Actor: Tom Cruise 12/28/03 - 01/03/04

[Morticia]

Just as a change of pace, and at your request, we are discussing bodies of works by a particular actor or director. Let's see how you like this!

So -- let's compare and contrast works by the same director, discuss film techniques and choice of cinematographer or composer, what have you.

Run wild, shall we? Discuss!

Tom Cruise made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences.

But is he a good actor? What is your favorite Tom Cruise movie and why? The least favorite? Does he deserve an Oscar for "The Last Samurai" or will he get the gold statue for another role down the line?

[Damian]

Tom Cruise is one of those few actors that I can say I've watched his career grow almost from the beginning. With his early roles in All the Right Moves, Risky Business, Taps and The Outsiders, to his current films like Eyes Wide Shut and Minority Report.
I use to really like his movies because early on he was doing mostly action pack, brainless movies like Top Gun and Days of Thunder. But of course he "grew" as an artist and started doing more serious roles, which I have no problems with except I don't think he's that good of an actor. In my opinion he's an okay actor who happens to also be a pretty boy.
Then came Mission Impossible and the over-exposure happened. During that time there was far too much Tom Cruise for my liking. It was just after two of my favorite Tom Cruise movies, A Few Good Men and Interview with the Vampire. In my opinion arguable his best two movies, where the Tom Cruise machine went into over-drive. Not only was he the star, but he was also a producer and this is where I think my taste for his stuff changed.
Jerry Maguire was an ok movie but nothing I'm in any hurry to add to my collection. Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia (in my opinion so please don't blast me on this) were both complete bores. MI:II sucked which I think most people agree with me on, Vanilla Sky I didn't care for but Minority Report I did enjoy.
I haven't had a chance to see The Last Samurai yet but I do want to see it. Maybe it will be the movie that changes my opinion of him.

[Istagi]

Tom Cruise has never been a major draw for me. I liked him in Risky Business, Top Gun. I did not see Days of Thunder because I felt it was a rehash of Top Gun on the speedway. My respect for Tom increased with "A few Good Men" The great courtroom scene with Jack is brilliant and Tom matchs Nicholson word for word, I will never tire of it. Jerry Maquire also had its moments but it was back to pretty boy Tom...

As far as Last Samurai.. it was once again not only a re-hash Dances with Wolves/Man called Horse. Hey it even had Indians in it but it really seemed to be Shogun light. His character may have grown but his acting ability was not challenged in any way. Of cource that may just be my irritation over serious date inconsistancies in Last Samurai.

I feel there is at least one great performance in him, maybe it will come in his later years, after the "pretty boy/action hero" facade has witherd somewhat.

[C Roberts]

I never liked Tom Cruise originally. He did a lot of movies where he played basically the same character almost making him the Burt Reynolds of the 80's. He obviously got parts based on looks and charisma rather than acting ability. Or at least no real ability showed in the parts he took as looking back none of his characters really had any depth to them. They were just the good looking guy that always gets the girl he wants kind of roles.
Then came Interview with the Vampire. Being a fan of the book series I was looking forward to the movie until I heard Tom was in it. I ended up seeing it just as a "I read the book so I'll see the movie" kind of thing. Tom Cruise really impressed me with his acting ability in this movie. He showed he actually had range beyond his past roles. I thought it must be a fluke or the director was really good (which he of course is).
Then Tom began starring in more movies where he had to actually stretch his acting muscles a bit. While I think Jerry Maguire is overrated, most of Tom's movies of the past 10 years have shown him becoming more and more of a talented actor. I haven't seen Last Samurai yet, but I think Tom has become an Oscar-worthy actor.

[limacharliewhiskey]

I had first seen Tom Cruise in Taps, playing the gung-ho soldier, but didn't really notice him until Top Gun, like with most people. But he didn't fall into any type of niche, as he played a variety of roles in Rain Man, Color of Money, and what I feel is his best performance so far, Born on the 4th of July, portraying Vietnam vet Ron Kovic. That movie showed me the real acting chops that Cruise has to become a superstar.

Then he mixed it up with differing roles in Days of Thunder, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, and Interview with the Vampire. With these roles, I never really thought of Tom Cruise as an action star.

Top Gun and Days of Thunder were action movies, but Cruise didn't really do that much physical action himself until Mission: Impossible. In fact, I wondered if he could pull off a lead action role which required him to do stunts. Mission: Impossible proved him more than capable and believable.

I think some of Cruise's recent roles have been more typical Hollywood choices, but I think he did some of them to collaborate with certain directors he never had a chance to work with before. That was part of the reason he did Eyes Wide Shut with Stanley Kubrick, and Minority Report with Steven Spielberg, and his unforgettable supporting role in Magnolia with Paul Thomas Anderson.

Right now, next to Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise is one of the most bankable actors in Hollywood right now, but he does deserve all the fame and money he gets because he has proven his acting chops and versatility with a huge variety of roles that very few actors can even attempt.

[Notoriousaurus]

I never have had a distaste for Tom Cruise but I never felt his movies were PHENOMENAL either. He is an entertaining actor but I never would add him to a list of my favourite actors.

That being said, he has definitely grown as an actor since he started out.

His 80s era films were quite fun. Risky Business, Legend, Top Gun, The Color of Money, and Cocktail were all very entertaining. But they were not much more then that.

That being said Rain Man, which is stolen from Tom by Dustin Hoffman, is probably the first real film where we start to see some range. However, with Dustin taking the reigns, that was lost for at least a few more years on Tom.

An argument can be said for Born On the Fourth of July, but I could never really get into that film. His next really good film was A Few Good Men, followed later by Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, and currently The Last Samurai.

With those movies. I think one can really look at Tom and see how he has progressed over the year and developed into far better an actor anyone would have thought from Taps.

Having seen The Last Samurai yesterday, I gotta say it is one HELL of a movie, and I think it is Tom Cruise's best "job" to date. I really hope he becomes more selective in his work and does more GREAT films, and not a Days of Thunder 2.

I look forward to what he has yet to bring to the table.

[Meloosh]

I thought Cruise delivered an effective performance in Magnolia, though I did not care for the film overall. I also think he did a solid job in Vanilla Sky, but consider the rest of his catalog unwatchable.

[Morticia]

I'm not a big fan of Tom Cruise. That said, I think that he can be a good actor in some films.

I pretty much only see a "Tom Cruise" film if I like something else about it. I went to see "Top Gun" because it was a fun movie. I paid more attention to Val Kilmer (hell, I even thought Anthony Edwards as "Goose" was more appealing)...

I was pleasantly surprised at his range in "Rain Man". I expected Hoffman to steal the movie (which he did), but I was impressed by Tom's acting for once.

But then he did "Days of Thunder"? Ugh. Not appealing, not really a range-buster. And while "Far and Away" was supposed to be a good movie (no, I didn't see it) I just couldn't see him as anything but Tom Cruise playing an Irishman for a school play or something. He was back to his patented 'squint your eyes and clench your jaw to show emotion' range.

Like C Roberts, I was appalled at his being cast as Lestat. But I saw the film and liked it. I even liked him. Wow! That one role, however, did not make me a fan.

I saw "Mission: Impossible" once. That was enough, I just didn't like it -- I think the plot twists were manipulative. I wasn't impressed by Tom. By the time "Minority Report" came out, I guess I can say I was "over-Cruised". Now I'll avoid a movie just because he's in it. Unfair? Sure. Overexposed? Yeah, I think he is.

Do I regret seeing "A Few Good Men"? Yeah, a little. And I may even do something about it. And I might change my mind about Tom. Again.

[Marq]

I've never been a "fan" of Tom Cruise, in that I would look forward to what his next role/ movie will be. However, when I do watch a film he's in, sometimes I will end up enjoying him in it, though more often I'll simply enjoy the movie, thereby likeing the movie but not necessarily his acting. Furthermore, I would also say I haven't disliked him specifically in anything I've seen of his... so it's all pretty middle-of-the-road for me.

Does that make sense? It doesn't to me either.

I'll break it down, using some career highlights (that I've seen):

Top Gun - a pointlessly fun movie. Cruise is charming enough, but the role demanded nothing and anyone could have played it. A perfect example of my overall feeling towards him: he's fine (neither bad nor great) and the movie was guilty fun.

The Color of Money - Scorsese at his most stale, but still entertaining. Cruise again uses his boyishness as a character "trait", but I'm neither distracted by him nor overly impressed.

Cocktail - everything I said about Top Gun can be copied and pasted here

Rain Man - I honestly enjoyed his character more that Dustin Hoffman's. It had more significance, importance and depth. And Cruise carried it well. An underrated role.

Days of Thunder - I hate this movie, though not because of him. It's just real shitty and no actor could save the lame plot and style (or lack of).

A Few Good Men - perhaps his only role where I don't really like his character. It just felt like he was going through the motions, including some very phony-ish emotion. I like the movie as a whole, but he was a bit of a distraction in this one.

The Firm - as mediocre as a movie can get (and yet I still like to watch it from time to time). I nice unchallenging payday for Mr. Crusie

Interview with the Vampire - I didn't find him miscast at all, as many might say. Instead, I found him very believable in this world unlike any he's inhabited as an actor (or person, I suppose). Neil Jordan's direction carries the movie, and the pretty actors fit in nicely actually. A solid performace.

Mission: Impossible - passable action movie that needs NO acting ability. Cruise does a serviceable job of not acting when he doesn't need to.

Jerry Maguire - perhaps the first very good script Cruise works with. His character isn't especially complex, but he does a fine job doing exactly what I expect of him by neither ruining the film nor blowing me away with his prowess.

Eyes Wide Shut - nearly his best performance, and likely the best film he's appeared in. I thought Kidman was fantastic in her role, but Cruise was also pretty good. He did a fine job of wandering through the dreamscape and temptation. I suppose it's a compliment to say never did I not believe him in the role, which was actually a fairly complex one.

Magnolia - far and away (no pun intended) his best performance. He was handed the most unique and original character of his career and he really pulled it off. Thankfully, it's not a one-note role when it could have been (as strictly the mysoginistic pep-talker) but rather it's layered with undertones of misery and depression and regret. Every scene his T.J. Mackey character is in is energizing (in the beginning) and revelatory (the middle section of the film) and wrenching (the last act). Plenty of credit goes to the film's writer, director, and mastermind Paul Thomas Anderson and his confidence in Cruise to carry (no less master) this material, but the actor really proves (for perhaps the only time in his career) the potential and depth he can bring to a role.

Mission: Impossible II - I guess a guy needs a break after doing the 2 best films of his career in the same (previous) year (?). See comments for the first film in the series, as they apply here too.

Vanilla Sky - this was a movie I really enjoyed and Cruise was good in the role. I felt there could have been a bit more underlying pain for the character, but that didn't really come through. Regardless, he carried the interesting material well.

Minority Report - a rare Spielberg movie that I really liked, but it could have been anyone in the lead role. The character was more layered than his Mission: Impossible dude, but didn't have too much challenge as an "actor" (said in Jon Lovitz voice). Again, this was essentially the Cruise I'm most familiar with, and one I tried to describe in my convoluted opening paragraph - it's a movie I like, but his character/ role/ performance was neither a distraction, negative draw, or major highlight.

Hopefully he'll continue along the path of Eyes Wide Shut, Vanilla Sky, and especially Magnolia. I haven't seen The Last Samurai yet but it looks like another prototypical role, though still interesting.
So again, I like Cruise, but not to a point where I'd seek out a film just because of him (actually, I'm not sure any actors hold that drawing power for me), nor would I avoid anything he may be in that interests me for other reasons.

[reapersaurus]

wow - I guess Tom Cruise HAS done a lot of movies.
It's easy to forget many of them in the 80's.

I'll only comment on one Cruise performance:

Interview With a Vampire continues to amaze and impress me with how damn good Cruise gets across the feeling of a jaded, snobby vampire.

I haven't read the book, and I don't care how his performance synchs up with the book Lestat - his performance in the movie is amazing, and I don't say that lightly. My wife LOVES the movie and forces me to watch it about once every 6 months, and his power in that role is VERY impressive. I think he acts circles around Brad Pitt in it.

[Bowman]

I think the four great Tom Cruise performances are (in no particular order except for the first):

Born on the Fourth of July - his performance in what may possibly be Oliver Stone's greatest film (certainly his most powerful) absolutely floored me. Why the Academy didn't throw the oscar at him baffles me to this very day.

Magnolia - a forgettable film in my opinion, yet, his performance stayed with me (perhaps haunted me is a better description) for months afterwards. I still find myself thinking about it occasionally. How often does that happen?

Interview With the Vampire - with all the early flack this film received due to the casting, it was doomed from the start to be a disaster. Yet, it succeeds on nearly every level. How often do you see a film succeed as this one did after such a vocal public outcry and backlash before a frame was even shot? Many people went into this film determined to hate it and came out loving it (myself included).

Eyes Wide Shut - another film that was doomed to fail after what many people considered the very "gimmicky" casting of husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Although some would say that it did, in fact, fail, I'm of the opinion that this, like almost all Kubrick films, will take some years for the public to "digest" but will eventually be hailed as a masterpiece. Interpret it how you will, but I believe that his performance as his dream self in a dream world was spot-on and better than any "dream" film I've ever seen.

However, having said all that, I still find Tom Cruise to be somewhat of an enigma, artistically speaking. As much as I love the aforementioned performances, I'm rather indifferent to his performances in the rest of his filmography. Not to say that they're necessarily bad films or bad performances, just that there's nothing particularly outstanding about them (my opinion of course, YMMV).

I mean, many people still don't take this guy seriously as an actor, but yet look at the names of directors he has worked with. I am hard pressed to come up with the name of another actor with such an impressive list of directors in his/her filmography:

Coppola
Stone
Scorsese
Kubrick
Levinson
Neil Jordan
PT Anderson
Pollack
De Palma
Cameron Crowe
Speilberg
Edward Zwick
Ridley Scott
Tony Scott (OK, OK, a guilty pleasure)
John Woo (see above)

and I would bet, although its just a hunch, that we'll eventually be able to add Tarantino to that list.

My point is, you still hear people say, "oh its just another cruise flick" whenever his new films come out. He's got a resume of directors that other A-list actors would probably kill for, yet I can only think of four films where I really love his performances. Any thoughts on this?

Sorry for the rambling post.

[Scottish Punk]

Originally Posted by Marq

I've never been a "fan" of Tom Cruise, in that I would look forward to what his next role/ movie will be. However, when I do watch a film he's in, sometimes I will end up enjoying him in it, though more often I'll simply enjoy the movie, thereby likeing the movie but not necessarily his acting. Furthermore, I would also say I haven't disliked him specifically in anything I've seen of his... so it's all pretty middle-of-the-road for me.

Does that make sense? It doesn't to me either.

I get what your saying. I think Tom Cruise is a fine actor who has been in a lot of good movies. The best thing about it is, he can take different roles and become "Tom Cruise playing such and such", but more of said character is played by Tom Cruise. In other words, he lets the character of the movie becomed dominant in his performance rather than his personality. I feel this is a mark of a good actor. When I watch a movie with Cruise in it, I don't cringe like when Keanu Reeves plays a lawyer in Devil's Advocate.

Incidentally, I have on more than one occasion been told I have a resemblence to Tom Cruise. I take it as a compliment, they could say I look like Steve Buscemi. Some day, I will post my picture in the fess up thread.

[Marq]

Originally Posted by Bowman

He's got a resume of directors that other A-list actors would probably kill for...

You can add Michael Mann to that list now. Their film together, "Collateral" comes out this year and I'm greatly looking forward to it.
One reason I think such established directors with such refined tastes have Cruise to appear in their film(s) is because he's not only a decent (and occassional very good) actor, but he's guaranteed to bring in an audience to their movie that might otherwise have disregarded it. I'm sure studios regularly push for a director to accept Cruise for a major role for the box office returns, and since he's far from being a bad actor, they're willing to work with him and see his capabilities.

[SephirothClone]

Lets see...

Risky Business- As a teen sex story it played off pretty well and introduced the world to Tom. Boyish Role #1

Legend- I hated Legend and he was dull along with the script.

The Color of Money- I never liked this movie but Cruise stood out as the best in the movie.

Cocktail- Boyish Role #2.

Born on the Fourth of July- I wasnt as moved as most people were but I felt that Cruise delivered an excellent performance.

Days of Thunder- Fun from begining to end.

Top Gun- The most homosexual movie EVER. I loved every second.

Far and Away- He was crap. His wife was crap. The movie was crap.

A Few Good Men- Another epic and dull movie with a boring performance.

Interview with the Vampire- I love his hysterical role as Lestat, but I was grooving with Pitt more.

Mission: Impossible- I hated this movie.

Jerry Maguire- This one too.

Eyes Wide Shut- Great performance from Cruise. Tarantino once said that Kubrick must of had a hard on through the whole shooting of Eyes Wide Shut... I felt the same.

Magnolia- Very original character and another great performance.

Mission: Impossible II- I hated this more than the first.

Vanilla Sky- One of the worst films ever IMO, his performance was just as boring as the movie.

Minority Report- I loved Minority Report and I loved that he was a drug addicted/lost character.

The Last Samurai- The movie itself is nothing special, and neither is Cruise. But the samurai stuff and Ken Watanabe made me happy.

Overall he's a decent actor. I enjoy him when he plays more mature roles, I feel that he has an apperance to stay the good guy but I would love to see him evolve more as an actor. His next movie Collateral from Michael Mann looks excellent and a darker turn for Cruise.