While Keith Pratt likes to plan everything to the smallest detail - with terrible results - the more adventurous amongst us prefer to leave things as open-ended as we possibly can. What better way to do this than to take a summer out from your studies to go backpacking in South East Asia, exploring the remote beaches and jungles of Thailand? The Beach - adapted from Alex Garland's novel of the same name and directed by Danny Boyle - takes the idea of unrestricted travel and the spirit of adventure to the extreme. Richard (Leonardo Di Caprio) learns about an idyllic beach paradise on a secret island and immediately sets out to find it. When he does there's more than a little trouble in paradise, and the free-spirited partying atmosphere of the the commune he discovers hides a darker, corrupted core which soon engulfs everyone involved. While the denouement to The Beach isn't as out and out horrific as it was in the original novel, where LSD and butchery merge into a nightmarish vision, it nevertheless teaches a valuable lesson - if you're going to set up camp in paradise, best check with the machine gun-wielding drug barons beforehand.
