Ah backpacking across the world . What an exciting thing it is - but only if you're a rare and remarkable person . Travelling all over the world isn't all it's cracked up to be . You might get a one night stand , you might get stoned but to be honest couldn't you have got that at home ? Did you really need to go the ends of the earth for that ? If you're a rare remarkable person you'll also get altitude sickness , suffer dysentery , catch ringworm and under go a rabies scare . You'll have wasted all your money on plane tickets and inoculations and the only thing you'll have to show for it is a small paragraph in the obituary column of the local newspaper after dying from a rare tropical disease <br /><br />THE BEACH is very similar in many ways . It's based on a well regarded novel by Alex Garland , features Leonardo Dicaprio a megastar after his role in TITANIC and is directed by Danny Boyle one of Britain's greatest living directors and yet it's a film that is difficult to enjoy and it's easy to explain why - characterisation <br /><br />Take one American pretty boy , send him in Thailand , stick him on an island with a bunch of selfish , unsympathetic people and watch a potentially good film fall apart . Did anyone like the characters in this movie ? Neither did I . I haven't read Garland's novel but I'm led to believe there's a scene where a giant squid is washed up on the beach and the characters eat it only to end up with food poisoning . I would have enjoyed this movie much more if all the characters had died from food poisoning . When you watch a movie and the most likable character is a mad mental foul mouthed dope smoking Scotsman then you know the producers have got a problem <br /><br />Another thing I had problems with is the way Leonardo Dicaprio's character Richard suddenly turns from inquisitive backpacker into Colonel Kurtz . Something similar happens in another Boyle movie 28 DAYS LATER but at least in that movie you're aware of the character's motive even if it is fairly unconvincing . Here you do find yourself wondering the explanation ended up on the cutting room floor or even if it was excluded at draft stage . Not only that but you find that the characters remain unchanged by events at the end therefore there is zero character development <br /><br />Danny Boyle has said that he makes quintessential British films and it's difficult to disagree with him . TRAINSPOTTING has a strong feel of time and place while 28 DAYS LATER mirrors the British apocalypse writers of the 1950s . THE BEACH with its exotic foreign location and its American star definitely feels like it's made for an American audience and Boyle tries too hard to pander to their taste . That's why THE BEACH is probably Boyle's weakest film to date