VANILLA SKY —** — Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Jason Lee, Kurt Russell, Noah Taylor, Timothy Spall, Tilda Swinton, Alicia Witt; rated R (profanity, violence, sex, brief nudity, vulgarity, drugs, brief gore); see the "On the Screen" column on Page W2 for complete listing of local theaters.

Cameron Crowe isn't the first filmmaker to stumble while trying to remake a movie that wasn't meant to be remade, and he certainly won't be the last. But that doesn't excuse him for this latest addition to a not-so-proud pantheon of movie artists that includes Gus Van Sant (for the reviled, 1998 shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho") and even the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, who remade his own 1934 film "The Man Who Knew Too Much," into a lesser effort in 1955.

Crowe's Hall of Shame candidate is "Vanilla Sky," an adaptation of the 1997 Spanish-language feature "Open Your Eyes." Admittedly, that film — an off-beat blend of fantasy, science fiction, romance and thriller — may not be the mind-blowing experience that its adherents claim, but many of the original film's better moments have been lost in the translation.

For one thing, this big-budget, English-language version is a talky bore that reduces the original film's pontificating — about the nature of "reality" — to windy, fortune-cookie philosophizing.

Yet, "Vanilla Sky" could qualify as a shot-for-shot remake with an almost completely different cast, led by Tom Cruise, who stars as David Aames, a spoiled New Yorker. Not only is he the head of his own publishing empire, David has more money than he could ever spend. He's even got a beautiful woman who's in love with him, the equally spoiled Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz).

However, that doesn't stop David from going after Sofia Serrano (Penelope Cruz, Cruise's new off-screen co-star), an enticing stranger accompanying his best friend, Brian (Jason Lee). And this burgeoning relationship seems to have promise — at least until a despondent Julie decides to kill herself and take David with her.

That should be enough material for any film, but from there, this one takes some pretty mind-bending turns — veering into fantasy, science fiction and even horror, which could put off viewers expecting a more straightforward story.

As with the first film, it's not necessary that audiences adore Cruise's character, but they should at least find him as interesting or as compelling as the supporting characters.

And that's simply not the case here. Instead, he's rather unsympathetic — and, worse, uninteresting. Frankly, both Lee and Diaz are livelier than their higher-billed co-stars, as is Kurt Russell, in a supporting role as a prison psychiatrist. (To Crowe's credit, he again has compiled a killer soundtrack, which includes songs by Bob Dylan and Peter Gabriel, and which also features "I Fall Apart," written by Crowe's wife, Nancy Wilson, and sung by Diaz.)

"Vanilla Sky" is rated R for occasional use of strong profanity, violence (vehicular, as well as an assault), simulated sex, brief female nudity, use of crude sexual terms, prescription-drug abuse (painkillers) and brief gore (glimpses of a gory photo). Running time: 134 minutes.

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