What's with Tom Cruise bashing?

Tom Cruise gets a lot of flack these days. His supposed breakdown and frequent outbursts declaring a love of his religion have lost him favour with the public. His last film was not the great film it should have been. He's shorter than he appears on screen. There's talk that he's gay.

Get over yourselves people. The world of cinema would be a far less interesting place without Tom Cruise. Consider for a minute that with the exception of the Mission: Impossible franchise that this a man who has always gone after interesting roles over trying to be just a pin-up. Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Minority Report, Magnolia, The Last Samurai, The Color of Money, Collateral and A Few Good Men are films that need to be viewed if you have any taste in films.

Not only that but more often than not he is the reason to watch them.

Often he is complemented well by other actors and strong directors but without Cruise's magnificent range as an actor would we care as much about other actors' reactions. Often when actors are paired next to him they bring to the table career-best work that is rarely bettered (Jamie Foxx, Dustin Hoffman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ken Watanabe, Demi Moore).

Not only that but he is not afraid of going ugly and reverting against his image. He can do ugly, selfish, downright unlikeable and mean. He has three oscar nominations under his belt and on at least two occasions deserved to win over the actual recipient, and on other occasions deserved nominations where there were none.

I hope Tom Cruise does return to his once rightful place as a strong leading man because without him would people swarm to see military courtroom dramas, ensemble cast pieces, samurai epics? Like George Clooney, Cruise is a man who will often do important films that people should see rather than films they want to.

What about scientology? So what? Views are entitled. Free-speech is a given. Let the man talk. If I want to talk about atheism I hope people won't ignore me because they have a different opinion.

Give him a break. Maybe one day I will get a call from him...I certainly will not turn him down.

Halloween: The National Holiday for Pick-Up Artists

I was watching The Culture Show earlier this evening when a comment was made by Mark Kermode, whose opinion I always respect inherently above everyone else's although often disagree with, regarding the nature of Halloween:


"Halloween is no longer about horror, but about carnival"



What I deduced from this is that it is about spectacle. About getting people's attention. I look forward briefly into the future and realise there is an enormous amount of truth to this. Tomorrow night is Halloween itself. I am going out to a Halloween themed party where everyone will dress up accordingly but will it be to shock or seduce. Don't get me wrong. If you are under the age of fifteen this blog means nothing...in fact if you are under fifteen you shouldn't be reading this, stay innocent for at least a little while longer before reality kicks you in the groin. But to anyone older they will know this to be true.



How many males and females tomorrow night will dress up to genuinely scare anyone or will they find an excuse to dress up rather sluttily to flaunt their features?



The answer is most of them. The ones that don't and genuinely consider the night to be about horror will be left alone and given weird looks.



It's a night for peacocking and getting people's attention, in the hope of getting a girl's number or more than that..her body. If you female and reading this vice versa applies.



This is a horrific generalisation. Some out for a good time with friends not trying to get their ends away but will dress up to look nice?

Almost certainly yes.

You want a real Halloween...watch Halloween!

My Top Ten Films

This list is not by any means a definitive list. I am not saying that these ten films are the ten best films ever made. I am well aware that they are not. I know that films like Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Goodfellas and The Shawshank Redemption are always going to be held in far higher esteem by far more people, of both weight and common opinion, than myself.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I will argue their deserved places as classics. Although I am well aware that some people will never be able to accept my choices no matter how well I construct an argument.

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Once Upon a Time in America

3. Heat

4. The Fellowship of the Ring

5. The Usual Suspects

6. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

7. Wall.E

8. Saving Private Ryan

9. L.A. Confidential

10. Fight Club

There are other honorable mentions and a time will come for their own blogs on why they are masterpieces but for now I simply state my beliefs. The time will come for me to back them up.

The Almighty Decade

In under three months the first decade of the new millennia will come to a close. Has cinema left a lasting impression in the last ten years? While memories of both tragedy and sucess still linger in our minds over films like The Dark Knight if you take into account that that film is little over a year old, can you think out further than that and think what has grabbed your attention in the last ten years?

What truly sticks out when looking at what previous decades have given us?

Bourne made Bond look like an outdated concept. Bond rebuked that by transforming into a human being for the first time since...well in cinematic terms, ever. Tarantino started the millennium with Kill Bill, and has arguably fallen from his pedestal as the greatest talent cinema has to offer to a 'has-been'. Scorsese finally scored Oscar success but was it for one of his masterpieces or second-tier work? A little-known New Zealand filmmaker created the most successful trilogy since Star Wars, and became the most successful filmmaker in history overnight. Spielberg continued to do basically what he has always done. Sell popcorn. Lucas returned with a new trilogy that lost more old fans than it gained new ones. Kevin Smith returned to his roots and essentially repeated a successful formula. Coppola remained dormant throughout most of the period, as did Brian De Palma, Sidney Lumet, Peter Bogdanovich, James Cameron, Frank Darabont.

The supposed great directors of yesteryear have died out essentially to be replaced by a new wave of movie-brat directors. Will they be remembered in thirty years? My gut says the likes of Wes Anderson probably will do. However this decade has also seen the rise of some true geniuses of the silver screen.

Guillermo Del Toro has arguably gone from strength to strength transforming any genre he chooses to inhabit and also creating a foreign language film that grabbed the attention of the xenophobic western audience with Pan's Labyrinth. P.T. Anderson created a new form of filmmaking in There Will Be Blood. Edgar Wright made British comedy cinema cool again with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Paul Greengrass made the Bourne films a heady, sensual adventure. Brett Ratner became a millionaire making very bad films. Matthew Vaughn stepped away from the producer's office to direct the first respectable British gangster film for decades with Layer Cake. And then there's Christopher Nolan transforming the way genre cinema can tell stories.

Will these directors be remembered in years to come? Some I hope will. Others will only disappoint again and again until their once promising careers are completely forgotten.

Think of the stars! Has the last decade produced a new crop of talent that will one day be uttered in the same breath as Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood or Jack Nicholson? I somehow cannot begin to imagine one day reading a critic's review of the latest Robert Pattinson film declaring it "his Raging Bull" nor do I think this decade has been good to actresses. How many films over the last ten years recall a fantastic female presence on the screen, especially one from a newcomer? Meryl Streep will not live forever. Am I supposed to believe that Megan Fox or Miley Cyrus can take her place?

Does my generation have a Brando? Mortensen maybe although he might be too old for that category to be appropriate.

This post is not to state favourites or attack others. Those posts will follow. For now I am content to just lay down the ground works and ask you...has the decade yielded anything other than an advertisement for gloss? Have the blockbusters transformed our movie experience? Have stars literally become picturesque beauty to be ogled rather than talent to admire?

Ciao for now!