Starts off so well, and then people start talking. McQuarrie constructs some fine action sequences, but he's at a loss to shoot a simple conversation that doesn't immediately throw you out of the movie.

This movie gets worse every time I watch it (three times now, the latter two necessitated by various articles). But there's still something underneath it that hits home, as aggravating and miscalculated as most of it is. The self-loathing arrogance of Cruise's character cuts to the bone, and the ending moves me in spite of myself.

Maybe not the spring break movie we want, but the spring break movie we deserve.

Mostly just scary as fuck, enough so that by the time its goofy-looking boogie monster is finally revealed, it doesn't much matter. Enveloping (if sometimes overwrought) sound design and nice use of real and near-darkness. Morally speaking, a bit on the queasy side, but it plays like gangbusters.