Tom Cruise: The Reviews Part 2

The Cruise-a-thon has been moving forward in the most interesting of ways. So far, I have to say, this might be the best summer movie marathon yet, but in the end, rivaling Arnold will be tough. Along w/ the Cruise fest, I've also been rewatching Lost w/ the kids & w/ Sara from Nicola's I'm in the middle of a Summer of Bond... in which we're up to Live & Let Die. As for the Cruise movies, here are the reviews of the 2nd 8 (the 1st 8 are here):

Knight & Day: Not nearly as bad as I expected. it's a fun action/comedy w/ some nice Mission Impossiblesque jokes. Of course, the plot has huge holes, but it's a big-budget action movie, so those are par for the course. (2 1/2 Volleyballs)

Valkyrie: A really cool movie, but the actors (Cruise included) never really seemed to give a shit. It was like they were just going through the motions. There was never any tension. Of course, we know it's not gonna work, but historical films usually find a way to add a little something that will make the audience give a damn. Maybe it needed a focus on his relationship w/ his wife or something. In the end, it's worth watching, but it's no 4 volleyball flick. (3 volleyballs)

Austin Powers in Goldmember: I only watched a little of this one. I suffered through it last year w/ Spacey. It's bad. And I mean bad... not good. Not like Michael Jackson in 1986, but like Michael Jackson in 1993. If you haven't already wasted an hour & a half w/ this clunker, don't! (0 volleyballs)

Vanilla Sly: A very cool movie, but it could have gone a bit further. They started w/ a nice premise, but by the end, it was a tad Hollywooded. I'll definitely watch it again though, & I think it'll make more sense the 2nd time through. (3 1/2 volleyballs)

Jerry McGuire: I almost squeezed out a couple tears towards the end of this. Don't get me wrong; I didn't... I just almost did. I can't believe I'd never seen it before. Cuba Gooding Jr. is fantastic; if only he had followed this up by then making something else worth while over the last 12 years, I might consider viewing his stuff next year. Alas, it won't happen. (3 volleyballs)

Far & Away: I saw this when it was first released on video & had pretty fond memories of it. In hind sight, I shouldn't have had fond memories. It's not so great. I like the premise, but it's pretty forced & patched together. I say, skip it unless you need a heartwarming St. Patrick's Day movie some time.

The Color of Money: Unlike Far & Away, this is even better than I remembered. I guess, when someone puts Paul Newman, Martin Scorsese, & Robbie Robertson in a room together, we shouldn't be surprised that what came out was pretty fantastic. Everything about it is great. Do yourself a favor & watch it again! (4 volleyballs)

Risky Business: After watching it a couple weeks ago, I came to the realization that I may never have seen it all the way through before. It's fun, but not as great as I expected. The plot is pretty bizarre though. I guess I knew what it was about, but he turns his house into a brothel to pay off some implausible debt. Only to be topped a few years ago in Babysitters, a film about a group of high schoolers who sleep w/ the local dads in order to save up for college. (2 volleyballs)

Comments, Cruise, & Chronicles... but not in that order

In lieu of anymore Bob Dylan posts, I want to take a moment to talk about the Tom Cruise marathon. I've only watched a couple more since my last update (Valkyre & Jerry Maguire [we'll get to some reviews after I've seen a few more]). I had to take a little time off over Memorial Day to watch some pretty painful WWII films as per my usual Memorial Day celebration. One of them takes place on a sub & stars James Garner (that one was actually alright). Another featured George Peppard, Sophia Loren, & Paul Henreid... it sucked ass. The capstone of its shittiness was the bombing by the Germans of an English Nuclear Power plant. (They didn't exist until the 1950s.) The third of the films was a stock tank battalion movie w/ no one I'd ever heard of. It was a good time before going to watch Barcelona treat ManUre like a bunch of silly children though. I'm trying to remember which English team it was that was able to beat Barcelona in London. Hmmmmm... maybe you ManUre fans could refresh my memory in the comments section.Speaking of the comments section, that's the real issue I logged in to discuss today. A couple weeks ago, I spent a little while talking w/ some fellow bloggers about the lack of comments, why comments have gone down, & what that means about blogging. It was suggested that w/o the interaction of the comments, it's not really a blog. However, we can't forget that blogging started as an on-line version of journaling or diary keeping. Diaries have always been seen as a private thing, to the point where people even come up w/ spells & incantations to protect their privacy. That said, most people who blog, myself included, aren't doing it as a private act, & we're certainly not doing it in a vacuum. This means we need to consider why the comments have decreased over the years. Most people seemed to think that it was due to Facebook. At 1st, that seemed like a reasonable explanation. As comments are left on the Facebook or Twitter pages where links are provided, they are then divorced from the actual post which means historical archiving of the post w/ the comments becomes much more difficult. On the other hand, it's impossible to demand that people place the comments in the actual comments section for 2 reasons.
1) They just don't listen, & I've tried.
2) More importantly, the blogging/comment programs seem to be making commenting more & more difficult. I tried to comment on a blog the other day, but it wouldn't let me. There was a time when anyone could comment. After that period, logging in was easy. Now, each blog seems to have it's own hoops through which people need to jump.

If the lack of comments is to bring about the end of blogging, most of the blame needs to fall on the shoulders of the very code upon which the blogs are based. That said, I'll try again... leave the comments in the comments section rather than on facebook.

The commenting problem has a certain downward spiral aspect to it... just like The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which I've sadly been watching this summer. When George Lucas released them on DVD, he re-edited the 1 hours episodes into feature length films by joining them in twos & putting them in chronological order. They were then released in 3 multi-disc sets. Each set contains 8 or 10 films... I'm 4 films into the 3rd set now. The first set follows a 9 year old Indy around the world w/ his family as he has adventures & learns about world culture meeting people like TE Lawrence, Teddy Roosevelt, & Tolstoy. The second set sees a 16 year old Indy enlist in the Belgian army & fight in WWI in Europe, Africa & Arabia where he meets people like Mata Hari, Albert Shweitzer, & Kafka. The third set follows him from the end of the war though some college adventures where he meets people like Al Capone, Edith Wharton, Paul Robeson, & John Ford. They're fun movies w/ a silly educational bent to them. Each one includes a series of documentaries about the people & places. Overall, it's a pretty cheesy series that never really goes anywhere, but since I'm almost done, I figure I should see it out. The one I'm watching right now, The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye, is a nice adventure in the traditional Indiana Jones style... he & his war buddy set off in search of ancient treasure & a series of narrow escapes ensues.

Summer of Cruise: The Reviews Part 1

Austin Powers in Goldmember: As I explained on the first Cruise post, I watched this last summer during the Spacey-a-thon. I'm counting that as a viewing... I can't subject myself to it again... it's shit! (Zero out of four volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible: I saw this when it was first released on video, but I liked it more this time. It's definitely got some problems, but over all it holds up pretty well. Mainly though, the reason we (Aiden & I... btw, it's Aiden's big 10th b-day today; be sure to give him a happy birthday shout out!) watched it was because we wanted to see the 3rd on which was directed by J. J. Abrams but figured we should watch the others first. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible II: Not a whole lot different from the first one, it's fun but lacks something. It's been a month or so & I don't even remember what happened. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Mission: Impossible III: It's certainly the best of the lot. Abrams's weirdness (though no time travel) comes through nicely... as do the references to old James Bond films... even the George Lazenby on, On Her Majesty's Secret Service gets a nod... but so few people have seen that one, it's kind of a funny movie to reference. And it's better than its reputation suggests; it's no Mission: Impossible III, but it's good. Speaking of James Bond, after a few drinks w/ a Nicola's co-worker the other night, we decided that a chronological Bond-a-thon might be in order for the summer too... I'll keep you posted. (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Tropic Thunder: This was on TV a month or so ago. It's funny, but I don't know that it holds up as well as I expected. Cruise is good, but so much of the humor is based on shock value, but w/o the shock, it doesn't work as well. (2 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Minority Report: I watched this one because, as you well know, I'm teaching a sci/fi class next year & so I've been trying to refamiliarize myself w/ some of the bigger sci/fi films of the last decade. It's good. I saw it when it first came out on dvd, but the disc skipped & I never saw the end. It's based on a short story by Philip K. Dick (which I'm sure you already knew), but I've never read anything by him. I suppose I'll have to remedy that soon. (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

War of the Worlds: This pretty much blows, but the effects are cool & it's a better film that the 1950s Red-Scare version... & it's yet another Spielberger to deal w/ daddy issues... I'd do the list of them, but that should be it's own post some time. (BTW, Minority Report has some weird daddy issues too.) (2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Top Gun: Awesome as you know. Yet, maybe it's only awesome because it's been awesome for so long. Aiden was bored out of his mind. I DVRed it last week, & the version I recorded was edited for time which meant the volleyball scene, the "Great Balls of Fire" scene & Maverick's conversation w/ Slider in which he says, "Slider, you stink" were edited out. Those are pretty iconic scenes; a strange decision, indeed. (This one is ripe w/ daddy issues, but it's not a Spielberger.) (3 1/2 out of 4 volleyballs)

Cocktail: Shit! I'd never seen it until last night. The only saving grave was that the disc was skipping so I got to skip ahead a little bit which saved me some time. I couldn't believe how little time was actually spent in Jamaica. That is the image I've always had of the film, but he's only there for about 15 minutes. There should also have been more cocktail making acrobatics. I think a remake could actually do this justice... more time in the Caribbean & more snazzy drink-mixing. And to think it was written by the guy who wrote the novel. There was a novel? WTF? Also, more nudity wouldn't have hurt the film either. (1 out of 4 volleyballs)

Summer Movie Spectacular: Tom Cruise

Kevin Spacey in 2010 & Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. You may recall that we never made it all the way through Spacey because as it turns out, they're all pretty much the same. We saw most though & all of the Schwarzeneggers the year before. Those links will take you to my reviews if you're interested. For this summer I've decided to go w/ Tom Cruise. Why? Because I wanted to see the J.J. Abrams Mission: Impossible film but felt I should see the other 2 first. I then decided I wanted to see War of the Worlds because I'm thinking about teaching the book next year & figured it'd be good to see it. I also happened to watch Minority Report the other day. I rented it when it first came out, but the disc skipped & I never got back to it afterwards. Last night, I realized I'd also seen Tropic Thunder recently so w/ 6 down already, it seems like a doable project. I think I will skip Austin Powers in Goldmember because I suffered through it last year w/ Kevin Spacey... I don't see the point of doing that again already. That means I've got 7 in the bag w/ 27 left. I imagine I'll watch Top Gun w/ Aiden & maybe The Outsiders w/ Solstice. There's a key under the filmography so you can check back here to keep track of how the Cruise-a-thon is going. I know a lot of you really hate this guy because of his religious weirdness, but I've never really had an opinion about that. I do have an opinion about his acting ability, but I'm going through w/ this stupidity none-the-less. I'll post reviews of the films I've seen recently periodically throughout the summer which means the first review poost should be coming soon. Stay Tuned!


Playin' w/ the boys!
The Fimography:
Knight & Day (2010)****
Tropic Thunder (2008)****
Valkyrie (2008)****
Lions for Lambs (2007)*
Mission: Impossible II (2006)****
War of the Worlds (2005)****
Collateral (2004)*
The Last Samurai (2003)*
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)****
Minority Report (2002)****
Space Station 3D (2002)*
Vanilla Sky (2001)****
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)*
Mission: Impossible II (2000)****
Magnolia (1999)*
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)**
Jerry Maguire (1996)****
Mission: Impossible (1996)****
Interview w/ a Vampire (1994)**
The Firm (1993)*
A Few Good Men (1992)***
Far & Away (1992)****
Days of Thunder (1990)*
Born on the Fourth of July (1989)**
Rainman (1988)**
Cocktail (1988)****
The Color of Money (1986)****
Top Gun (1986)****
Legend (1985)**
Risky Business (1983)****
All the Right Moves (1983)**
Losin' It (1983)*
The Outsiders (1983)**
Taps (1981)**
Endless Love (1981)*

* Have never seen it
** Saw it a long time ago
*** Watching right now
**** Watched this summer.


Reminiscing about the days of old