Vanilla Sky: Critic Reviews

Some surface appeal, but ultimately vacant.

Cameron Crowe's vinyl-collector version of "Jacob's Ladder" is a daring gamble paying off even when ambition exceeds his grasp. The subconscious can boil over with too much pop culture poured in. Keep that in mind, and it will have you at "What the hell?"

A truly horrible waste of money and talent and two and a half hours I'll never get back...

It just makes things easier to believe that good-looking rich folks are just as miserable and unhappy as the rest of us . . .

This is a whole new palette for Crowe, and his excitement rubs off on us.

A classic case of what happens when a Hollywood studio and a star (Cruise) take a Spanish metaphysical thriller and turn it into a glossy, overproduced big-budget star vehicle that lacks distinct identity.

Vanilla Sky turns out to be a rousing, exhilarating entertainment, thanks mostly to Cruise's balls-to-the-wall performance.

My suggestion is to avoid this film and instead rent Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos) the film upon which Vanilla Sky was based.

Vanilla Sky is a long, complex, ambitious thriller that doesn't quite work.

Expect top notch work by Cruise, Crowe and Co.

The film is seamless, surprising and erotic, mixing the best elements of romance, sci fi and drama.

... A psychological thriller that will keep you guessing even after you've left the theater.

Crowe had a huge budget, and he uses it gloriously.

These Skies are not only Vanilla, but a bit too familiar . . . Tom Cruise once again plays himself playing a character

You mightn't see its like from mainstream Hollywood for some time.

...A seriously weird and intriguing psychological drama.

Perhaps the greatest mystery in Cruise-Crowe mindbender is why it doesn't quite work.

A great cast, a decent soundtrack and some memorable scenes make it ultimately worth watching. (But see the original if at all humanly possible.)

For all its shortcomings, Vanilla Sky exerts a hypnotic, otherwordly attraction.

An interesting failure... in a perverse way, while Vanilla Sky certainly doesn't stand up to Crowe's still-fresh masterwork Almost Famous, it does confirm his directorial prowess.

Its biggest misstep is the talky, explanatory conclusion, which leaves attentive viewers with little to chew on.

An engrossing and tempestous journey into the abyss of the mind.

Maybe something this surreal needs unknowns to keep it in the ether.

It's intricate, true, yet surprisingly easy to follow.

The ending is anti-climactic not only because the explanation leaves no stone unturned but also because the explanation itself is unsatisfactory.