Happy Birthday to
Tom Cruise
48 today
Born of the third of July doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Is Cruise bashing still in vogue, I thought his self-mocking performances in Knight and Day (which I am looking forward to) and as Les Grossman would've begun to dilute that although looking at the posts on various websites you'd think he regularly ate babies. I suppose you have the same arguement with Cruise as we had with Sean Hayes a few weeks, ago when the performance is good enough you can forget Hayes is gay and that Cruise is a bit weird, and with Cruise the vast majority of his performances make me forget so I guess I'm a fan.
The Oscar Shortlists for the 97th Academy Awards
8 hours ago
2 comments:
Hi Ben---allow me to weigh in, in mild disagreement...
I guess Cruise's arrogance finally alienated a lot of people. His talents (which I find marginal, apart from shrewd marketing) are not enough to sustain a broad-based following.
It would certainly be ironic if Cruise sought to revive his fading career by playing a gay character! The controversy around Sean Hayes would pale in comparison.
I also believe that Cruise is suffering from the shifting tastes of a young culture that has little or no knowledge of any artifact older than five years. Home video notwithstanding, this demographic has either forgotten---or stopped caring about--the Cruise of Top Gun or Risky Business. It's a dilemma faced by many, even more talented, film performers and filmmakers.
Good post, as always, in spite of my differing opinion.
I agree wholeheartedly that Cruise has a very limited range, but when he's on form that arrogance is part of the performance, in films like Jerry Maguire, The Firm and Rain Man he's absolutely electric. And when playing an action hero, like Minority Report, it's easy to buy into the performance totally.
I would love him to go gay for a film, and agree not only would it be controversial but it could mark a major turning point in his career. One that he probably needs given the fickleness of show business as referred to in your last paragraph.
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