So, the dashing Richard - with his shirt off for 3/4 of the movie to impress the young teenagers whom this movie is geared at - along with Françoise (Virginie) and Étienne (Guillaume Canet) set off to this mysterious island where they encounter drug traffickers, large waterfalls, and most importantly - a start-up civilization run by other travelers on this small island. And here the movie begins to go awry. Once settled on the island, we know this paradise can't last, the tagline is after all, "Innocence never lasts forever." Temptations and trials start to pop up including Françoise, Sal (Tilda Swinton) - the group leader who also has a crush on the suave Richard - a shark encounter, and well, remember that copy of the map?

The Beach is filled with such horrible interior monologue/voice-over narration along with the undecipherable Daffy's ramblings that it starts to grate on the ears. Add to it the pseudo-romance between Françoise and Richard and the movie starts to go in too many directions. Once Richard heads for the dark side (in a bad Star Wars-like rip-off) the movie starts to lose any resemblance to a good film. Richards hallucinations and ramblings detract from the movie and are actually so bad I let out a little laugh.

The real shame of this movie is that it is geared towards the younger Leo worshipping crowd, yet it glorifies pot smoking and regular cigarette smoking throughout. It also features many explicit scenes of gore and the gratuitous nude scene (sorry gals - no Leo). It's a shame that this film can pass for an R while glorifying smoking of cannabis and various other drugs, while movies such as Eyes Wide Shut need to be censored because of sex. Is this the right way to go? The MPAA decides that it would be better for the younger generation in America to think that rampant drug use is just fine as long as you don't have sex, because heaven forbid that happens.

Now that I'm done ranting about the rating of this movie and the glorification of smoking dope, I'll try and wrap it up. In a nutshell, the only redeeming value of this movie is the gorgeous shots of paradise we are presented with (nevermind the ruination of this paradise). The soundtrack becomes annoying at times and seems to have been inserted throughout without having anything to do with the movie, but rather to further the sales of the soundtrack by inserting popular tracks. The plot is so absurd and goes in so many directions, it seems as if director Danny Boyle didn't know exactly what he was doing. He knew he didn't want another "Lord of the Flies," so he tried to stay away from that path, but the one he chose still comes a little too close and manages at the same time to go nowhere. In the end, there's no real redeeming value of this movie, except that we learn nothing that is perfect can last forever and that "Leomania" doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.