by driving her car over a bridge - seriously injuring David.
Then the problems only escalate into the bizarre...
And escalate is the word. Vanilla Sky is a curious film, almost going
unnoticed upon its release by the people who would probably get the most
out of it. The movie was marketed as a visually bizarre love tragedy -
which it is. But it goes much deeper than that; transforming into the
kind of film David Lynch would direct if he were a mainstream auteur.
To discuss Vanilla Sky too much destroys the surprises it has. Suffice
to say that this is a movie that easily stuns and enthrals those
expecting far less from an apparent Tom Cruise romantic vehicle.
Watching it with relatively no preconceptions I was consistently
entertained and psychologically stretched throughout its running time,
and so will many others be.
Cameron Crowe surprises with his total command of the spiralling layers
of script, effortlessly punctuating the madness with genuinely creepy
scenes, sweet romance, sour drama, and conspiratorial ramblings. The
entire movie is engineered as some kind of bizarre pop video dream,
which entrances with its beautiful settings, and unsettles with its
makeup and undertones. Crowe may be one of the most diverse directors
currently working in Hollywood, able to turn his hand to just about
anything!
Cruise is his usual charismatic self, flashing his trademark grin, and
floating around the screen in designer clothes. Yet despite the fact
he's again peddling his image of The Perfect Man, he gets to play a
more deeper, fractured, person here. Cruise is definitely undergoing a
shift in expectations recently, leading on from Eyes Wide Shut and the
upcoming Minority Report. It seems the lightweight roles are being
phased out, and a more adult actor emerging.
Penelope Cruz is a sassy and exotic as the script requires her to be,
although how anyone prefers her to Cameron Diaz is - personally - beyond
me. That said, Cruz is always engaging and scenes between herself and
Cruise have an added dimension given their real-life romance.
Cameron Diaz continues to be an unsung Goddess of the movies - blessed
with exotic looks that would sadly relegate her to mere eye-candy if it
weren't for the fact she can actually act! Okay, so she's hardly in the
same league as Gwyneth Paltrow... but she consistently makes good
impressions in films by being obviously pleasing to the eye but also a
worthy acting asset.
The plot is intelligent and surprising throughout, littered with punchy
dialogue and smart twists. It's not quite at the intellectual level of
Lynch, but it can be regarded as a big-screen "Twilight Zone" for the
21st Century.
Thoroughly entertaining, surprising, thought provoking, and with a
satisfying conclusion, Vanilla Sky is an overlooked gem that should
build up a greater appreciation on DVD than it did in the cinema. Just
one question - what is the significance of the title?
Vanilla Sky arrives as one disk in an Amaray case, and features some
minimalist animated menu screens that make the disk navigation
experience akin to using a Flash-based website. The screens are fairly
slow to load, but beautifully sparse with nice musical accompaniment.
Picture quality is very high, with the 1.85:1 anamorphic picture doing
fine justice to the sumptuous imagery throughout. The night scenes are
deeply dark, while the daylight scenes are vivid and colourful. There's
minimal grain apparent, certainly nothing to distract your viewing, and
overall this is a fine transfer of a fine movie.
Sound is of a similarly high quality, being Dolby Digital 5.1 and
growing more dynamic as the film progresses. There are many standout
scenes where the images onscreen come to life through surround sound
effects work, particularly in the night club sequence and the deafening
silence in one scene brings home how absorbing surround sound can become
- but you only notice when it vanishes in an instant. Nothing truly
exhilarating, but given the premise of the movie, you're more satisfied
with the aural experience than you think you'd be.
The Extra Features are far from plentiful, but what there is deserved
special note because of originality amongst other DVD extra features.
'Prelude To A Dream' is a short, but very interesting, montage sequence
created by editing together hours worth of video footage shot by
director Cameron Crowe and others. The effect is a beautiful
behind-the-scenes featurette that offers you a chance to feel what it
was like to be involved with making the movie, rather than actual how it
was made. Short but sweet.
'Hitting It Hard' is a similar video reel, again shot by Crowe and
companions, giving an insight into the massive press launch of the movie
in 2001. It's enlightening to see the cast and crew jetting around the
world in a mad rush, giving interviews and signing autographs for
hysterical Japanese fans, together with the sombre interviews, stuffy
press junkets, dozens of plane journeys, endless car journeys, and even
late night dancing! Excellent, but again cruelly short!
Photo Gallery: hardly the most inspired addition to a DVD, but the
photos here are quite pretty and occasionally interesting. Only for
those really enamoured with the film, though.
Unused Trailer & Theatrical Trailer. Both handsome trailers are
excellent teasers for the film, and make much more sense once you've
seen Vanilla Sky. However, you can see why the film wasn't the massive
success the crew may have been expecting - for all its visual whiz and
Tom Cruises' star presence... it just looks like a tragic romantic
comedy with a silly surreal slant. The real meat of the film's premise
is lost. Which, bizarrely, makes actually watching the film much more
surprising.
Vanilla Sky is not really deserving of its 'Special Edition' tag, but
it's a good DVD that presents the movie itself perfectly, while giving
you a few extras that never bore or become superfluous to the movie. It
also - sometimes - makes a change to own a DVD that won't 6 hours to
wade through! However, Crowe may re-release Vanilla Sky again - this
time with definitive extra features - as he did previously with
Almost Famous.
You have been warned.
Reviewed using a Toshiba SD210e DVD Player connected to a Toshiba 32"
32ZD09B widescreen TV with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.
DVDfever.co.uk - Est. February 25th 2000
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
