Review of Vanilla Sky

Introduction

Acclaimed Oscar winning director Cameron Crowe teams up with a top notch cast including Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Kurt Russell and Jason Lee for the drama Vanilla Sky, a love story with a twist - a remake of the Spanish film "Open Your Eyes".

The film stars Cruise as a successful publisher who live a Playboy lifestyle and is occasionally sleeping with gorgeous model Julie Gianni (Diaz). However, at his birthday party, he meets the sultry Sofia Serrano (Cruz) - the problem is that he doesn`t realise that Julie is obsessed with him and her revenge changes his life dramatically.

Video

The video comes in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is of the high standard that you would expect from a major movie made last year. The image is crisp and detailed, with no dirt or grain and plenty of contrast.

Visually, the film is well made, making good use of locations, although most of the film is set indoors. Effects wise, there is a car crash, and the ending sequence (which I`ll not talk about as it gives the game away), and both are also well filmed. Other visual treats include some excellent aerial shots of New York.

Audio

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and, is of a high standard. The soundstage is centred on the front three speakers, and the dialogue is well reproduced. The rear channels are used when necessary and help to increase the tension when required. The film`s score, is very well presented and sounds excellent.

Aside from that there are of course numerous sound effects, which all sound pretty good and are well positioned, although there`s no reference quality material to be heard.

Features

The list of extras contains a commentary from the director; two featurettes; an interview with Paul McCartney; a gag reel; a music video; teaser; trailer and a photo gallery.

The "Prelude To A Dream" featurette is featured in the menu before the main feature, and runs for about 6 minutes. Obviously, watching it before the film itself would be foolish! The featurette is short, but interesting.

The "Hitting It Hard" featurette is slightly longer at 10 minutes, and features the press tour for the movie. Again, it`s short but quite interesting.

There`s a 90 second interview feature with Paul McCartney to discuss the former Beatle`s theme song for the film.

The music video comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is in 1.85:1 widescreen.

The commentary track with Cameron Crowe and the composer Nancy Wilson is extremely interesting and provides the usual technical and background information about the film, along with plenty of trivia.

The extras are accessed from very slick animated menus.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case, which contains a single page insert detailing the 28 chapter breaks.

Conclusion

Vanilla Sky wasn`t particularly well received by film critics, and having watched it, the film probably wasn`t what they (or I) expected from a major Hollywood movie.

The film is long, at 135 minutes, and the length of the movie hits home, when after over an hour, it is far from clear what on earth is going on, and there`s then a fearof a further hour or so of confusion ahead. However, like Fight Club for example, the film gets better and better as it progresses, and when things all become clear, the twists and intricacy of the story become rewarding. Tom Cruise turns in an excellent performance, and he is helped by a fine supporting cast that keep the film going through some of the early slow moments.

The video and sound are both good, and the disc is supported by a good range of extras.

Overall, worth persisting with despite struggling to find its way in the first hour.