Leo spazzes out like a frat boy at every opportunity, and his later descent into madness looks more like a descent into the world's worst Martin Sheen impression.
The Beach (2000)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:114
Fresh:22
Rotten:92
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Critics say The Beach is unfocused and muddled, a shallow adaptation of the novel it is based on. Points go to the gorgeous cinematography, though.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Richard (DiCaprio) is a typical twenty-something American whose head is filled with an absurd amount of pop-culture and video game references. While travelling in Thailand in order to broaden his... Richard (DiCaprio) is a typical twenty-something American whose head is filled with an absurd amount of pop-culture and video game references. While travelling in Thailand in order to broaden his horizons and gain some real world experience, he meets Daffy (Carlyle), a crazy Englishman who gives Richard a mysterious map before committing suicide. Apparently the map leads to an idyllic island where the inhabitants live in a natural paradise. Intrigued, Richard convinces two French acquaintances, Francoise and Etienne (Ledoyen and Canet), to journey with him and see if Daffy was right. Upon reaching the island, Richard discovers that it does, in fact, appear to be the dream that Daffy had promised. They meet Sal (Swinton), a strong-willed woman and leader of the group. Sal has made a pact with the weapon-wielding drug dealers who control the island that her group can remain there provided no new bodies arrive. Richard has a brief tryst with Francoise, but she abandons him when she discovers that he has had another sexual encounter while gathering supplies from the mainland. And when two drugged-out Americans show up and crash the party, Richard's newfound Utopia is threatened once and for all. [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle, Paterson Joseph, Jerry Swindall, Peter Youngblood Hills, Lars Arentz Hansen, Staffan Kihlbom, Magnus Lindgren, Victoria Smurfit
Director: Danny Boyle
Director: Danny Boyle
Screenwriter: John Hodge
Producer: Andrew MacDonald
Composer: Angelo Badalamenti
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Reviews for The Beach
While it thumped along, I had plenty of time to ponder the other and better movies that it reminded me of.
The Beach needed a director, because it's a little tough to tell what Danny Boyle was doing all those months in Thailand.
The appeal of the new Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle The Beach can be summed up in one word: scenery.
Well paced, acted and filmed, always interesting, with only a few sticky moments and rough end.
It doesn't really come off, but it's an admirably ambitious, and mostly very engaging, coming-of-age adventure that apes the spirit of Joseph Conrad.
The last 40 minutes aren't merely dissatisfying -- they're virtually unbearable.
The real downfall of the movie is that there's only so much meaningful interplay you can get out of a beachful of slackers and some tanning oil.
An utterly common and uninvolving amalgam of paradise photography, detached pop psychology and watered-down danger.
In pitching for the mass market, Boyle's film has allowed itself to be rebranded as a Hollywood star vehicle, a cynical assemblage that is never more than the sum of its market-researched parts.
As many spiritual teachers have warned: if you do not want pain, don't only seek pleasure.
The Beach is beautiful, everyone has a lovely tan. But it's nothing to write home about.
Latest News for The Beach
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August 24, 2005:
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