Movies II

Cruise is actually a great actor, but he so often can't get out of his own way that he ends up an irritating parody of his hot-shot persona. He's so caught up in playing TOM CRUISE, the role he never drops, that it interferes with the characters he's supposed to inhabit. He is frequently unwatchable because of this.

Still, he's great in a number of movies but one of my favourite Tom Cruise performances is as the vampire Lestat. Who knew? I thought he would be awful and instead he was engaging, charismatic, reptilian yet seductive.

Incidentally, Brad Pitt gives probably his worst performance ever in the same movie as the grating bore Louis. Pitt's very watchable but has to be cast in a role that suits him (like [i]Fight Club[/i], his best role by far). He's really not an actor in any significant sense. I never notice a dramatic difference in any of the characters he plays.

Cruise is actually a great actor, but he so often can't get out of his own way that he ends up an irritating parody of his hot-shot persona. He's so caught up in playing TOM CRUISE, the role he never drops, that it interferes with the characters he's supposed to inhabit. He is frequently unwatchable because of this.

Still, he's great in a number of movies but one of my favourite Tom Cruise performances is as the vampire Lestat. Who knew? I thought he would be awful and instead he was engaging, charismatic, reptilian yet seductive.

Incidentally, Brad Pitt gives probably his worst performance ever in the same movie as the grating bore Louis. Pitt's very watchable but has to be cast in a role that suits him (like [i]Fight Club[/i], his best role by far). He's really not an actor in any significant sense. I never notice a dramatic difference in any of the characters he plays.

Tom Cruise is a very talented actor.
I've actually met Ron Kovic and Cruise played him to a tee in Born On the Fourth of July

Blairza, I'd forgotten about this one. Funny, I just saw that in the 2nd-hand video store the other day, but the cover image, coupled with the title, made it look like another "Risky Business" or "Top Gun", and I passed it over, thinking, oh yeah, Reagan-era rah-rah militarism. But you're right, it wasn't about that, and he had a good performance in that one.

ETA: I'm just remembering his performance in "Magnolia" was pretty awesome, too. That was a case where the Tom Cruise trademark served the role well.

[ 15 September 2008: Message edited by: jas ]

Blairza, I'd forgotten about this one. Funny, I just saw that in the 2nd-hand video store the other day, but the cover image, coupled with the title, made it look like another "Risky Business" or "Top Gun", and I passed it over, thinking, oh yeah, Reagan-era rah-rah militarism. But you're right, it wasn't about that, and he had a good performance in that one.

ETA: I'm just remembering his performance in "Magnolia" was pretty awesome, too. That was a case where the Tom Cruise trademark served the role well.

[ 15 September 2008: Message edited by: jas ]

[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: jas ]

[url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489281/]Stop-Loss[/url]

A film that gives a pretty good picture why the US is having a harder time finding pawns to go maintain its occupation of Iraq. Some critics complain of "melodrama" in its portrayal of how the experience of everyday violence in a conflict overseas gets translated into the back-home environment, but for me that was one of the most salient points of the film.

I'm a little surprised that I hadn't heard of it before seeing it on the rental shelf, nor, as far as I can tell, has it been mentioned here. But it seems Iraq war films haven't been doing well at the box office, [url=http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=why+iraq+war+films+are+bombing&btnG=... no one can quite agree why[/url].

[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: jas ]

[url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489281/]Stop-Loss[/url]

A film that gives a pretty good picture why the US is having a harder time finding pawns to go maintain its occupation of Iraq. Some critics complain of "melodrama" in its portrayal of how the experience of everyday violence in a conflict overseas gets translated into the back-home environment, but for me that was one of the most salient points of the film.

I'm a little surprised that I hadn't heard of it before seeing it on the rental shelf, nor, as far as I can tell, has it been mentioned here. But it seems Iraq war films haven't been doing well at the box office, [url=http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=why+iraq+war+films+are+bombing&btnG=... no one can quite agree why[/url].

[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: jas ]

I saw Babel sometime last year but Pitt doesn't seem to have had any impression on me one way or the other. I've never thought of him as a noteworthy actor. Cate Blanchett, on the other hand, is generally a strong actress, and was a disappointment in the film. I didn't like the film, though the High and Middle Atlas shots were stunning, so that may be why Pitt's role remains a vacuum in my memory. Last night we watched Arcand's Les Invasions barbares. A good film; sad and funny.

Adriana Barraza's performance of the housekeeper Amelia lost and delirious in the border desert while her two young charges begin to lose consciousness stood out the most for me. Utterly panic-inducing, heartbreaking.

Adriana Barraza's performance of the housekeeper Amelia lost and delirious in the border desert while her two young charges begin to lose consciousness stood out the most for me. Utterly panic-inducing, heartbreaking.

You're right about those scenes, jas. Very disturbing on a personal level. It also disturbed me that Pitt and Blanchett's characters were the only ones without difficult decisions to make and/or to be represented as irresponsible or 'depraved'...I hope I am remembering the film correctly.

Not sure what you mean by that. I mean, certainly, the characters don't start out as very likable: just a self-absorbed privileged white couple experiencing marriage troubles, who, inexplicably, decide to vacation in Morocco. I don't think their characters are supposed to mean much beyond that - and what I respect about both of their performances is that they don't try and take it beyond that. They stay within the role even though they're stars and we expect more from their presence in the film. But then throw these two characters into an unimaginable, extreme situation and see what happens. I think they kept it real to the bitter end. But their white privilege stays intact, and is even reinforced at the end when they "graciously" don't press charges against the housekeeper.

Not sure what you mean by that. I mean, certainly, the characters don't start out as very likable: just a self-absorbed privileged white couple experiencing marriage troubles, who, inexplicably, decide to vacation in Morocco. I don't think their characters are supposed to mean much beyond that - and what I respect about both of their performances is that they don't try and take it beyond that. They stay within the role even though they're stars and we expect more from their presence in the film. But then throw these two characters into an unimaginable, extreme situation and see what happens. I think they kept it real to the bitter end. But their white privilege stays intact, and is even reinforced at the end when they "graciously" don't press charges against the housekeeper.

In fact, thinking about it, we know that their presence in the film was probably mainly to attract a more mainstream audience to a film that otherwise might not have. And, if this is true, we could also imagine that Pitt's and Blanchett's characters - the white privileged Richard and Susan Jones and their mysterious marital ennui - might have drawn in a certain segment of the viewing population that also might otherwise have not bothered. The way I see it, this way, an important look-in-the-mirror for white upper and middle-class America actually gets communicated.

There's two movies I haven't seen in a long while, so I emailed TMN.ca tonight to see if they would please show them. They are: "Apocalypse Now" and Walt Dizzy's "Fantasia". I love these flicks almost as much as I love the smell of napalm in the morning (just kidding - I borrowed a famous quote from Apocalypse Now).

There is this canadian cinematic genius that seems to have slipt under the mainstream radar for reasons that escape me(then we wonder why we need to spend money on culture?)....

His name is Robert Morin. His film 'Yes Sir! Madame...' is an unequivocal masterpiece in my mind.

It's a bilingual movie, so it's better if you speak both languages but my father still had a powerfully visceral responce to the work while only understanding one of them.

Also worth checking out:
'the left side of the fridge' and 'Of Whales, the Moon, and Men'

[ 07 October 2008: Message edited by: ebodyknows ]

There is this canadian cinematic genius that seems to have slipt under the mainstream radar for reasons that escape me(then we wonder why we need to spend money on culture?)....

His name is Robert Morin. His film 'Yes Sir! Madame...' is an unequivocal masterpiece in my mind.

It's a bilingual movie, so it's better if you speak both languages but my father still had a powerfully visceral responce to the work while only understanding one of them.

Also worth checking out:
'the left side of the fridge' and 'Of Whales, the Moon, and Men'

[ 07 October 2008: Message edited by: ebodyknows ]

Just watched [b]Elizabeth: The Golden Age[/b] which was a sequel to the first [b]Elizabeth[/b] with Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, and a whole bunch of other big names. Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, Philip of Spain, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada - a really great film, I'm not sure better than the first one, but still great, what with a generous helping of treason and deceit.

[ 12 October 2008: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

it/s election night, but I/m watching [b]Judgement At Nurenberg (1961)[/b] on the telly, with my laptop ready to read what folks have to say on babble about how things are going. I've seen this film several times before, but it's still riveting every single time.

it/s election night, but I/m watching [b]Judgement At Nurenberg (1961)[/b] on the telly, with my laptop ready to read what folks have to say on babble about how things are going. I've seen this film several times before, but it's still riveting every single time.

Watched 'Drunken Master', a 1978 Jackie Chan flick with the kids tonite. They've been getting into martial arts movies like The Forbidden Kingdom and (my favorite) Kung Fu Hustle.

Much better than them watching me scream and curse and pull my hair out watching the election.