MovieChat Forums > Abre los ojos (1997) Discussion > Easily better than Vanilla Sky

Easily better than Vanilla Sky

posted 16 years ago by empty-xj
9 replies | jump to latest

I saw Abre los Ojos last night and fell in love with it. I visited the imdb and found out this was the remake. I was worried that I would have somewhat of a bias watching this one for the first time because I really enjoyed open your eyes, but I convinced myself to watch the whole thing. My bias was shattered after the first half. I was a quite impressed....and then...it ended. What a disappointment. They did it almost shot-for-shot (and line-for-line) up until the ending, where they took out the most dramatic, and in my opinion, the most powerful scene in the movie. Not to mention all the silent philosophical arguments/ideas that were present...

In Vanilla Sky, the psychiatrist (Kurt Russel) is told he is not real, to which he promptly retorts, "I'm real." He is then asked the names of his daughters and he can't come up with an answer. They don't toy with ambiguity at all here. They now KNOW he is not human.

In Open Your Eyes, the psychiatrist is much more hysterical and Cesar has second thoughts about what the LE representative says. It makes us question, if the psychiatrist is indeed a manufactured form of consciousness, is he any less important than human consciousness? He faces the same exact dilemma as a human: he exists and he can acknowledge that. (Or does he?) Except he is told to his face that his existence is worth less than *beep*. Maybe he is just some programmed character, or maybe the LE people didn't know what they were dealing with when they started creating these "characters" in Cesar's mind. Perhaps they were doing something incredibly immoral without knowing it, even though those characters weren't human, they were still conscious.

This wasn't present at all in vanilla sky.

What do you guys think?

[–] theunholy-1 16 years ago

Have you seen the Thirteenth floor ?

[–] Stratego 16 years ago

I agree with you, empty-xj.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JosiahSilas 16 years ago

I like them both.

Cameron Crowe is a talented director, and Cruise is a capable actor. People want to dismiss that because they're elitist and a remake (let alone an American one) can't possibly have any merit.

Abre los Ojos has cult appeal and artistic merit as a "foreign film" and liking it more validates your taste in movies.

I'm just waiting for the sun to shine.

[–] bosgeest 15 years ago

elitist.. right..

vanilla sky just plain sucks when compared to this one.. maybe if it wasn't a remake it would be a good movie, for its originality, but it's a remake. Which fails to top the original and thus it sucks.

vanilla sky 4/10 and that's being generous
abre los ojos 8/10 (also a bit generous but 7 is too low)

[–] JosiahSilas 15 years ago

vanilla sky just plain sucks when compared to this one
This is exactly what I'm talking about. You either like it or you don't, but you feel like you have to put it down because it's a remake (ewwww)

maybe if it wasn't a remake it would be a good
Exactly. A lot of great movies were books first. Why is that acceptable, but remaking a foreign movie isn't? They're equally original.

I'm just waiting for the sun to shine.

[–] Stratego 15 years ago

"People want to dismiss that because they're elitist and a remake (let alone an American one) can't possibly have any merit."

Wow, you're prejudiced. I don't like Vanilla Sky, not because Abre los ojos is a foreign movie because for me both are. And also not because Vanilla Sky is an American remake. It's because it's a BAD remake. In my opinion this pretentious and sentimental movie is bad on it's own, but as a remake it's also an insult to the original.

And generally I do not like remakes, there useless to me since I can just as well watch the original. There have to be some considerable differences for me to be able to appreciate a remake. Vanilla Sky doesn't add anything special to the story, it even messes up the logic of the original.

[–] JosiahSilas 15 years ago

Wow, you're prejudiced.
How does that make me prejudice when that's what I'm seeing people say over and over? It boils down to people hating Vanilla Sky because it's a remake. bosgeest just ƒucking confirmed that while he was trying to argue with me.

Maybe you're different. Maybe you genuinely don't like Vanilla Sky and it has nothing to do with Abre los Ojos, but that's not what I keep reading on discussion boards.

I'm just waiting for the sun to shine.

[–] Stratego 15 years ago

It is prejudiced to think that everyone who doen't like this movie think they're elitist and hate it because it's an American remake. Hating a movie BECAUSE it's a remake is ridiculous, you can merely not be interested in it for that particular reason. BUT if you've seen Abre los ojos you can't help but compare it to the remake, it will influence your opinion about Vanilla Sky, may it be positive or negative. And Í haven't read much comments on these boards of people who hate/dislike Vanilla Sky just because it's a remake.