Not that I am a great fan of Amenabar's ("The others") original, "Abre los ojos"
(see
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0125659 ). It is a really good movie, but I don't share the entusiasm some people have about it here in Spain. I was kind of proud when I learned that an US remake was on the works, but when I saw it yesterday... the horror! I really tried not to compare it whith the original, but it is so bad that doing so was the only way to keep me awake.
Ok, the original has good, concise dialogues, but here they had been completely rewritten, with lame results: they are too moralistic, a flaw Amenabar avoided, full of pretensions and too long. Between this and the happy idea by director Cameron Crowe to have at least a pop song per scene, everything looked at least twice as long. Oh, and Crowe also though it was a good idea to explain absolutely everything a couple of times, so we understood what was going on. What a pity he did not realise that leaving details to imagination is a must on any kind of movie, that is, unless you think of the audience as jerks.
And the acting... Tom Cruise, as in MI2, tries to convert the movie into a narcisist one man show, and his character is now the sum of all (presumed) virtues instead of the son of a b***h of the original. This and his stupid overacting (spends half of the movie either grinning as an idiot or shouting) make him absolutely unbearable.
About Penelope Cruz... OK, she is not great in spanish movies, but at least she is natural. Not here, were she is even as bad as Cruise.
I have to say that, on the other side, Cameron Diaz was way better than the original actress (and she is quite good), and also is given more lines, and that Kurt Russell is quite good, specially at the ending.
Anyway, if you are interested in this movie, please, watch the original. C'on, its even available at Amazon. Or read Philip K. Dick's "Ubik", which shares some ideas with this film. You won't regret.
