Monday, May 31, 2010

Does Anyone Like Tom Cruise?

I keep seeing this commercial for Knight and Day, which is, first of all, a stupid name for a movie (or a book ~ I hate it when they try to make characters interesting by giving them stupid names like that) and seeing Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz running around being all adventurous and listening to that horrible cheesy music that I think is supposed to be part of the soundtrack but sounds like something from the early 1980s (maybe Footloose?) and I can't help but wonder ~ does anyone still like Tom Cruise?

For me, I think he peaked with Mission Impossible ~ the first one. I never saw Top Gun. I went to see Days of Thunder because it was a double feature with Ghost, which is the movie I really wanted to see all along. I will admit I did like Born on the Fourth of July, and The Firm was fun. But I was already starting to become annoyed by that shiny thing he does with his eyes to express strong emotion. I did not go see The Last Samurai because he was in it, and I still think it would have been that much better with someone else in the lead role.

But he's still making beaucoup bucks, so there must be lots of people out there who disagree with me. Opinions?

2 comments:

SidneyKay said...

Nope!!! All he does in his movies is run, although I did like The Firm. And Taps is good, but then you have other intense actors in that one. I did like Collateral Damage, thought he made a good bad guy.

Sarai said...

Lynn in England says:

I can't abide Tom Cruise.

Firstly, on a superficial level, White capped teeth, smooth skin, toned body. Yeah. Looks good but I prefer a man in his fifties (?) to look his age. Can you imagine a date with Mr Cruise? Meet at four for dinner (salad and grilled fish - he doesn't eat carbs at all and eats no food after five pm - or some similarly stupid diet rule). Drink water only.

Then follows an hour or so of him being earnest. Asking questions about you. Taking an interest. Being charming. Yuck! I hate when people fake interest as it's so obviously faked. I'd prefer someone talked for an hour enthusiastically about their interests. Passion is sexy. Earnestness isn't.

Okay evening goes well and having taken full leave of my senses I go back to his place. I'm lying in his bed waiting for him to emerge from bathroom. Three hours later I'm asleep. Meanwhile he's emerging from the bathroom have applied facial scrub, exfoliated his body, taken a shower, waxed his chest hair (assuming he has any), shaved, washed his hair, bleached then cleaned his teeth, done a face mask, had a manicure and pedicure, done his daily forty mins hanging from a pull up bar in weighted boots (to grow taller) and done a hundred press ups (to puff out his chest). With a less gorgeous guy I could still be sleeping three hours later but itd be a sleep of exhaustion not boredom ;-)

On the professional side, if I watch a film with mr cruise in it I'm always aware I'm watching mr cruise. Compare that with Dustin Hoffman. He wasn't so convincing to me in rainman but I think he was convincing in midnight cowboy. And as tootsie. I'm not explaining it well. With cruise I'm always aware of the pretence. I know he played a cocktail waiter. With Hoffman I almost believe he got custody of his son when his wife left him. The cruise characters never seem real and are soon forgotten. Hoffman, Pacino, de Niro all made me believe their characters are real.

Finally. I'm not convinced he's fully human. I think it'll eventually be revealed he's a very advanced human/ robot hybrid. That's why suri looks the teeniest bit oriental. And its also why mr C is such a control freak.