"The Beach" on DVD

"Special" Edition

From the director of "Trainspotting" comes "The Beach," a mishmash of a movie with the potential of scuttling the promising career of Leonardo DiCaprio.

Richard (DiCaprio) is travelling through Thailand when he comes across a map guiding him to a secret island on which is, supposedly, a beach for which to die. With two friends, they swim across shark-infested waters to find the place, and make their fantasies come true.

After avoiding a group of heavily armed marijuana farmers, they stumble across the beach, only to discover that it's also the home of a motley group of most British-sounding youngish people who've scraped the mud of civilization off their collective shoes in order to build a super secret Utopian colony at the beach.

It's a "hippie commune" fantasy come to life, and Richard and his companions are welcomed into the little society and turn their backs on civilization.

Naturally, all isn't as it seems, and during the rest of this unfortunate movie the mettle of all the beach's inhabitants is tested - and in nearly all cases found wanting.

This really is a painful movie. You can't help but like DiCaprio's Richard and his friends, but there isn't a lot else to like. The other major characters are a bunch of people living in a self-indulgent, arrested childhood and when push comes to shove they fail miserably to prove their humanity.

Likewise, the movie itself tries to be a bit "Lord of the Flies" and a lot of "Apocalypse Now."

Director Danny Boyle goes out of his way to draw "Apocalypse" parallels, from DiCaprio's voice over narration to many shots that look as if they were recreated (read "stolen") from Coppola's masterpiece.

He might have gotten away with it had he not had "Apocalypse Now" playing on a big screen in the background of an early shot.

On the upside, the film looks and sounds great, as does the widescreen, Dolby Digital DVD.

Extras include 9 deleted scenes (we would have like to see a few more scenes deleted!), a running commentary by director Boyle, a gallery of storyboards, some TV commercials, and the trailer.

You also get an "All Saints" music video called "Pure Shores."

The Beach, from 20th Century Fox Home Video
approximate 120 interminable minutes, Widescreen (2.35:1), Dolby Digital
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet and Robert Carlyle
Produced by Andrew Macdonald
Written by John Hodge, Directed by Danny Boyle

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