Monday, December 1, 2008

Crusing the Good Wave


"Wow! His family is quite a powerful bunch lately! First his wife Katie Holmes has the highest grossing show on Broadway. Then, his 2 year old daughter Suri is voted Hollywood's most influential kid. And now he's on DETAILS magazine's list as one of the most influential men in the World! All I can say is... ROCK ON!!"
From http://scientologist.blogspot.com/2008/11/tom-cruise-one-of-most-powerful-men-on.html

Indeed Tom Cruise is on a good wave for the moment, and he also "made up" with Matt Lauer by brightly sustaining the litany of jokes and insults that are requirements to be honored by the "Friars Club" - plus he received excellent reviews for his short appearance in "Tropic Thunder" (which in the meantime I saw. My opinion: bad movie but indeed amazing performance by Cruise in a very atypical role).

But now comes Valkyrie, to be screened on the day following Christmas. I don't have enough information to make a judgment on the film, but I have this to say: whatever the outcome of the film, I find Cruise dedication to make movies because he finds them valuable in spite of the risk it may entails admirable. This may explains why he almost systematically comes up with great quality films, something that helps make him retain his place as the most bankable Star in the past twenty years even after the wave of criticism that followed his antics on Ophra's couch and other gaffes.

Of course, independently from his adhesion to Scientology, he also is extremely handsome and talented, IMHO, and I admit having a deep admiration for him as an actor.

This being said, I did find quite bad the famous interview leaked on to the Internet and which has been the target of numerous parodies (the funniest to date, IMO, being the SuperHero one). I realize that Cruise made the video for an internal audience and not the general public, something critics don't take into account in their mockery, but really he was not good at it. His arguments were weak and his laugh, well... stupid. By far the worst "role" I saw him in.

It also is worth to note that Anonymous' rather distastful protests at Kathy Holmes debuts in "All My Sons" didn't do squash to prevent it to be a great success. You know, there also is some cognitive dissonance to be had here. Anonymous basically "advertised" the fact that she was a Scientologist to those who may not have been aware of it. She ignored them and focused on her role instead. Because she did so well, people now may think that this Scientology thing is not so bad after all. Anonyous thus unwittingly helped her to promote Scientology!

3 comments:

Rebecca Hartong said...

I'm sorry to disagree with you, Bernie, but I think Tom Cruise is a bad actor and his being a Scientologist has nothing to do with it. (Other than, perhaps, giving him loads of confidence -- which may account for his success despite his being a bad actor.) He's got ONE facial expression that he uses any time he's supposed to be showing deep emotion. It involves his mouth being partway open and his eyes going all "unfocused". It's totally predictable and the same every time. Blech.

Also -- and I know I'm in disagreement with much of the world on this -- I don't find him especially attractive. To me, he has the look of a car salesman. Slick. Untrustworthy. It's not a look I like very much. I prefer a face that has more character.

Bernie said...

I am glad you disagree with me, Rebecca. It would be scary if we would agree on everything.

Anyway, I stick by my opinion, my favorite film of his being, not Top Gun, but Jerry Maguire.

Truth said...

Interesting but it reads like you are not informed.
Anonymous doesn't care one bit how successful or not Katie's show is. And they were not there to try to stop the show from going on. It's about Scientology.
I had to laugh when I read that you could think Anonymous would end up promoting Scientology (only a Scientologist would think this way).
First thing a person is going to do is go on line. That's the begining of the end for that potential new Scientologist.
Personally I couldn't care less about how successful Cruise is, the "church" is digging it's own hole and even Cruise can't help them now. Actually I should thank Cruise for helping dig that hole.

I used to like TC in a couple of his older movies. Now all I see is a Scientologist, and I've had more of that then I'd ever want in many lifetimes.

I read a couple of your postings and found you to be incredibly negative to things anti Scientology yet I don't see a singe thing anti Scientology here. Which Org do you do your services at?