I really like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels though it’s kind of just Snatch for poker players and it’s weird seeing Brick Top as someone other than Brick Top
Lennie McLean, who played Barry The Baptist in that film, used to own a pub around the corner from where I lived.
He was self-billed as the hardest man in Britain, an image he liked to keep up by naming the awful pub he owned ‘The Guv’nor’.
I went to all the pubs within a large radius many times over the course of several years, but only visited his once and only stayed for a flying half because the vibes were that unpleasant.
I was a big Kevin Smith family in my early 20s. Loved Mallrats and Chasing Amy, and Dogma was my favorite movie for several years.
I’d probably watch Dogma again if given the opportunity because I think it’s a pretty solid evisceration of the Catholic Church (and Alan Rickman GOAT), but I’ve never had a desire to watch any of the other ones for years.
I’m no critic, and I’m not great at expressing why I like or dislike movies, but the best way I can describe Kevin Smith movies is they’re movies for people who think there much cleverer than they are. And again, I loved those movies.
Mystic Pizza
6/10
Heard it was Julia Roberts break out role so I was expecting something good. It was alright, a pretty standard coming of age story. The New England quirks made it slightly different.
Grunching some posts back there - Tom Cruise is not a good actor. He has pretty good taste in movies he picks though. He’s not a terrible actor and is good at some things, but not much range. He can not pass as a regular human having a relaxed and decent time. He’s really only good at being intense in some way.
Correct. Tom Cruise is not an actor, he’s a movie star.
Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best recent sci fi/action movies and I think he is pretty much the best actor for the role.
A lot of that probably corresponds to the age you were when you first started watching them…
Agree with the first part, somewhat with the second. He was very good in the role and it suited him well, but it was still just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise.
Born on the Fourth of July?
Eyes Wide Shut?
Tom Cruise did really challenging roles with great directors for a good while. Yes, he’s just an action star now. But he was working with Kubrick and Spielberg and others for a reason.
Also, forgot how good he was in some roles in the 2000s. He was superb in Collateral. A delight in Tropic Thunder.
show me a scene where Cruise isn’t convincing as an actor. Where he is actually lacking as an actor. I’ll concede his accent in Far and Away but other than that his acting career is impeccable. He’s a great movie star AND a good actor, which is why he’s endured.
I’m trying zikzak’s perspective on for size and am like okay, yes, Tom can be subtle…but it’s intensely subtle
Saw the first a long time ago and don’t remember anything about it. Never saw the second.
Point of comparison - I watched all of American Hustle and didn’t realize Christian Bale played the lead until the credits rolled.
Like, why is this scene great? It’s a throwaway line, but Cruise turns it into something special. It’s the greatest line reading of all time.
That’s in part because he undergoes such a significant physical transformation, though, no? I’ll concede Tom likes to show off his curiously squarer by the year jaw.
I have been stunned on occasion to realize it was Eddie Murphy playing a heavily made up side character. Is he a good actor?
I realize this is not really the same thing.
It would be great if Cruise played a wider variety of roles, but it’s not really a criticism of him as an actor. When wasn’t Cruise effective in his role? When did his presence as an actor diminish a film? When did he give a bad performance as an actor?
Having said that, I think that he’s robbing us of the incredible potential he has as a comic actor. His timing is clearly impeccable, I’d love to see him in a screwball comedy.