Collateral

[poliphilo]

This is how I want to see Tom Cruise- not as an all-American hero, but as a weird, empty-hearted sonofabitch. I read somewhere that this is the kind of role he's seeking these days. Well good!

Jaime Fox is sweet. I'm all for an action hero who doesn't know how to use a gun and who steps carefully through a broken window. Yeah, I'm sick- so sick- of men of steel. Lets have heroes who look like us.

I like it how night-time Los Angeles- with its myriad coloured lights- serves as a metaphor for an unfeeling universe. This is the L.A. of Blade Runner- only it's now. We have caught up with the sci-fi visionaries and are living in their cities of the future.

Comments

[hastursdaughter.livejournal.com]

Re: a weird, empty-hearted sonofabitch
This is always how I have envisioned Tom Cruise’s characters. My mind was polluted by the first film I saw him in: ‘Interview with the Vampire’. Now, even when faced with ‘Mission Impossible’, he will always remain the Brat Prince, one better than your bitch – the sonofademon. ‘Jerry Maguire’ only strengthened this, and though I might not agree with it, I’m certain of type-casting – that this is the kind of role he's seeking these days. I’m glad he’s embracing it consciously this time, too.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never believed in Cruise as a conventional leading man. There's a coldness about him. Now that he's outgrown the pretty boy roles I think he's going to show us some amazing things.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

tom has been going darker for a while i think. it is a good thing. so is robin williams. also a good thing. you see one hour photo? spooky....

but tom- the MAN- starts turning with stuff like magnolia (lying and deceitful and womanizing) and vanilla sky (just all messed up in the head and quite insecure) and even last samurai (drunkard loser). there was not an inch of dark in stuff like top gun or that pool one or cocktail or the firm or whatever.

i like tom cruise a lot.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I didn't see One Hour Photo, but I liked the thing where Williams was a mean old serial killer living in Anchorage.

As for Cruise, I was worried that superstardom had corrupted him and he was stuck with heroic vanity projects (I hated him in Minority Report; there was nothing there) but it seems like he's finally come to understand where his true strengths lie.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

true true, minority report is a bit vapid- but i thought a jolly nice wheeze. rather similar to new will smith movie i robot- all fast werid-looking cars and twisty twists.

mm, you mean insomnia? with also al pacino? yes he is quite disturbingly dude-next-door isn't he?

oh- and in minority report he WAS a junkie. so- little bit bad boy.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten he was a junkie. I just saw the generic all-American tough guy thing. The problem is, he's almost entirely lacking in charm. He has charisma, but that big enormous smile of his is utterly heartless.

Insomnia- that's the one.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

I feel the same about Tom Cruise. It's great that he's trying different roles now. I wish Tom Hanks wouldn't be afraid to do the same once in a while. He always plays the good guy...Grrrr

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it would work with Tom Hanks. He played a hit man (a noble hit man, mind you) in Road to Perdition and it wasn't altogether convincing.

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Call me shallow, but I think Tom Cruise could walk onstage, do a few jumping jacks, bow, give us the finger, and I would be all a-flutter with delight. He just has me that way. Must have been the way he played Lestat.

I swear I rewound the end of that movie a thousand times. You know, the part in which he and Christian Slater are in the car and Cruise bursts out laughing; it's this amazing, cold, horrible but delightfully sensual laugh.

Just thinking about it gives me shivers. But you are right, there is something cold about it, not altogether something you could trust. There is a hollow ring, makes you think twice in a way.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Tell you who he reminds me of- Jimmy Cagney.

Cagney was another little man with bounce and a reptilian streak.

Top of the world, Ma!

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, it's almost 7:00 a.m. here (stayed up all night again, bad girl, blame it on the fact that my internet is finally fully functional) and I read "Jim Carrey." I was going to say, "tscha!" but then I realized it was Jimmy Cagney.

Of course, that also required a "tscha!" [Laughs]