August 06, 2004

• how do you read salon shit without paying?
• V. easy. Click here. Enter Salon. Or go back to Nal's link and click it, because you've got the cookie that's good for several hours of browsing now.
• Cruise has always been a poor actor. He is vacuous and appeals to the vacuous.
• I must be vacuous then, because I've been known to enjoy a few of his performances (Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, Born on the Fourth of July, etc).
• Did someone say something?
• *smacks Nostrildamus on the head*
• Ow!
• I like his movies but I don't like him. I think that vacuous is a perfect term for him and his brand of acting. So there. Oh, and if you kids don't start behaving this minute, you can walk home!
• Somehow, I find it difficult to take a very very short and skinny man seriously in a role that is supposedly a bad ass. So that alone makes it very difficult for me to get into many of his films.
• very very short and skinny man seriously in a role that is supposedly a bad ass Joe Pesci in Goodfellas?
• I saw this on Salon earlier but didn't read it. It is an excellent article ("He's become an inevitability, like the change of seasons or the garbage pickup" HOWL!!!), but I just couldn't be bothered to read something about Tom Cruise. It was funny how when he and Nicole broke up I suddenly realized that she was interesting and talented, whereas she'd never even really registered with me before.
• Cruise perfectly represents the void of the decade in which he first caught the public's attention. That he has become the biggest movie star in the world speaks more to our desire to live in the emptiness he provides than to his lack of acting chops.
• Tom Cruise is an okay actor who is generally aware of his limitations as an actor. He is very careful about the roles he chooses, and he uses his money and fame to work with the right people to get good movies made. Madonna is an okay singer who has done similar things with her musical career. She is regarded by many as brilliant, while people like to generally mock Cruise.
• Joe Pesci in Goodfellas? That's why I said skinny as well. I have met intimidating short people, but they all has some stockyness to them. Unlike Cuise who litterally smaller than I was in the 6th grade.
• Okay, Calhoun, since you seem to speak with assurance. How small is Tom Cruise?
• he's only this tall.
• bernockle, there is a difference between Madonna and Tom Cruise - Madonna has a very clear persona. She may have changed her image over the years, but her personality has remained the same - brash, willful, crass, in-your-face. You KNOW who Madonna is, whether you like her or not. Who the fuck is Tom Cruise? No one knows. Now, I do agree with your comparison otherwise - they are both modest talents who stay within their limits - Madonna perhaps moreso than TC. I think that's why people think Madonna is brilliant, however, because she shows the world who she is and has been successful for it. As for Tom Cruise, I thought he was really hot when I was a teenager, but after he did a few more films, I started to sour on him. I eventually found him repulsive, but now I feel sorry for him more than anything. If he can't convey who he is to the world, I suspect he's not so sure of it himself. After all, he gave up Nicole Kidman and she showed him right up!
• His bio on IMDB says he is 5ft 7 (but I'm 6ft 4, so anyone under 6th is tiny in my opinion (especially since I'm like the 3rd shortest guy in my rather large extended family)).
• Have seen Mr Cruise in one thing which I enjoyed, and that is Interview With the Vampire, for much of which he seemed to be having fun in what was an offbeat romp as the vampire Lestat.
• 5 feet 7 my ass. At 4'10", he's technically a dwarf!
• he's a crap actor with big secrets whose career is being propped by the the cabal that is the Church of Scientology! But sssh, don't tell anyone, I don't want to get sued. As I read, I kept waiting for the "love" part of the note to kick in. Oops. His best movie, by leaps and bounds, was Far and Away and I will brook no dissent on this point.
• I loved Far and Away. It was one of the movies that The Princess Bride was parodying. Oddly enough, it was actually made after The Princess Bride.
• I always figured he got the role in "Rain Man" because they had to find someone the same height as Dustin Hoffman.
• I have been told that role was originally offered to Herve Villechaize.
• DE RAIN (man) DE RAIN!!!!!
• He is very careful about the roles he chooses, and he uses his money and fame to work with the right people to get good movies made. I'd always attributed that to his scientologist handlers.
• 1) I thought he was terrific in Interview With The Vampire. 2) He completely out-acted Kidman in Far And Away, managing very successfully to be the least soul-buggeringly appalling thing about it. 3) 5 foot 7 isn't short, it's tall and manly. If anything, a bit too tall. 4) His main problem as an actor is his tendency to do that slightly breathless semi-panting thing whenever he tries to portray inner turmoil, heartfelt emotion, or that his character is working something terribly complex out. Comes across as though he vaguely remembers seeing Al Pacino do something like it once, but can't quite recall the details. 5) Does cocky very well, though. 6) The Scientology thing probably doesn't give him that much behind-the-scenes influence these days - hell, it doesn't even get you a convincing beard any more. I offer John Travolta as exhibit A of what's happened to talent-light scientologists ever since people got bored of purification rundowns and naval uniform fetishes. C'mon, get with the red string, people! 7) He didn't have me at hello.
• "Fuck you." He rises from the table. "Really." He points an angry finger at the imaginary enemy. "Fuck you." His face reddens. "Period." Tom talks to Rolling Stone, and you (yes, you) about his life, his mom, his career, and Scientology (that's where the fuck you-ing comes in). Interviewer's comment on fuck you-ing: "I don't think he's acting."
• *smooch*