Review of Open Your Eyes (Abre Los Ojos)

Introduction

I`m must apologise but I have just seen Vanilla Sky and will be using this as a comparison with Open Your Eyes and there may be spoilers for those of you yet to see either.

I saw Vanilla Sky first so I thought this would make reviewing this DVD a little difficult. For one it`s in Spanish with English subtitles. Don`t get me wrong I don`t mind foreign movies but once you`ve watched what is ultimately the same picture in the english language it becomes difficult to interpretate the nuances of their performances. I found the characters emotions to be flat and placid as apposed to the understandable and solid deeply emotional responses in Vanilla Sky. The other problem I encountered is that Vanilla Sky feels almost word for word similar to Open Your Eyes. I know it`s a remake but you usually get that little bit extra.

On deliberation I feel I`ve seen these movie the wrong way round. I can understand how Tom Crusie was captivated by the original and did see the need to evoke a greater emotional presence, or maybe he just fancied the pants of Penelope. Also I did say Vanilla Sky and Open You Eyes were almost word for word similar, please emphasise the almost as there are some subtle changes that make me think VS is a better movie. For example the location of New York in VS, which is instantly more recognisable, big and bold and really empowers some scene for scene examples, like the opening. A deserted Time Squares where as the original could have been in any old Spanish city, sorry to all Spaniards. There`s also the change of jobs for the lead character in VS he`s again bigger and bolder, a daddy`s boy, a playboy who`s been left to run his fathers big publishing house. He`s a good-looking multi-millionaire with multiple women at his feet.

Vanilla Sky had a big impact on me. I couldn`t decide just after watching it whether I liked it or not. I spent a couple of days pondering and thinking about the whole story and after those few days decided I loved it! I can`t say why and I`ve never had a movie have that affect on me before.

Enough of the comparisons. How does this disc perform?

Video

Video is a little grainy and there`s a small amount of macro blocking that occurs on darker scenes. The picture is anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen with muted colours, dark darks and sharp whites that add to the edgy feel of the story. Speaking of edges there is a small amount of shimmering edge enhancement but non of these minor imperfections distract from a pretty decent transfer.

Audio

Sound is as muted as the colours with a dull lifeless Dolby Digital 2.0 track with no matrixed bass level. This is a shame as VS had superb sound in the cinema. With this we get subtitles that are burnt onto the print and not accessible through the subtitles menu. I`m not overly keen on dubbed soundtracks but an English dub would have been good for those who hate subtitles.

Features

None. A very poor show for a very good movie it really deserved much much more!

Conclusion

My opening covers allot of my feelings for this movie. I wish I`d seen it before VS. It lacks the emotion but I think this is a language barrier problem. I`m American/English and arrogant I know so I will dash out and enroll for Spanish classes at my local college post haste.

All that aside It was still very enjoyable in a very deja vu way. But failed to evoke the same emotional response after seeing Vanilla Sky. The production value of the disc leaves allot to be desired and seems to have been knocked out quick to take advantage of Vanilla Sky`s theatrical release.

Just freeze me till the Vanilla Sky ultimate five star redux vista series special directors edition fifteen disc box set comes out.