An interesting watch, ultimately feels kinda aimless. Takes a few sudden turns that just don't feel earned for how much of a tone shift it ends up being. Music is beyond dated, laughable at times. It's kinda like a fancy mess I mean I can't even say I didn't like it or enjoy it overall but it's definitely not a good movie. It's a flawed movie with enough good bits to stop me from feeling like I wasted my time. If a more conclusive theme could be pulled from the ending it would work better.
Richard is a tourist who comes to Thailand in search of something more than just the mundane and what every other tourist does. A paradise-like beach gives him a chance to live out his fantasies and once he gets a map to reach this place, he sets out along with two co-tourists.
The experience at the beach is a life-changing one for Richard as he is exposed to a whole gamut of emotions and incidents, amid a community of inhabitants. Its one adventurous roller-coaster which encompasses everything.
Terrific visuals of the island and the beach, a breezy soundtrack, a boyish Leonardo's expressive brilliance (though he goes overboard at times) and some typical Danny Boyle-ish mind-fucking hallucination episodes towards the end, stand out in 'The Beach'.
Richard's character development just didn't make any sense. There are thousands of great ways this movie could have ended but they someone chose a bad ending.
At the time Ewan McGregor would definitely have made a better lead, Di Caprio was too immature to play this role.
Did make me feel nostalgic for my time spend in Thailand off the beaten track.
I've never not found a Danny Boyle film uninteresting, but The Beach is nevertheless one of his most flawed. Leonardo DiCaprio's Richard is a young bro on vacation in Thailand when he gets wind of a hidden beach on an island where the party goes on forever. Through his journey there, he will discover who he really is, in something that sometimes looks like they told Boyle to do Trainspotting with a bankable American star, but really has more in common with Apocalypse Now. But I'm intolerably ambivalent about the movie's themes and the work's opinion of its characters and situations. I think it works best when it has a hallucinatory quality, early on and at the end, but is the more grounded middle part then supposed to say THIS is the way to live, the "normal", and the so-called real world a noisy acid trip in comparison? That communal living is better than selfish individualism and excommunicated solitude? Fine, but then what of the coda set in a sterile eCafé? Has Richard found contentment, has the real world "stabilized" for him? Or is this a nostalgic indictment of a world where you're not really allowed to be yourself? Perhaps if I read the original book, I'd have better answers, but the film keeps jumping around in tone and makes its message shift in a way that doesn't feel purposeful. I still have yet to find a Danny Boyle film uninteresting though.
I thought this was a terrible movie. The person I watched it with had read the novel beforehand and told me that it stuck to the book very loosely which I always hate about movies, but from my point of view (of never having read the novel, so only focusing on the movie element) I still thought it was bad.
The plot isn't that good, the actors weren't great, diCaprio in particular who was (and usually is in his movies) absolutely terrible at some points and the soundtrack didn't help the film at all too, as it wasn't appropriate enough to the plot.
Boyle is better than this. DiCaprio is better than this. And was excited to see another Boyle/Carlyle collaboration, after the sheer awesomeness of Begbie in Trainspotting, but no, disappointment. The bit with the Moby song was good though, and the shark hallucination.
I really like most of Boyle's movies as well as most of Dicaprio's roles from Catch Me If You Can and on.... however having read the book before seeing this movie, this came off as a huge disappointment. Even looking at it as a stand alone movie I did not see many redeeming factors.
Still better that Only God Forgives.
The worst movie that I see so far with Leo, he was great but the movie was not.
only 19% on Rottentomatoes, I think that this movie is better than that, some parts were interesting, other not, but in the end, The Beach is a decent movie with some fails.
2.5/5
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Comments 1 - 15 of 15
Dieguito
They had a pretty interesting plot in their hands, but the movie looses from the middle.. Di Caprio also wasn't mature enoughKurtHarder
I just love this movie, I don't know what it is about it. Maybe just the adventure.On a base level the movie has a lot of flaws but it just has this atmosphere that really grabs you.
Karmacarroll
Good start. Good middle. Terrible end.dajmasta94
An interesting watch, ultimately feels kinda aimless. Takes a few sudden turns that just don't feel earned for how much of a tone shift it ends up being. Music is beyond dated, laughable at times. It's kinda like a fancy mess I mean I can't even say I didn't like it or enjoy it overall but it's definitely not a good movie. It's a flawed movie with enough good bits to stop me from feeling like I wasted my time. If a more conclusive theme could be pulled from the ending it would work better.lmkmoviemaniac
Richard is a tourist who comes to Thailand in search of something more than just the mundane and what every other tourist does. A paradise-like beach gives him a chance to live out his fantasies and once he gets a map to reach this place, he sets out along with two co-tourists.The experience at the beach is a life-changing one for Richard as he is exposed to a whole gamut of emotions and incidents, amid a community of inhabitants. Its one adventurous roller-coaster which encompasses everything.
Terrific visuals of the island and the beach, a breezy soundtrack, a boyish Leonardo's expressive brilliance (though he goes overboard at times) and some typical Danny Boyle-ish mind-fucking hallucination episodes towards the end, stand out in 'The Beach'.
Juggertha
Sounds sad, but this movie inspired me (and countless others) to travel to SE asia for adventure.chunkylefunga
Richard's character development just didn't make any sense. There are thousands of great ways this movie could have ended but they someone chose a bad ending.At the time Ewan McGregor would definitely have made a better lead, Di Caprio was too immature to play this role.
Did make me feel nostalgic for my time spend in Thailand off the beaten track.
Siskoid
I've never not found a Danny Boyle film uninteresting, but The Beach is nevertheless one of his most flawed. Leonardo DiCaprio's Richard is a young bro on vacation in Thailand when he gets wind of a hidden beach on an island where the party goes on forever. Through his journey there, he will discover who he really is, in something that sometimes looks like they told Boyle to do Trainspotting with a bankable American star, but really has more in common with Apocalypse Now. But I'm intolerably ambivalent about the movie's themes and the work's opinion of its characters and situations. I think it works best when it has a hallucinatory quality, early on and at the end, but is the more grounded middle part then supposed to say THIS is the way to live, the "normal", and the so-called real world a noisy acid trip in comparison? That communal living is better than selfish individualism and excommunicated solitude? Fine, but then what of the coda set in a sterile eCafé? Has Richard found contentment, has the real world "stabilized" for him? Or is this a nostalgic indictment of a world where you're not really allowed to be yourself? Perhaps if I read the original book, I'd have better answers, but the film keeps jumping around in tone and makes its message shift in a way that doesn't feel purposeful. I still have yet to find a Danny Boyle film uninteresting though.operationdropkick
I thought this was a terrible movie. The person I watched it with had read the novel beforehand and told me that it stuck to the book very loosely which I always hate about movies, but from my point of view (of never having read the novel, so only focusing on the movie element) I still thought it was bad.The plot isn't that good, the actors weren't great, diCaprio in particular who was (and usually is in his movies) absolutely terrible at some points and the soundtrack didn't help the film at all too, as it wasn't appropriate enough to the plot.
Cthulhu1
First movie I've walked away from halfway through in I don't know how long.RoastMutton10
Boyle is better than this. DiCaprio is better than this. And was excited to see another Boyle/Carlyle collaboration, after the sheer awesomeness of Begbie in Trainspotting, but no, disappointment. The bit with the Moby song was good though, and the shark hallucination.QuantamPulse
I really like most of Boyle's movies as well as most of Dicaprio's roles from Catch Me If You Can and on.... however having read the book before seeing this movie, this came off as a huge disappointment. Even looking at it as a stand alone movie I did not see many redeeming factors.faecalspray
Only God Forgives was pretty good and it didn't actually have leo dicaprio in it... Not a big fan of The Beach thoughthaisquisito
Amazing story and message. Favorite ♥Joker of Gotham
Still better that Only God Forgives.The worst movie that I see so far with Leo, he was great but the movie was not.
only 19% on Rottentomatoes, I think that this movie is better than that, some parts were interesting, other not, but in the end, The Beach is a decent movie with some fails.
2.5/5