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521 reviews in total

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319 out of 391 people found the following review useful:
Do not miss this movie just because of its low rating, 5 July 2005

Author: icysky44 from Bulgaria

Recently a friend of mine watched "The Beach" after I told him my favorite quote (i.e. "Never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never cease to be polite, and never outstay your welcome"). He enjoyed the movie a whole lot and told me he hadn't watched it before because of it's low IMDb rating. That's when I decided to register here and post a comment - I hope I help someone else to watch the movie because it is worth a watch. What I personally like so much about this movie is that it is not just plain vanilla. It actually makes sense and can be a starting point for new thoughts and ideas - something I truly appreciate in a movie.

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152 out of 198 people found the following review useful:
The Beach WILL NOT DIE TODAY, 14 June 2005

Author: ecwjedi from Toronto

The Beach is interesting in that some people feel that its terrible while there are others who feel that it is an unsung hero of a movie. When I first saw The Beach, back in 2000, I thought it was OK, not as bad as most people said it was. But, just like with A Life Less Ordinary, The Beach grew on me and I had to watch it again. After seeing it a few more times I really started to pick up on what was going on and realized that at the end of the film the viewer has gone through quite an adventure with Dicaprio and co. The acting, cinematography, music, and story are great and hold up after repeat viewings. The Beach is one of those movies that I watch once a year as its enjoyability never decreases. This is a very solid film that will no doubt only increase in its popularity as time goes by as fans of The Beach are quite hardcore. Even though Dany Boyle has said that he is not very proud of The Beach I believe that he's made a gross error and misjudged his work because even after all these years The Beach still has a freshness to it that most films lose while they are still in the theaters. Because of these reasons The Beach will not die today.

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106 out of 151 people found the following review useful:
Pretty good, despite all the bad reviews I've read, 4 June 2000

Author: stamper from The Netherlands

I went to this one, knowing that it could be crap, but hey, I do not care what others think and once again this way of thinking did not prove me wrong.

This flick is basically about a young twenty who goes away on a trip to Thailand by himself, because he wants to forget his past. There he meets a loony (Robert Carlyle) who gives him a map to a secret paradise. He asks two strangers, Françoise (Virginie Ledoyen who was really great in her first big American Film and good looking too by the way) and Etienne (Guillaume Canet) to come and join them.

After they have found the island they meet an alternative group who lives there and they join them, but after a while problems evolve and a minor 'hell' breaks loose.

This is the plain story-line of the movie, but there is so much more to it, it has a message and that really is what fascinated me a lot in the beginning and at the end. There was a good story there, but the way it was brought over, never really losing the actual message out of sight. Now believe me the direction, the soundtrack and the cast are good. There also is a bit gore, but it fits good in the movie and is not unnecessary.

Yet this film is not flawless, it was good entertainment over all, yes and it was very good in the beginning and in the end, but in the middle when Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) loses it, so does the film and that is a shame. It is just too weird, too long and too incomprehensible (in the sense that the viewer himself doesn't know if it is real or not). It could have been so much better, but I guess it had to be.

NO MUST SEE BUT DEFINATELY WORTH A TRIP TO THE VIDEOSTORE OR TO THE CINEMA AT A DISCOUNT!!!!!!!!

7 out of 10

P.S. Don't agree?????, sue me!!!!!!!!!!! or mail me (see above)

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109 out of 166 people found the following review useful:
Unfairly Panned; A Good Movie, 25 October 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from United States

Here is another of those films that got panned by critics all over the place, but I liked the movie and thought it was unfairly criticized.

Two things are not up for debate: the film is entertaining and the cinematography is gorgeous.

Leonardo DiCaprio's lead character is not particularly likable, but that's nothing new for him. He's good at playing the boyish, cocky immature type. He's also good at narration, which he provides here, as he has in a number of other films. In fact, I wish there were more of it in here.

French actress Virginie Ledoyen is a new face to me, and a pretty one. I found her intriguing, and not just because of her face Actually, all the characters were pretty darn interesting in this film and you get a varied group.

The scenery from Thailand is magnificent. By the way, "the beach" that's in this film really exists, just as it's seen here. The story is interesting, too, for the full two hours. My only complaint was that they might have toned down the language, particularly with all the f-words.

Don't listen to those national critics who blasted this. I think you'll be entertained.

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54 out of 72 people found the following review useful:
Looks good but is a little hollow when it comes down to it, 1 September 2003
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

American back packer Richard is one of millions of travellers all looking for an unique experience. When in Bangkok he meets the slightly deranged Daffy who leaves him with stories and a map to a beach on a remote island that can't be seen from the sea. Taking with him 2 French travellers, Richard sets out to reach the island and finds it inhabited by a mix of people living as a small ideallic community. However internal conflicts rise up with their arrival and a copy of the map that he gave to some friends threaten to expose the paradise community for it's darker roots.

While I know that the critics were a little hard on this film when it came out, my main reason for not going to see it was a feeling of total apathy towards it. I wasn't interested in the story, have never read the book and didn't feel I had to see it because of either the big name star or the famous British team behind it. On television (for free) though, is a different matter and I gave it a go. Firstly the film does look great; I know there are tales of environmental damage to the area but it does look like paradise and is very lush. Director Boyle's direction is visually good too – whether it be drawing style from scenes or contrasting the city with the island or doing imaginative things like computer game style images, he does work well.

The plot is good on paper but isn't as well brought through. Richard's journey and initial settling into the island is involving and interesting but the main plot is really in the second half which is also where it becomes a weaker film. The film clearly is building into a teenage Hearts of Darkness type story where the DIY civilisation leads to cruelty and madness – this aim can be seen in an early scene where tourists sit watching Apocalypse Now in a waiting area. However his descent into madness is less well done and less convincing than Brando's. It all happens to quickly and, although with brutal consequences, it really needed to be seen to be more of a gradual distancing from the norm rather than a sudden leap into an abyss.

DiCaprio is not an actor that I particularly like or enjoy to watch but he is pretty good here. The fact that this film did as well as it did (in terms of box office) is probably mostly down to his star power, but he also gives a good performance. His madness is well portrayed and it's not his fault the film requires him to suddenly switch the way he does. Swinton is better as Sal, her `madness' is more subtle and is continual rather than sudden. The mix of multinational unknowns in the support roles are all good – even if, with so many good looking young people, it does feel a little like a music video shoot at times.

Overall I enjoyed the film even if it never got as involving as I hoped it would. The story lacks punch and point – a fact that can be seen in a very weak ending which was a real wash out in my opinion – but it is still good enough to watch once. The whole thing looks great and DiCaprio's star power and charisma helps keep the audience with him, it's just that the actual story doesn't quite have the rich feeling or depth that the tourist-film location does.

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38 out of 52 people found the following review useful:
Intense and interesting, but contains it's share of flaws., 6 April 2001
Author: Michael Carruthers (bazookajublees@hotmail.com) from New Zealand

On a rating scale of 0 to 100; I gave The Beach a score of 72.

Many people have stopped themselves from seeing The Beach because of bad reviews from critics and the story of the crew wrecking an entire island to make the movie. One of those things, in my book, is a fact. They did wreck an island, and for pure entertainment, it's not worth it. Still, the bad reviews from the critics I disagree with, I found this quite a little gem, and if you agree with some of my other reviews, I recommend you don't hesitate when you see The Beach sitting on the drama shelf of your video store.

The wonders of modern technology, like computers, video games, cell phones, pagers and the internet, were designed to make our lives more enjoyable and facilitate communications. Yet for many, the complexity of the digital world is overwhelming, leading to a feeling of unreality…of being discconected. The desire to find something real – to connect with something or someone – is what drives Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young American backpacker who arrives in Thailand with adventure on his mind. Travel, he asserts, is the search for experience, the quest for something different. Richard and two friends (Virginie Ledoyen and Guillaume Canet) he meets in Thailand risk their lives travelling secret that is dubbed the beach resort for those who don't like beach resorts. At their destination, Richard and friends are welcomed into a community that lives on the beach. However, they soon discover that beneath this surface, this heaven on earth is less than perfect.

Leonardo DiCaprio declared he was not anti-Titanic when he did this film. And he isn't. DiCaprio shows on his face how successful he is when he did the film, and he is a show-off. But, darn it all, DiCaprio is good because we know he has the potential. He went a long length to do this movie, even director's favourite Ewan McGregor was passed over for DiCaprio, and rightfully so. I just can't picture anyone else playing the role. The acting hotline is also boiling with such talents as Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen and the masterful Robert Carlyle. Danny Boyle's direction is solid and he paces the film nicely, and the script is adapted well from Alex Garland's better-than-movie book. The film certainly has flaws, some scenes – particularly the ones with the dope growers – are just plain stupid and the film really loses it's feet towards the end, going completely out of control.

Still, The Beach is a film that is ripe for discussion. It features alluring scenery from the small island of Phuket, it has some striking visuals and an absorbing and intense message about finding your own paradise. It's not the best film of 2000, but The Beach remains a worthy attempt.

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63 out of 102 people found the following review useful:
An amazing film, 12 February 2000

Author: spyqueen from California

Danny Boyle did an exquisite job on this film. When I first learned that it was indeed a Danny Boyle film I was a bit disappointed that it didn't have any of his "original" cast members... the people that he always works with. When I learned that Robert Carlyle was in this, I was ecstatic. This film has so many wonderful points, I can't list them all. I'm just going to say that "enjoy your dinner Richard" was a classic cinematic moment. A great thing about this film is that it's a wonderful representation of a microcosm of todays society. It shows that no matter how hard you try to escape all the wrongs in life, and all of your daily annoyances, they'll still be there no matter where you escape to. This film doesn't go from beginning to end. It circles. There is no ending because their lives didn't end. Truly a supreme film. It is what one should expect from a man like Danny Boyle. Leonardo DiCaprio gives another amazing performance. It takes a wonderful actor to be able to portray an emotion such as insanity just with his eyes, and he did so wonderfully!

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101 out of 178 people found the following review useful:
Very good, 27 October 2002

Author: Tasos Tz. from London, England

I'll be brief. I didn't want to watch 'The Beach' because of the bad reviews, but when I accidentally came across it while surfing through the channels, I couldn't stop watching.

If you're young and have a thing for interesting stories, you'll love this one.

10/10

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19 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Not the book, but possibly something more, 26 January 2001
Author: (badmotivator@hotmail.com) from Calgary, Alberta, Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Warning! Contains spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Beach is a Danny Boyle film. In it's first week of release, enough people paid to see The Beach to cover over ¾ of Leonardo DiCaprio's paycheque for his first major role since 1997's Titanic, and it would be safe to say that the majority of those paying customers were disappointed. I believe this is a safe guess because I was one of those people. I have yet to read a positive review of the film and the best my friends could come up with was `It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be'. Sadly, I had to agree.

The thing is, I wanted so badly to love this film. I had read the book and loved it, I had seen Boyle's previous work and loved it (Yes, I even loved A Life Less Ordinary), and I wanted nothing more than to prove to all the nay-sayers that The Beach would rise above the stench of the usual February release crowd and be remembered as one of the best films of the year. I went to see The Beach for a second time. The film may not appear on any year-end top ten lists to vindicate my faith, but on second viewing The Beach became a Danny Boyle film. Those who are familiar with 1994's Trainspotting will understand that this is a compliment of the highest regard. Adapted from Alex Garland's 1997 first novel of the same name, The Beach follows Richard (DiCaprio) an admittedly brash, young American back-packer who escapes to Thailand to find… something. Richard is a fairly vague guy. In fact, all he gives us is his name: `…what else do you need to know?'. Is he looking for himself? For Love? What he does find is Daffy (a manic Robert Carlyle). He finds him on the floor of the neighboring hostel room, with his wrists slit – the blood covering the walls and bed in such a fashion as to leave no doubt that the act was committed with purpose (and joy?). The previous evening, Daffy tells Richard about a beach – a real paradise of mythical beauty. The following morning, Richard finds a map on his door. What is most immediately jarring to anyone who has read the book is the decision to make Richard an American instead of a Brit. This does change a couple of things: for one, we miss the joy of Zeph and Sammy – the two American tourists whom Richard unfortunately (or fortunately) invites to `paradise'.With Richard as an American, we Canadians are deprived of a well-needed slap in the face: In the film, Sammy and Zeph are our stereotypical, arrogant American surf dudes. In the book, the surf act was just that: `It's a protest against bigotry,' Zeph explained. `Europeans think all Americans are stupid, so we act stupid to confirm your prejudices. Then we reveal ourselves as intelligent and by doing so, subvert the prejudice more effectively than an immediate barrage of intellect – which only causes confusion and, ultimately, resentment.' (45) How pleasant it might have been to sit in a Canadian audience and listen as the trap is sprung. Still, the most important thing about Richard, Zeph and Sammy is intact. They are not the only things that lead to the end of paradise, but they are a symbol for all that shows us that paradise is not possible. They are Americans and they are a plague. In fact, the film is telling us that we all are, but for some it may be easier to keep the blame centered on our favourite target. The Beach is not an anti-American film. It is an anti-Consumerism film. And we are all targets. We see this in many telling scenes, not the least of which involves Richard preparing to leave the island for food , taking orders from the entire multi-cultural beach community of what to bring back from civilization to their `paradise'. Here's what's brought into `paradise': Bleach, for an Australian girl who doesn't like her dark hair; rubber gloves, for the Eastern European cook who is tired of smelling like fish and requests soap (`something toxic, something industrial') to solve the problem; and batteries, for those on the island (including Richard) who won't accept a paradise without Nintendo. `Paradise' has its problems. `Paradise' will not survive, because once it is found, it is lost.

As Richard's time on the beach passes, he finds something again. The only thing he ever finds - he finds twice. Daffy begins to appear to Richard in the latter part of the film. Daffy knows why he left the beach and he tells Richard. He doesn't tell us. But we soon understand. Perhaps the most common complaint I've heard about The Beach includes some comment on the studio system and how it destroys the independent genius of someone like Danny Boyle. Maybe it does. It's quite possible that 20th Century Fox wanted Leo, they wanted Leo to be an American, they wanted Leo's character to sleep with no fewer than two beautiful female characters and they wanted a `happy ending'. It's possible that Boyle consented. It's possible that he subverted the whole process. On the recommendation of a friend, I went to see The Beach for a second time and what I saw was brave. What I saw was Danny Boyle winking at me from behind the guise of Leonardo DiCaprio as Richard sits in an internet café, looking at a photo from `paradise' - I saw Boyle's version of Zeph and Sammy. He sprung the trap on us. Upon first viewing, the ending is a cop-out: a flippantly stupid wrap-up that says `it's okay to fall to the absolute depths of self-imposed degridation, because we'll always have a few happy memories to cover the fall'. Richard's words tell us that he `still believes in paradise', but his eyes tell us something else. This is Boyle's triumph: Richard's eyes tell us what they now know– that there is no such thing. `God knows we're lonely souls' begin the lyrics to the song that plays over the closing credits, and we know that Richard is now the loneliest of them all. Danny Boyle's The Beach follows last year's The Matrix and Fight Club, showing us what we don't want to see: that there is no use looking for paradise because there is no paradise left - it's left us – we've repelled it. It is too late for Richard to save his beach because he believes it can be saved from Zeph and Sammy, he doesn't know that the reason it can't be saved is because he's already there – the poison has already begun to spread. But he learns, and we learn as The Beach reminds us of what we all too often are: `Cancers, parasites eating-up the whole ****ing world'.

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16 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
Travel Narrows the Mind Wonderfully, 17 August 2005

Author: James Hitchcock from Tunbridge Wells, England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Ever since (at least) the eighteenth century, with its cult of the "noble savage", tropical islands have frequently been seen in Western culture as the nearest that it is possible to come to Paradise on earth. This view is often reflected in the cinema, in films such as "The Blue Lagoon" or the various versions of "Mutiny on the Bounty", in which the idyll of Tahiti is contrasted with the rigours of life on board a British warship. The two versions of "Lord of the Flies", like the William Golding novel on which they are based, offer an ironic twist on this theme; a tropical island is used as the setting for an anti-Utopian story in which an attempt to found a new society ends in a relapse into barbarism.

"The Beach" has certain similarities to "Lord of the Flies". The main character is Richard, an American backpacker travelling round Thailand, who has heard tales of a co-operative multi-national community of idealistic young people living on a beach on an island off the coast. Richard has dismissed these tales as mere urban legends, but changes his mind when another backpacker, Daffy, gives him a map showing where the mysterious beach can be found. Undeterred by the fact that Daffy commits suicide shortly afterwards, Richard sets out to go there accompanied by Etienne and Francoise, a young French couple whom he has befriended.

After a number of adventures, the three succeed in reaching the island and discover that the fabled community is no urban myth but a reality. At first they are welcomed into the group and spend their days leading a seemingly idyllic lifestyle, consisting of a small amount of time spent in fishing and large amounts of time spent in playing volleyball or beach cricket, lazing about smoking pot, or (for some obscure reason) translating various English phrases into Serbo-Croat. As with all films of this type, however, we quickly realise that this life is less perfect than it seems. Sexual tensions arise when Richard finds himself increasingly attracted to Francoise and she deserts her boyfriend Etienne for him. More seriously, there are flaws in the basic concept of the community.

The main flaw is that travel narrows the mind wonderfully. The community, mostly Westerners, have dropped out of their own societies and travelled halfway around the world to Thailand, but find Thai society no more congenial than those they have left behind. Their solution is to drop out of that too and to set up a "beach resort for people who don't like beach resorts" where they can live their own hedonistic idea of the hippie life. The community is not, however self-sufficient; they produce little for themselves, apart from fish, and have to import many of their supplies from the mainland, which they pay for by growing and selling cannabis. The island, in fact, is owned by a group of Thai farmers, themselves involved in a much larger cannabis-producing operation, who are happy to tolerate the newcomers provided they keep their community a secret and do not try to attract new recruits.

As in many anti-Utopian parables, the community is dominated by a sinister dictator-figure. "Lord of the Flies" had the choirboy Jack, "Animal Farm" had Napoleon and "The Beach" has Sal, an upper-class Englishwoman who is accepted as the leader of the community (although it is never clear how she attained this position). Sal is obsessed with protecting the community's privacy and secrecy, and in order to achieve this end she is prepared to resort to violence, even murderous violence. (She is deeply suspicious of Richard, who she suspects may have distributed further copies of Daffy's map). One of the film's most chilling incidents comes after Christo, one of the group, is seriously injured after being attack by a shark. He can only be saved if he is taken back to the mainland for immediate medical treatment, but because this might result in the community's existence being revealed to outsiders, Sal refuses to permit this and Christo is left to die.

There is some good acting in the film, especially from Tilda Swinton who gives a nicely judged performance as Sal, a woman with steely eyes and a cut-glass accent who for most of the movie can seem threatening without ever issuing any direct threats or even raising her voice. This increases the impact of the scene at the end where Sal finally does lose her cool. The beautiful Virginie Ledoyen makes a charming and unaffected Francoise, and I also liked Guillaume Canet as Etienne. Originally seen as a loser, the man who loses his girlfriend to Richard, Etienne later emerges as the community's voice of conscience, the one man who refuses to abandon the dying Christo.

It was, however, unfortunate that the director Danny Boyle, who wanted Ewan McGregor to play Richard, was overruled by the studio, as Leonardo di Caprio, although he is better here than he was in "Titanic", tends to overact. The film tends to deteriorate in the second half, with the plot becoming difficult to follow as Richard, alienated from his fellow-members of the group, starts to become mentally unstable. The style of direction was excessively hectic for my tastes, and the sequence where Richard imagines he is a character in a video game was particularly eccentric. Despite its potentially interesting themes, "The Beach" falls just short of being a very good film. 7/10

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