Open Your Eyes
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VHS Movie Reviews of Open Your Eyes
Movie Review: A Starlet is Born
Summary: 5 Stars
This film blew me away when I first saw it, even though I know no Spanish. Subtitles were good enough, and it's a disgrace that Americans needed "Vanilla Sky" to affirm it. Penelope Cruz smokes Carmen Diaz, Halle Berry, and the rest of Hollyweed's "hot actresses". Too bad Hollyweed didn't notice her until she hooked up with Tom Cruise, but too good for him.
As for the film, I won't pretend I "got" it, but it has to do with the effect of computer technology on the mind. As media becomes more real, how do we know, or will we care, what is really real?
"Open Your Eyes" came before "The Matrix", has the same ideas, and relies less on special effects. It is a classic- "The Matrix" is a Hollyweed commercialized ripoff, and "Vanilla Sky" is for Americans who refuse to read a sub-titled film.
Movie Review: Penelope Cruz is splendiferous
Summary: 4 Stars
This starts out like a love-triangle drama, with César (Eduardo Noriega) the wealthy scion of a restauranteur playing at love with every girl he meets. His latest Nuria (Najwa Nimri) is very aggressive sexually, but other than that of no interest to him. He throws a party, fails to invite her, but she shows up anyway. She knows he's dumping her but she can't help herself and throws herself at him. He evades her advances, notices Sofia (Penélope Cruz) who has come with his friend to the party, goes over to her and asks her to pretend to be interested in him to protect him from his stalker. (Ah, such technique!) Sofia is amused and interested. And so we have our triangle.I thought this was an interesting beginning. I expected Nuria to become increasingly obsessive, and for César to fall completely in love with Sofia, who after all is played by the strikingly beautiful and bewitching Penélope Cruz, who by the way, plays a mime at one point and is seen au naturel from the waist up at another. (In case you're interested.) And something like this does indeed happen. But then somewhere around the middle of the film the world of reality and that of César's dreams become indistinguishable. He becomes disfigured in an auto accident or does he? Nuria is dead or is she? Sofia seems to cool toward him, and then to love him. It is unclear what is going on.
Normally at this point I exit. Notions of the supernatural or of virtual reality fusing with reality dreamed up by movie directors to be fed to the movie-going public are usually stupid, confused, juvenile, not to mention entirely unconvincing. However a couple of things kept me around. One, Penélope Cruz. Actually she was enough. But I also wanted to find out how director Alejandro Amenábar would sort this out.
I now understand that I can do that by watching Vanilla Sky (2001), the Cameron Crowe remake of this film in which (I am told) the supernatural fusing of virtual reality and reality are made so obvious that even this old guy can figure it out. The fact that Penélope Cruz reprises her role opposite her current flame, Tom Cruise, strikes me as interesting. And Cameron Diaz as the sexually aggressive other seems inviting.
Bottom line: Having to read subtitles causes one to miss some of Penélope Cruz's magic with the camera. On the other hand, one can crunch tortilla chips without fear of being unable to hear the dialogue.
Movie Review: Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)"
Summary: 5 Stars
Alejandro Amenabar's "Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)" is an exceptional piece of film making. At the beginning, I thought we were going to see some sort of European film about twenty something relationships. Instead, the whole film takes a turn and the viewer is left gasping for air or for some inkling as to what is really going on. The play of dreams and wakefulness make it even more baffling. We begin to doubt the sanity of the central character and then almost everything. Nothing in this film is there by accident. Watch it through the first time and then carefully the scond time to see how the drector plays his audience beautifully. Now that Hollywood has grabbed Alejandro Amenabar and we have already seen the Others with Nicole Kidman, I cannot wait to see what this inspired director produces next.Movie Review: Follow their lead
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a beautifully made, very provocative film, period. While the directing, cinematography, set, script, etc are all well-done, the best aspect of the work is that it is completely open to individual interpretation leaving the viewer to either simply watch it for its craft and take it at face-value or to delve into its deeper, darker aspects and consider its impact on his/her life (since great Art has the power to affect change)or at least make you think a little harder.On a side note, Penelope Cruz does a very fine job here, as opposed to her role reprisal in Vanilla Sky; continuing on the side: Vanilla Sky is a piece of fluff (read: ...) compared to Abres los ojos.
Movie Review: "Abre Los Ojos"...Makes "Vanilla Sky" look very bland...
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw "Abre Los Ojos" quite a while before I saw "Vanilla Sky," and to me it is far superior. Cameron Crowe's version of this dark and twisted dreamscape is so prettied up and sanitized that much of the impact of the story is lost--as is the case with many Americanized versions of foreign-language films. Eduardo Noriega is amazing (and beautiful)in "Abre Los Ojos," giving the character of Cesar a sense of darkness as well as vulnerability, not to mention the egocentricity of a spoiled child that is expected in the character--Tom Cruise, on the other hand, just seems like a movie star throughout his entire performance in "Vanilla Sky." Penelope Cruz's performance in this original version is much more believable...ironic, considering she and Cruise became a couple. The chemistry between Cruz and Noriega is much more palpable. The Madrid scenery is amazing, and there is a dreamlike quality to the film that comes from excellent cinematography and just plain good film-making...not Hollywood "magic". The characters are believable, and the ending is not as "sugar coated," so that it has an even bigger impact on the audience. Skip the Vanilla...and open your eyes.