Watch Open Your Eyes For Free

Excellent, smart action film.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's one of the most original films you'll likely see all year, which, depending on your threshold for certifiably crazy storylines, could be a rewarding experience or one that frustrates you.

César (Eduardo Noriega) is talking to his psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) in an institution while wearing a prosthetic mask. In flashbacks, he was a handsome vain playboy. He flirts with Sofia (Penélope Cruz) who his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez) likes a lot. His ex Nuria (Najwa Nimri) offers a ride and deliberately drives off the road. His face is horribly disfigured and Sofia finds it hard to deal with his frustrations. Then it turns into something more surreal.It's an interesting odd relationship movie for the first half. The movie keeps me involved but it also keeps me wondering about a creeping sense of something wrong with the story. The jumbled intercut timeline seems to be off and then it takes off. I definitely want more foreshadowing of the twist but it's still a fascinating turn. This plays like a compelling dream that I sensed as a dream before the reveal. Does that make sense?

I must have forgotten that the absolutely terrible Cameron Crowe/Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky was a remake of this, the original Spanish film, and it is funny that the actress reprised her role as well, but anyway, I was hoping this original version would deserve it's place in the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. Basically in Madrid, twenty five year old wealthy playboy César (Eduardo Noriega) used to be a good looking young man attractive to women, but now he wears a prosthetic mask due to his hideously disfigured face, he is talking to psychiatrist Antonio (Chete Lera) and telling his story of how he came to be the way he is, in the hope to find some kind of closure. Flashbacks see that at his birthday party he met and flirted with the girlfriend of his best friend Pelayo (Fele Martínez), the beautiful Sofía (Penélope Cruz), he later takes her home, but they do not sleep together, and the next morning his obsessive ex-lover Nuria (Najwa Nimri) spots him leaving her house. Nuria offers César a ride back to her apartment for sex, but on the way she instead intentionally crashes the car to commit suicide, he however survives with the horrible disfigurements that cosmetic surgery cannot solve, Sofía is no longer able to look at him and goes back to Pelayo. Following his disfigurement César has a series of disorienting experiences, including falling asleep drunk in the middle of the street, and when he wakes up he finds that everything is changing for the better, Sofía is claiming now to love him, and surgeons are in fact able to restore his face and good looks, but he finds, when making love to Sofía, she changes into Nuria, he smothers her in panic with a pillow, but everyone claims that the woman he has done it to is in fact named Sofía. He is sent to prison, and while in there bits and pieces of his past come in the form of dreams, he finds out that after he was disfigured he went to Life Extension, a company specialising in cryonics, to preserve a longer, more peaceful and realistic seeming virtual reality of life, in dreams, and returning to their headquarters he finds out they specialise in "artificial perception", where he relives the past when being reborn in the future. When César was drunk on the street, he had in fact committed suicide, and this is the moment he entered cryonic suspension, everything after has been a dream, spliced together with reality and replacing his real memories. The end sees him wanting to wake himself up and be resurrected in the real world, he is convinced the drunken street moment was just a vision created by the company, psychiatrist Antonio tries to convince him he is in the real world, but in the end César leaps off the company's building, hoping he will finally open his eyes and end the fantasy. Also starring Gérard Barray as Duvernois and Jorge De Juan as Encargado L.E. This is a really thought provoking film, I paid absolute attention to everything that was going on because of how fascinating the concept of trying to escape reality and enter a better alternative fantasy was played out, the relationship between Noriega and Cruz is great, the makeup to disfigure Noriega's face is terrific, the murder mystery and twists along the way are clever, and you can recognise the mixes of Eyes without a Face and Vertigo, it is a fantastic psychological thriller. Very good!

This film Abre Los Ojos or 'Open your ears' (1997) was a huge success in Spain and was distributed worldwide . This suspenseful movie starts when the protagonist appears moving by an empty Madrid's Gran Vía, without cars or people . It concerns about a very handsome young named Cesar (Eduardo Noriega) , as he meets the beautiful and sexy Sofia (Penelope Cruz), currently dating Pelayo (Fele Martinez) , but they are immediately attracted to each other finds the love of his life , but a girl (Najwa Nimri) is completely obsessed with him . He then suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured .The motion picture displays genuine chills , suspense, mystery and dark atmosphere with a twisted finale . Packs excellent creation of tension , thriller , emotions and brief violence . The film's title translates to "open your eyes," which is a repeated motif . It's an exciting , bizarre film ; skillfully proceeded by Alejandro Amenabar and turns out to one of the most unusual Spaniard suspense movie ever made and certainly one of the most unsettling . Plenty of twists and turns , the strange images deliver the excitement united a thrilling score by the same Alejandro Amenabar , including some wonderful songs such as the song playing at the nightclub when César first arrives is "Rising Son" by Massive Attack, in which the phrase "dream on" is frequently repeated . Furthermore , Alejandro also wrote , along with Mateo Gil, the interesting plot , embarking into the phantasmagorical, psychological or even quasi-surrealist story . In fact , Alejandro Amenábar imagined the script after having horrible nightmares while ill with the flu. It includes director Cameo , as Alejandro Amenábar appears with other two people in the bathroom of the disco, when César goes there . Intelligent edition, special use of luxurious sets by Wofgang Burmann and slick utilization of shock images make this one, a magnificent film . Abre Los Ojos (1997) is his "remake" of Vértigo (1958), by Hitchcock. In fact, when the character of Sofia appears after hitting Cesar with a jar, it's the same shot of Kim Novak in Vertigo when she appears from the bathroom in the hotel - with green lights . Colorful and glowing cinematography by Hans Burmann which heightens the suspense . It was remade in Hollywood by Cameron Crowe as Vanilla Sky (2001), starring Tom Cruise , Cameron Diaz , Kurt Russell and Penélope Cruz also stars in Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's remake of this film, playing the same character, Sofia. The picture was well directed by Amenabar in his second movie, after he achieved various hits . Since his perhaps best-known early short-film "Himenóptero" in 1992, in which he directed , produced, acted and wrote the script and the music, Amenábar progressed and reached his first commercial success in 1996 with "Thesis", Amenabar was 23 when he directed this his feature debut , a film which undoubtedly showed that a major new director had arrived on the scene . Later "Los Otros" (The Others) confirmed his arrival in the cinematographic world and is Amenábar's first English language film . In all his films he also writes the script and the music, as well as composing the music for other films , most notably "Butterflies tongue" (1999). He subsequently directed ¨Mar Adentro¨ with the Oscarized Javier Bardem and finally the epic/historical ¨Agora¨ with Rachel Weisz . Rating : Better than average.

Abre los ojos (Open your eyes), 1997, which most people might know better in its American remake Vanilla Sky (with Tom Cruise and Penélope Cruz) by Cameron Crowe. I'm glad I haven't seen the remake when I had the chance some years ago - my mother's been a huge fan of Tom though gladly her interest declined with his Scientology and Katie deliriums - cause it would have spoiled this very nice movie.The story ? Handsome and rich guy César (Eduardo Noriega) leads an epicurean life of one-night stands until one of them, Nuria, wants - not just a little crave for chicken at 2 in the morning - no she really wants him for more than one night. Of course, our womanizer doesn't give a damn and while trying to escape from her at his party, he comes to meet the beautiful Sofia (Penélope Cruz) and.. obviously she turns the Don Juan into a lovestruck Prince Charming. It would have ended there and you had the classical New-York - ahem Madrid - based romantic comedy. You can stop here if you don't want to be spoiled.But, here comes Nuria again. She offers him a lift in her car, and tired Don Juan accepts. He doesn't freak out when his driver swallows a bunch of pills and begin to talk about happiness. He does when she drives faster and faster. Caramba, we're out of the road. She dies. He lives. His handsome face looks more like the Elephant man's now. But it's not the worst. The flash forwards sequences of our protagonist show that he is now in an asylum, accused of murder.I'm not saying more. Only that the movie is one of these thrillers that keep you breathless.