Abre Los Ojos Vs. Vanilla Sky
Where to begin? Ok well I watched a downloaded version of Vanilla Sky my freshman year. I didn't like it. But I read that the original was rather good, or at least better. I just finished watching it and although I still think it's the freakest movie I've ever seen, I kinda like it. Almenabar is like the Hispanic version of Stephen Lynch. Abre los Ojos is like Mulholland drive meets Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Strange. But I must admit that the idea is marvelous. That it is all a dream. I've thought it before and in many ways it seems logical. But I think why this movie works as a foreign film is because no American could have an idea quite like this and that's why Cameron Crowe's version pales in comparison. His version is Americanized and the story is not meant to be a tale of American horror. It's not a transcendent story like Cinderella. It exists in the Hispanic culture because American culture has a stick too far up its ass to understand. They cast Tom Cruise as Cesar and yeah Tom Cruise is good looking, but no one buys him as a disfigured man because he's Tom Cruise. An unknown actor would have worked, or someone more along the lines of Cillian Murphy. Penelope Cruz reprises her role but her subtlty is lost in translation. She seems too much like the victim in Vanilla Sky. In Abre Los Ojos, she is seductive and you feel for her character. The woman who plays Nuria is a good actress and she does a good job. I can't complain about Cameron Diaz's version of the character, either. But in Abre, Nuria looks like Sofia so it makes it easier to understand why the mind would confuse the two. Cameron Diaz has blonde hair in Vanilla Sky and Penelope Cruz has long black hair. They look nothing alike. I think another reason why the American version doesn't work is because it's not original. Crowe is best at movies like Say Anything and Almost Famous - with a story he can personally relate to. His direction is lost in the world of Hispanic cinema.
And to conclude, I wish I had Penelope Cruz's boobs.
And to conclude, I wish I had Penelope Cruz's boobs.