The Beach was released in 2000, adapted from the novel by Alex Garland by the team of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge. This is a film that I saw when it came out, at the cinema I believe, I have seen it once since then, and I watched it again just a few weeks ago.
The Beach ... Read review
Leonardo DiCaprio sought to distance himself from the cloying wholesomeness of his ... more
character inTitanic, and his role inThe Beachis in many ways a polar opposite. As Richard, a young American seekingto "suck in the experience" of freestyle travel in Tha...
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Leonardo DiCaprio is electrifying in this adrenaline-drenched, tantalizingly seductive ... more
thriller from the director of Trainspotting, Richard (DiCaprio) a young American backpacker, is willing to risk his life for just one thing: that mind-blowing rush y...
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Drama - Director: Kevin Smith - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin, Jennifer Lopez, Jason Biggs, Matt Damon
Production Year: 2002 - Drama - Director: Michael Caton-Jones - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe, George Dzundza, Patti Lupone
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Advantages: A good story Disadvantages: Dated, DiCaprio, some unpleasant scenes
The Beach was released in 2000, adapted from the novel by Alex Garland by the team of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge. This is a film that I saw when it came out, at the cinema I believe, I have seen it once since then, and I watched it again just a few weeks ago.
The Beach stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard, a young American who travels to Thailand seeking adventure and escape. Once there, he meets a French couple, ... ...say, they do, and find the community who live there. They have a positively idyllic time for a while, and then things start to unravel.
The story of The Beach is uplifting, shocking, horrifying and hilarious. I have never read the book, nor anything else by Alex Garland, but he seems to be quite a storyteller if this film can be taken as evidence. He sends these young people (and Leo DiCaprio's Richard seems very young and immature) ... more
The Beach was released in 2000, adapted from the novel by Alex Garland by the team of director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge. This is a film that I saw when it came out, at the cinema I believe, I have seen it once since then, and I watched it again just a few weeks ago.
The Beach stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard, a young American who travels to Thailand seeking adventure and escape. Once there, he meets a French couple, Étienne and Francoise, and after he is given a map to a legendary paradise-like beach, they set off on an adventure to find it. Needless to say, they do, and find the community who live there. They have a positively idyllic time for a while, and then things start to unravel.
The story of The Beach is uplifting, shocking, horrifying and hilarious. I have never read the book, nor anything else by Alex Garland, but he seems to be quite a storyteller if this film can be taken as evidence. He sends these young people (and Leo DiCaprio's Richard seems very young and immature) off on an adventure in search of paradise, which they find, but soon they begin to learn that nothing in life is as it seems.
The character of Richard is spectacularly irritating. He is so immature, and has no idea about real life or relationships and emotions. I think DiCaprio was a good choice to play him - Danny Boyle has famously claimed the studio went over his head to cast DiCaprio instead of his choice and regular lead actor, Ewan McGregor. I'm a huge fan of McGregor, I love him, but I don't think he would have been right in this role - DiCaprio played the right blend of innocence, naivety and arrogance for the character.
I found the dialogue very stilted in places. I think this is due to a combination of the screenplay and acting. So often Richard would say something that just sounded so forced, like it had been added just to make the viewer aware of some fact. I noticed this with other characters too, but particularly him.
For me the best bits of the film were the introductions we were given to the community at the beach. They were done with humour and a bit of silliness, and despite being set up like the characters were introducing themselves directly to the camera, they seemed very natural. I particularly liked poor Unhygienix, the community chef, who can't get rid of the smell of fish - as that is their staple diet.
From a few early moments of danger, the community's idyllic life soon goes a bit wrong. I started to find that the film made me squirm once this was happening - there was pain, horror, fear, and I didn't find it pleasant viewing.
One later sequence which I remembered as being good from previous viewings, and which I enjoyed again this time, was the computer game sequence. Richard is banished to the woods to resolve a mistake he has made, and the loneliness gets to him a little. He soon starts to feel part of the forest, and lays traps and taunts the local cannabis farmers. At one point he is running through the forest, dodging bugs and his own traps, and sees his life there as a computer game. We see a computer graphic view of Richard as he bounces through forest, seeing off threats. This is a nice lighthearted moment in a film which has become very dark by this moment, and one which stands out for me.
Watching it now, The Beach is very much a film of its time. The music is instantly dateable to the late nineties, as are the characters and lifestyle. The soundtrack is a roll call of late nineties dance, trance and electro, including Moby, Orbital, Leftfield and Faithless, alongside "that" song by All Saints, Pure Shores (which actually I find I still quite like!). As dated as this sounds, it fits the movie perfectly, and anything else would not have worked. One breath of fresh air is the inclusion of Redemption Song, which is sung by the characters.
I was disappointed by The Beach this time round. It was great at the time of release, good a few years later, but not so much now. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend giving it a go, but if like me you have seen it before, I wouldn't advise returning to it - it is a film of its time and best kept there.
Originally posted on Dooyoo.co.uk by me under the same username
...to watch this film. Despite the fact that the film had its cinematic release in 2000 I did not actually get round to seeing The Beach until about one month ago. Given my inherent dislike of Leonardo DiCaprio, it took a half price deal in Blockbuster to make me relinquish £1.00 (!) and hire the DVD of this generally very highly acclaimed film.
The Beach tells the story of a young American backpacker (Richard) who travels to Thailand in search of ... ...of a hidden paradise – The Beach. Nobody knows where it can be found, except for a chosen few – one of whom is Daffy as he has a map of how to get there. Inspired by the promise of adventure, Richard takes it upon himself to seek out The Beach. Taking a shine to the French girl staying in the room next to his, he invites her and her boyfriend to take the journey with him – an offer they duly accept. Will they find The Beach – ...
LostWitness 21.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Beach (DVD)
Advantages: Looks gorgeous, Has Leo topless 90% of the time(well YOU might see that as an advantage!) Disadvantages: Limp romance, loses itself, scared to explore the more interesting themes it touches upon
...with Leonardo Di Caprio in the starring role - what could be more enjoyable? Perhaps an evening spent sticking pins in your eyes eh? I've had the misfortune of enduring three of Leo's other movies before this one: Critters 3 (which he can't be blamed for), The Man In The Iron Mask where he's miserably miscast in a crap movie and more unfortunately he plays two roles badly instead of just one and Titanic...don't get me started on that one! With those ... ...less than interested in seeing The Beach either and wouldn't have were the choice entirely up to me in those days. Sadly it wasn't and I did and anyway, I heard the book it was based on was meant to be good. All I can say is, there can't have been that much of the book which actually made it into the movie. It's easy to criticise Leo, so I'm not going to. If you like him, then you like him, if not, then he looks 14 years old and it's difficult to ...
wampyrii 24.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Beach (DVD)
Advantages: not too bad a movie Disadvantages: but it rips the book to shreds
...- sorry if you liked the movie yourselves and it isn´t `that´ bad but I´m a big fan of the book and although some movies of books leave out little bits of the storyline, this movie absolutely slaughtered the book. But its a review of the movie you´ve all clicked to see so its a review of the movie you´re going to get, a quick insight into the storyline of the movie, a young American backpacker named Richard decides that he wants to visit Thailand ... ...life is still pretty much the same until one night, he meets Daffy a crazed man who rambles on about `The Beach´, a paradise that nobody knows exists where the sand is golden and the waters are a pure blue, of course it wouldn´t be much of a movie if Richard didn´t investigate would it? so of course he does, taking a French couple along with him, he goes off in search of this paradise and finds a whole lot more than he expected. Right I´ll stop there, ...
Angelus 14.10.2001 (16.10.2001)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Beach (DVD)
Advantages: Carlyle, the scenery Disadvantages: Di Caprio's face
...for his helpless wee body, the sort of arrangement of features which all the females go "Ooh" at, only this time it's with rather more basic urges than Mumsy ones. Leonardo Di Caprio, these are the reasons all right thinking males despise you with an almost unnatural hatred.
Appallingly bad in The Man In The Iron Mask and pretty uninspiring in Titanic, he took the big name lead role in The Beach and the question was absolutely "Can he kick it?"
... ...Not as good as the ultimate hard man, Bobby Carlyle, that is, but then what did you expect. Bob seems to revel in recreating his persona from Trainspotting and you can see he scares the bodily waste out of old Lennie. Compare and contrast the realism and passion of their respective usage of the term "f***". With Lennie it seems to hurt his childlike chin as it sneaks out, but Bob's a real man's man and in his hands, "f***" becomes his lifeblood, ...
dave27 01.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Beach (DVD)
Advantages: Great acting and storyline Disadvantages: Too much emphasis on drug taking
...well, two great films in the same week, so I`ve just got to do another film review.
Richard, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, travels to Thailand in the hope of doing something different, instead of just being a typical tourist.
On his first night in the hotel he has what can only be described as an extremely wierd conversation with a bloke named Daffy, played by Robert Carlyle(trainspotting). The fact that Daffy was found dead very early in the film ... ...set off to see if the island really exists.
After swimming to the island they first come accross a gigantic field of marijuana. Thinking they`ve landed in paradise, they start running around the field. This is when Richard discovers an armed guard asleep on the ground who is supposed to be patrolling the field. On trying to flee the field without being seen, loads more guards appear and they soon realise they`re in very dangerous territory.
On ...
sue26 25.05.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Beach (DVD)
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Advantages: Big hair, bette midler's songs, real feel-good but sad bittersweet film Disadvantages: slightly long
This is a movie you can watch again and again and it will still be good.
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chazzero 04.12.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Beaches (DVD)
Advantages: Enjoyable movie to watch, interesting culturally Disadvantages: Poor acting skills on many performers
Welcome To Arrow Beach is not a movie I had heard of until a week ago; having read about it in the latest DVD Delirium book I decided I?d have to search this DVD down. Doing so is not an easy job here in the UK; having searched Amazon, Play, Loaded 247, and Shop4DVD I was unable to source the DVD. Even Ebay failed to conjure up the DVD, however in a brief moment of clarity (I have few of these) I decided to search on Ebay.com the US version of the popular auction site, where I found numerous copies of this DVD. Amusingly enough I found a UK seller that had the DVD for £14.99.
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Advantages: Great acting, insightful Disadvantages: None
I love it when comedy actors, combine their talents by making a drama showing they can actually act. Sometimes this doesn’t work – take note Billy Connolly -, but luckily it did for Bette Midler in Beaches, where she was funny, dramatic and realistic as C.C Bloom, the actress/singer. And Bette even managed to sing the amazingly poignant soundtrack to it – The Wind Beneath My Wings, which is one of my favourite songs of all time.
Beaches is very much like Steel Magnolias in my eyes. The plots are very alike, in the way that they don’t have much of a story, and is more of a biography of people’s lives than an actual short story. And like Steel Magnolias, Beaches is about friendship. The love between friends, and how special it can be. Even more special than love of a family, because unlike your family ...
Mattroberts 18.11.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Beaches (DVD)
Richard is a young traveller who is addicted to nicotine, video games and Vietnam War movies. In a Bangkok hotel he is given a map which leads him to a legendary island paradise... Based on the book by Alex Garland.
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; Deluxe Video Service - Fox
Directors Commentary, Theatrical Trailer, Music Video, Deleted Scenes, Cast And Crew Biographies, Original Artwork
Aspect Ratio
2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Surround 5.1
Dubbing Sound
Dolby Surround 5.1 English
Professional reviews
Review
"... [DiCaprio] goes APOCALYPSE NOW Brando, launching the most inspired sequence of this ambling meditation on paradise and innocence lost..." (Entertainment Weekly, p.160, 28/07/2000)
"...THE BEACH is colorful and exciting....DiCaprio delivers strongly..." (Rolling Stone, p.105-6, 02/03/2000)
"...Wonderfully lush....[The soundtrack] perfectly complements the photography, and the central performances are spot-on..." (Total Film, p.70, 01/03/2000)
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this high-charged tale of survival, based on the popular novel by Alex Garland. He portrays Richard, a traveling American who wants nothing more than to experience life completely. Backpacking in Thailand, he gets more than he bargained for when he discovers a seemingly utopian island that is protected by a weapon-yielding gang. Throw into the mix an affair with a beautiful young French woman (Virginie Ledoyen) and dangerous drug smugglers and the situation becomes even more dangerous. Director Danny Boyle (TRAINSPOTTING, SHALLOW GRAVE) turns up the energy to an almost unbearable level, making for an exhilarating ride.
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