Tom Cruise

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Inspired by the fact that both Cocktail and Top Gun were on at the weekend.

I hate both films and when I gave some thought to it I realised that Tom Cruise is an awful actor. I always think oh there is Tom Cruise acting I just can't believe any of his roles.

Does anyone actually rate him as an actor?

Davel (Davel), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 07:07 (nineteen years ago) link

I rate him as a star.

Huey (Huey), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 08:13 (nineteen years ago) link

He has a funny back and shoulders.

Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 09:42 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't even think he's a real star -- he has no persona.

Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:21 (nineteen years ago) link

OTM. he reflexively flashes that mega-watt smile but there's something blank, totally soul-dead about the look in his eyes. Travolta's the same way, to a lesser extent. It's a Scientology thing: these guys have been mind-napped, they're members of a cult.

lovebug starski, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:31 (nineteen years ago) link

Lovebug echoes my thoughts exactly... there is just NOTHING there with Cruise, to a positively eerie degree.

Aaron A., Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:34 (nineteen years ago) link

Travolta had it once, obv... but Cruise and Julia Roberts, crucially, are both smile-centric actors, and I can't imagine anyone identifying or really feeling anything towards them -- just compare with eg Vincent Cassel, Robert Downey Jr, Gerard Depardieu, Nic Cage...

Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:34 (nineteen years ago) link

I've always thought he was rubbish. Nothing there, as said above.

Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:35 (nineteen years ago) link

entire thread otm so far!

teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:36 (nineteen years ago) link

You are all hust so jealous omg tom rocked bells in 'vanilla sky' wtf.

Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:37 (nineteen years ago) link

you're all wrong! think of cruise's speech at the start of the oscars just after 9/11.

"in a time like this we ask ourselves, should we even make movies? and i say....MORE THAN EVER!" i was almost standing at attention then...

mega

Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:38 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought that was Steven Fry...

Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:39 (nineteen years ago) link

standing at attention!

jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:40 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, jed, standing at attention!

Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:44 (nineteen years ago) link

i mean THAT.

jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 10:46 (nineteen years ago) link

He's crap. I never thought about the Sc*entology thing before but he does have that smiling "gone clear" zombie look about him

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:05 (nineteen years ago) link

He doesn't look like a zombie so much as he looks like he's always concealing the desire to launch across a room and beat someone to death with their own shoes.

There's a whole weird rage vibe there.

Melissa W (Melissa W), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:07 (nineteen years ago) link

He probably has issues from when he was a clam in the primordial sludge - he needs to work on his engrams a little harder KERCHINGGGGG!

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:09 (nineteen years ago) link

Melissa, i now see Tom in whole other light!

jed_ (jed), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 11:18 (nineteen years ago) link

cruise is an actor who works (works!), pivots, around his smile; its perhaps this fact that confuses people into thinking he always plays the same role, the cocksure annoyance, all black-hole narcissism and assholish behaviour. he has played, with worrying self-abandon sometimes, utter jerks ('the color of money'; 'top gun'); he goes to sleep at night knowing the things he can summon out of himself, (to deleterious effect? I think maybe, 'magnolia', then, perhaps tom cruise's critique of tom cruise; I'm sure he ws always self-aware). and there are a run of films you can safely call top gun, top gun 2: w. cars, and top gun 3: w. cocktails. he ws unbreakable and uncontainable for a almost-broken man in 'born in the fourth of july' (stone descends, cruise ascends). also: 'the firm' and 'a few good men', good performances in difficult roles (??). he's perhaps an actor who runs with 'gable as a model' rather than 'brando as a model' and has succeeded in perfecting a type of 'black-hole narcissism', so what. ok haha 'mission impossible 1: bad', and 'mission impossible 2: worse' but 'eyes wide shut' came next, not a good film, and perhaps an incomplete, stilted cruise (no short jokes need not apply) but extraordinary tht he'd go (all out) fr that public psychological, marital ringer. where next?

cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:05 (nineteen years ago) link

don't drop colons, cozen. someone could get hurt.

RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link

mission impossible 1 was good

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:17 (nineteen years ago) link

also i like what cozen said about gable vs brando

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:17 (nineteen years ago) link

"The Colon of Money"

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link

(was magnolia his attempt at brando-stylee?)

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm sure Cruise himself considers himself more Brando than Gable

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:20 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm not sure that's the point.

(haha slocki that bit ws nicked, with modification, from dthomson!)

cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:21 (nineteen years ago) link

tht he sucks everything around him in and transfers it into a... smile!

boy's a star.

cozen (Cozen), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:23 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought his character in Magnolia was theoretically plausible -- TC as macho snake-oil salesman, OK. But in practice it was totally ridiculous, he played it over the top, chewing up the scenery, etc.

lovebug starski, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:23 (nineteen years ago) link

I love actors who genuinely chew scenery, despite the gleaming gnashers Cruise didn't leave too many toothmarks on the scenery in "Magnolia".

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:25 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, he was trying but i don't know if he genuinely did it

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:27 (nineteen years ago) link

i guess i liked cozen's post because he was working a "defend the indefensible" thing, i mean honestly criticizing cruise (especially on ile where he is especially hated) is kinda shooting fish in a barrel isn't it?

s1ocki (slutsky), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:28 (nineteen years ago) link

I know what he's getting at but Gable had charm, Cruise has none

Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:31 (nineteen years ago) link

you're right about Magnolia, it's more like he was trying too hard. Er, maybe overcompensating...

lovebug starski, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:32 (nineteen years ago) link

i DIDN'T HAVE A PROBLEM W/ HIM IN 'mAGNOLIA', MAINLY COS i IMAGINE HE IS THAT DEFENSIVE W/ INTERVIEWERS.

Enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 12:32 (nineteen years ago) link

i dunno, the magnolia performance reads to me like an update of some old software, the freakout added as a corollary to the smile (deployed in miniature in vanilla sky - "a FUCKING MASK!!")

g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 16:15 (nineteen years ago) link

I never liked him before "Eyes Wide Shut," but became sort of obsessed with him after that. His performance in that movie is one of my all-time favorites.

(Though he hasn't approached it since, roles like "Magnolia" and "Vanilla Sky" are in a similar vein - playing off the classic "Cruise" golden boy persona.)

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link

All the talk about his smile, etc., totally OTM, by the way. I love seeing him in interviews - how he lays out that big, empty grin; gives these big laughs at inappropriate times (i.e., when nothing funny was said); his whole performance.

morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link

he dates women who either look like him (nicole kidman) or have a
similar sounding name (penelope cruz). such a narcissist.

latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link

This whole thread OTM. I have found over the years that I like Tom Cruise's films despite him, not because of him. He is generally in watchable films, but brings nothing at all to them. Except a goofy vacant grin that screams "I'm Tom Cruise and I'm really good at being Tom Cruise".

I can't think of a film of his that wouldn't have been exactly the same without him. He brings nothing at all. He seems to have become a star with no reason for doing so, and is coasting along on that now.

(x-post where does Mimi Rogers fit into this theory?)

ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:01 (nineteen years ago) link

i always wondered, if he'd married penelope cruz would she have bothered to change her name?

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

How does Nicole Kidman look anything like him? The red hair? The pointy nose? The tits?

oops (Oops), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

(she is hottttttt)

xxpost

Huk-El (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

She would've become Penelope Cruz-Cruise.

oops (Oops), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Penelope Cruz-Control

jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:08 (nineteen years ago) link

(x-post where does Mimi Rogers fit into this theory?)

same religion (at the time at least)?

latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:08 (nineteen years ago) link

'How does Nicole Kidman look anything like him? The red hair? The pointy nose? The tits? '

their facial features (the eyes especially) are actually very similar if you look closely. the nose is different, true.

latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:10 (nineteen years ago) link

I've been on a minor tom cruise kick as of late. I enjoyed viewing Days of Thunder and Top Gun back to back. I like very much the specific kind of Cruise star vehicle these movies establish. Arrogant ambitious young turk has to overcome his fears, learn from a father figure and win the love of a woman.
I liked Jerry Maguire and Magnolia as far as exploring the Cruise archetype in greater depth
but Vanilla Sky was embarrassing for director Cameron Crowe's adoration of Cruise and I don't think I would be able to tolerate The Stoic humourless borefest Last Samurai.
The biggest problem with Cruise now, I think, is that he has yet to complete the Top Gun, Days of Thunder, trilogy. This would be my prefered next career move for him. Although I can't currently think of a decent, new Top Gun-ish story for him to star in.

theodore fogelsanger, Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Last Samurai was okay, mainly for Ken Watanabe, who seems pretty awesome.

Huk-El (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link

How is 'all you need is kill' Engrish? Obviously it's just substituting "kill" for "love," "all you need is love" being a phrase everyone knows. No one would sub "kill" for "love" accidentally. So it's an intentional substitution. Maybe it makes sense in the book? Is the woman/love interest in the book, too?

Josh in Chicago, Monday, 30 June 2014 23:40 (nine years ago) link

i mean not that i agree with axe banana but you know "love" is usually not interpreted as a verb in that title

but yes it's a clear reference which makes pretty much any word you use to substitute poetically acceptable, not that any of this matters because grammar isn't real and this conversation is fucking stupid let's all shut up please

linda cardellini (zachlyon), Monday, 30 June 2014 23:43 (nine years ago) link

Kinda wonder if Cruise is doing so many sci fi movies because they accord with his religion

Wanna poll Cruise sci fi flicks, might leave Minority Report out to make it more fair

― 龜, Monday, June 30, 2014 7:13 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

why would you leave out the like... third-best one?

socki (s1ocki), Tuesday, 1 July 2014 00:18 (nine years ago) link

Gauntlet thrown

, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 00:24 (nine years ago) link

three months pass...

EoT fulfilled need for both military sci-fi and to see Tom Cruise killed repeatedly. Flashback to Space Ace/Dragon's Lair arcade game hell about getting the exactly movement correct.

Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 22 October 2014 06:16 (nine years ago) link

one month passes...

I hate Cruise but p much loved EoT, apart from the nonsensical tacked on happy ending.

Οὖτις, Sunday, 30 November 2014 17:12 (nine years ago) link

yeah, EoT was great fun

$0.00 Butter sauce only. No marinara. (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 30 November 2014 18:37 (nine years ago) link

one month passes...

Edge of Tomorrow! Good movie!
And yes, I also thought of Space Ace while watching it.

shmup....smug....shmub....shmug.... (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 17 January 2015 07:00 (nine years ago) link

Heh, good call

Nhex, Saturday, 17 January 2015 07:01 (nine years ago) link

Space Ace, the ... sequel to Dragon's Lair?

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 17 January 2015 15:24 (nine years ago) link

three posts up was too far to look?

bob seger's silver bullet gland (sic), Saturday, 17 January 2015 21:20 (nine years ago) link

I was just asking if that was the Space Ace mentioned, since I literally have not thought about it in ... 30 years?

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 17 January 2015 23:12 (nine years ago) link

yup

shmup....smug....shmub....shmug.... (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 18 January 2015 02:31 (nine years ago) link

EoT is not a good movie. The awkward out-of-his-depth Cruise is kinda fun in the first half, but then it turns into just another big-budget,faux-complex noisefest.

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 24 January 2015 07:05 (nine years ago) link

so yeah, a video game, ie FUCKIT.

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 24 January 2015 07:05 (nine years ago) link

Noah Taylor is the highlight once the cowardly Cruise part is over. Tho Emily Blunt helps make things tolerable.

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 24 January 2015 13:39 (nine years ago) link

video game movies need the most love

Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 24 January 2015 14:37 (nine years ago) link

oh damn i did not recognize noah taylor. good premise but ending, yeah, was straight schlock.

the captain beefheart of personal hygiene (soda), Saturday, 24 January 2015 14:40 (nine years ago) link

Dunno if I would call it schlock, but it was consciously lite entertainment for sure.

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 24 January 2015 15:16 (nine years ago) link

The first act was so knowing, so well-edited. The whole film felt carefully attenuated to an audience's ability to twig onto the rules and scope of the time-fuckery. There wasn't a lot of unnecessary story, and the military-pr0n made a nifty backdrop. Cruise was well-cast. The stakes changed appropriately in the second act, and Blunt was a good charact. Third act just felt lazy and perfunctory. I don't know what would have been better. Also, I think that if the two leads had switched roles the movie would've worked a lot better.

the captain beefheart of personal hygiene (soda), Saturday, 24 January 2015 16:14 (nine years ago) link

I could see Blunt perhaps doing as a good job as the protagonist, but Cruise definitely felt more suited (esp. the first half) as a cocky propagandist

Nhex, Saturday, 24 January 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link

i really hated the way the aliens looked like glowing metal spaghetti

Punny Names (latebloomer), Saturday, 24 January 2015 20:10 (nine years ago) link

decent flick tho

Punny Names (latebloomer), Saturday, 24 January 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link

everyone otm about this film falling apart in the last reel, but still decent yes.

I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 24 January 2015 21:42 (nine years ago) link

though what's up with them changing the title for the video release? isn't that a marketing team's nightmare?

I dunno. (amateurist), Saturday, 24 January 2015 21:43 (nine years ago) link

rock of ages is on abc family right now

this is a very weird film

polyphonic, Saturday, 24 January 2015 21:43 (nine years ago) link

xpost They didn't really change the title, did they? So much as radically downplay the astoundingly daft generic title, which was all the more baffling, because "All You Need Is Kill" is an AMAZING title. "Edge of Tomorrow" is like:

http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/mercury-rising-1998/large_22MTY11yZg6fmdI9u7lwi4uoP1P.jpg

Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 24 January 2015 21:48 (nine years ago) link

tom cruise is licking a gal's face in front of a large crowd rn

polyphonic, Saturday, 24 January 2015 21:50 (nine years ago) link

I watched 12:01 recently. Was surprised at how high-energy it was, like EoT and not at all like Groundhog Day. 12:01's ending is also incredibly bad.

David Thomson's entry on Cruise now ends with "Edge of Tomorrow (14, Doug Liman), in which Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cage fights aliens."

poxy fülvous (abanana), Saturday, 24 January 2015 22:04 (nine years ago) link

I think that if the two leads had switched roles the movie would've worked a lot better.

hm, this sounds right!

Sounds like a forks display name (forksclovetofu), Saturday, 24 January 2015 22:44 (nine years ago) link

just not as funny or moving as Groundhog Day

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:32 (nine years ago) link

it wasn't an emotional comedy. it was a very good action scifi tho.

local eire man (darraghmac), Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:33 (nine years ago) link

xp what is, though, really?

Nhex, Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:45 (nine years ago) link

kung fu hustle

local eire man (darraghmac), Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:56 (nine years ago) link

nonstop action really bores the living hell out of me.

touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 25 January 2015 00:58 (nine years ago) link

Me too

Οὖτις, Sunday, 25 January 2015 01:24 (nine years ago) link

though Cruise being paraded everywhere as the Angel of Verdun is kinda lol

BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, 25 January 2015 22:14 (nine years ago) link

five months pass...

Just saw this again. Especially in light of "Jurassic World" and its billions in the bank, it is utterly dumbfounding that this movie was not huge. Box office disappointment aside, it's the sort of movie made for a movie star anchor. Just as I can't imagine Cruise dorking around in "Jurassic Word," I couldn't imagine someone like Chris Pratt keeping this one together. I actually think Cruise is really good in it, too. There's a nice beat where some old man calls his character a coward, and just with his eyes and a wince he conveys his frustration, knowing that he has died hundreds of times, in the most horrible, painful ways possible, again and again, by choice, sacrificing himself for the sake of the human race, and there's just no way he can explain that to anyone.

Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 7 July 2015 04:00 (eight years ago) link

two years pass...

Hmm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEBIJRAkujM

Seems like a Nic Cage sort of role.

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 18:18 (six years ago) link

Tom Cruise is slowly turning into Sandi Toksvig. pic.twitter.com/UafWkeW8Bx

— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) August 23, 2017

streeps of range (wins), Wednesday, 30 August 2017 18:22 (six years ago) link

I watched one of the Jack Reacher movies on Netflix. Nothing special, but there's a moment when Cruise approaches a car where a couple of detectives are tracking him and he goes "How are ya!" with this earnest disarming smile right before he smashes their window and grabs their guns. He does studied charisma really well, though the new one makes me wonder when these roles will start to seem desperate and embarrassing or if can grow into a Liam Neeson-style mature bruiser.

dinnerboat, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 21:16 (six years ago) link

I recommend this thread

I don't know how to supercut so please forgive/enjoy the upcoming thread https://t.co/aWUY0NZlXw

— Anthony C-M (@anthonymiccio) August 30, 2017

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 21:17 (six years ago) link

good stuff!

Nhex, Wednesday, 30 August 2017 22:08 (six years ago) link

ha ha. this happens in get smart, too, with barbara feldon always slouching when she's beside don adams.

Einstein, Kazanga, Sitar (abanana), Thursday, 31 August 2017 09:50 (six years ago) link

man i hope kelly mcgillis had a decent physio on-set, seeing all that slouching made my own back start hurt

frankfurters take on new glamour in this gleaming aspic (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 31 August 2017 10:35 (six years ago) link

I don't see how keeping her eyes open during a kiss helps tbh

passé aggresif (darraghmac), Thursday, 31 August 2017 10:39 (six years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle has a trenchant joke that encapsulates the fundamental arrogance of so much American war cinema: “American foreign policy is horrendous 'cause not only will America come to your country and kill all your people, but what's worse, I think, is that they'll come back 20 years later and make a movie about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad.” Doug Liman's American Made, a rollicking comedy based on the drug-smuggling, gun-running, contra-funding exploits of C.I.A.-backed pilot Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), represents a discomfiting corollary: Not only will America attempt to destabilize your country with insidious covert ops, they'll come back decades later and make a movie about how much fucking fun it was.

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/american-made

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 September 2017 16:10 (six years ago) link

nine months pass...

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jul/05/the-top-20-tom-cruise-movies-ranked

'War of the Worlds' below 'Cocktail' and 'Days of Thunder' is certainly an interesting take.

Dan Worsley, Friday, 6 July 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link

8. Minority Report (2002)
Cruise and Spielberg should, by rights, be as natural a combination as bread and butter, and yet Minority Report is the only truly satisfying movie they have made together.

The only one out of...two

omar little, Friday, 6 July 2018 15:41 (five years ago) link

three years pass...

this is genuinely the greatest scene ever committed to film

pic.twitter.com/VZXRJctPcc

— velma 🐀 (@maggotmagick) June 23, 2022

𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 23 June 2022 17:34 (one year ago) link


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