In defence of Tom Cruise

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, over the past few years following an altercation for evermore known as the couch jumping incident, Mr Cruise has been the subject of ridicule, be it for his professions of love to the really quite annoying Katie Holmes (who does look as if she trapped in the marriage to be fair) as well as telling all and sundry about his Scientology beliefs, but people seem to have forgotten that he's a damn fine actor. I mean really if you look at the list of films he's been in over the last 15 years, you'd be hard pressed to find an absolute stinker. So, for your consumption I offer an analysis of these films from the last decade and a half to truly show that no matter what type of person Mr Cruise is like in real life, as an actor, he's pretty damn awesome.

Mission Impossible (1996)



In the movie going world, Bourne hadn't yet been made, and the Bond movies hadn't had their reboot yet and was still in the realm of the slightly silly. Mission Impossible fell somewhere in between the two, and in the movie ol' Tom is impeccable throughout. Betrayed and on the run, the movie (as many of Tom Cruises movies do) hangs togetehr though the strength of Ethan Hunt alone. No mean feat, whenever you consider how much is going on in the movie. But the whole running time, you're with Tom as he tries to wade through the confusion and double crosses. Never once is the audience in a position of superiority over the characters, and Ethan Hunt is played beautifully, conveying the confusion and realisations perfectly. If you want a specific scene to showcase just how good he is in it, find the restuarnt scene where Ethan is talking to the IMF agent who has set him up.

Jerry Maguire (1996)



Now, Jerry Maguire isn't a perfect film by any means, but it's the only film in which I really cared for one of Tom Cruise's charcters. Not to say that I don't in other movies, but at least in this one he's a 'real' person, not a secret agent or LeStat. There are some heartbreaking and heartwarming moments in Jerry Maguire that Cruise nails, quite frankly. And his comic timing in this has never been better. Well, maybe in one film which I'll get to later.

Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia (1999)

Two very very divisive films. Two possibly great films, if you can stick with them. Having said that I've only seen them both once each, however Frank Mackey is possibly one of the greatest douchebags of all time, yet gets his reconciliation with his father nd by the end you don't hate, when really you should. And Eyes Wide Shut is just a masterclass of acting. Do yourself a favour and rent it.

Vanilla Sky (2001)



A remake of the Spanish original, Vanilla Sky is nonetheless a triumph of a film. Once again, you're with the protagonist the whole way, working out basically what the hell is going on. You think he's a tool at the beginning, you want him to get together with Penelope Cruz though, you hate him but also feel bad for his when he gets disfigured, you rejoice when he gets the surgery, and you certainly want him to 'open his eyes' at the end of it all. Vanilla Sky is perhaps my favourite Tom Cruise performance as there's so much for him to do in the space of 2 and a bit hours, and he does it with aplomb. Best scene:



Great line, superbly delivered.

Minority Report (2002)



Watched this recently, still holds up after 8 years. Cruise wholly convinces as the grieving man on the run, while still able to make you feel genuine emotion for him in what could have become Total Recall 2 (another Phillip K Dick story; don't get me wrong, I love Total Recall but it ain't what you'd call subtle). I think this movie illustrates, best of all, Tom Cruise appeal: you never forget that it's Tom Cruise you're watching, but somehow you feel he could just as easily be a man on the street.

Collateral (2004)



You might think Tom Cruise would go over the top for his first major bad guy role, but no. He reigns it in as quiet killer, Vincent in Michael Mann's second best film. He's the epitome of a charming villian, the guy who'll kill you with a smile. He's a bastard to be sure, but a loveable one. At least he is when he's being driven around. The switch in the last half hour of the movie makes him full on chilling. And it's a true testament to the performance that you really do feel a tinge of sadness when he meets his end on the train. Not an explosive one, but rather a quiet contemplative one. He not redeemed, and certainly not likeable, but it's still quite emotional.

War of the Worlds (2005)



Perhaps his most convincing ordinary bloke role, it says something about the movie in that we care more about his character surviving with his daughter than the alien invasion, which was always meant to play second fiddle anyway. As the man just trying to stay alive, it's an acting tour-de-force especially in the scenes follwing the Tripods initial appearance, as well as the scenes with Tim Robbins. The post killing perfomance is pitch perfect.

Mission Impossible 3 (2006)



The best of the trilogy? Undoubtedly. Admittedly, a lot of this has to do with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's brilliant turn as the villain of the piece, but as we're following Ethan Hunt, it's still Tom's movie and he carries it well. Again, as proof of his great acting, the scene in which PSH is going to kill Ethan's wife is probably the best.

And now the funniest performance of Tom's career:



Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder.

And I am thorughly looking forward to Knight and Day, cause it looks like a great fun actioner with Tom Criuse playing a cross between Ethan Hunt and Vincent. And it looks awesome.



Also, he does most of his own stunts and is a bit of a mad man. And for that I think he brilliant.

Anyway, the defence rests.

Oh, and Mission Impossible 2 stinks. But that would have hurt my argument.

My favourite New Who moments

So, here's be my list of my favourite moments of the RTD era of Doctor Who. Please add to them/agree/disagree.

9 into 10
I loved the Ninth Doctor, I really did. And was quite sad to see him go. So much, in fact, that I hated David Tennant already even after him only having about 20 seconds of screen time. “Barcelona.” Shove off, new guy. But when I watch it now, it makes me smile a huge smile. And as a big emotional, but understated (as much as a regeneration can be anyway), moment you can’t do much better than this.



Ten makes his first ‘real’ appearance.
After being bedridden for most of his first full episode (The Christmas Invasion) Ten walks out of the TARDIS, just in time to save the day. It’s cheesy but it works. And that’s the moment when most of us knew Ten was going to be alright. The Lion King bit helped too though.



The end of The Girl in the Fireplace
Pretty much all of this episode is concerned with why these clockwork droid things are obsessed with Madame de Pompadour. And it’s only at the very end that the viewer is shown why. The ship itself is called the SS Madame de Pompadour. I still don’t fully understand it (I’d need to watch the episode again) but I always remember thinking that was a really beautiful moment.



The beach scene in Doomsday
This episode was never really about the Daleks versus Cybermen. This is what it was really all about. Everything from Rose nearly being sucked into the Void to Ten not getting to finish his sentence before disappearing is terrific viewing. It’s television designed to make you cry. And it does. NOTE: this isn't the actual real clip. It's a fan edited one omitting Donna at the end, but you get the jist.



Opening the roof in Gridlock
An episode that doesn’t get a huge amount of love (possibly due to Father Dougal being made up to look like a cat) but it does have another great moment. All of the released cars ascending through the roof and singing a hymn of thanks, ostensibly to the Doctor. It’s sounds really corny but in the context of the episode it’s a really powerful and moving scene.



The fake out in The Family of Blood
A terrific two parter this, filled with plenty of scary moments (the scarecrows) as well as emotional ones (The Doctor/John Smith after some DNA jiggery pokery, seeing visions of his future with Joan). But my favourite moment is when the Doctor, supposedly still as John Smith, going to The Family’s ship and pretending to be a bumbling fool. When he reveals himself as actually being The Doctor you can’t help but smile, and think “You guys are so screwed.” I also love the Doctor’s rage denouement, trapping each family member for an eternity.



The conversation with the DVD in Blink.
A slice of pure wibbly wobbly timey wimey genius. And it’s great because people that understand it just get it first time, and we can hold that knowledge over those that can’t wrap their heads round it. See also; Back to the Future 2. “The angels have the phone box. I’ve got that on a t-shirt.”



Working out what the Face of Boe’s message meant.
Brilliant, wasn’t it?



Martha saving the world in The Last of the Time Lords
Martha really got the short shrift in the world of Doctor Who I feel. She was basically the rebound companion for most of the series, in both the eyes of a lot of viewers as well as the Doctor. However, she did get her greatest moment in her last episode as a regular companion. After scouring the world for a year during the Master’s reign she tells everyone the plan that will help the Doctor become his normal self again (hard to explain that without using the word ‘regenerate’). It’s a brilliant moment, and a favourite of mine, as it’s not something blowing up something that fixes the problem but prayer (of a sort), and I really dug that.



Doctor and Donna meeting again in Partners in Crime
It’s funny; plain and simple. After having just missed each other at various points in the episode when they see each other it’s comedy gold. And it sold me on Donna (who I hadn’t been sure of before this) right there and then.



Oh, and the mime goes something like this: I came here, trouble, read about it, internet, I thought, trouble = you! And this place is weird! Pills! So I hid. Back there. Crept along. Looked. You. Cos they...And then they get caught out.

The switch in Midnight
An episode which is a master class in racking up the tension. And the moment it reaches its peak? After the entity possessing Sky has copied everyone in the shuttle, then spoke at the same time as them, then just the Doctor, and then when the switch comes it’s an incredible moment and sends shivers down my spine.



The fake regeneration:
The biggest shock new Who has ever pulled. No-one, and I mean no-one, expected it. And the massive TO BE CONTINUED made it the most infuriating moment on this list. We had to wait a week to see what would happen. A whole bloody week. The collective sigh of relief the following week was when Ten didn’t regenerate into Robert Carlisle, Jimmy Nesbitt or Richard E Grant.



He will knock 4 times
Actually, maybe this was the biggest shock of new Who. Poor old Wilf. Lovely Wilf. Poor old lovely Wilf. The person who caused Ten’s demise, (and not the Master like we all thought) and he does it through helping someone else. Gut wrenching, as Ten thought he had escaped the prophecy, only for Wilf to tap-tap-tap-tap on the glass. But of course the Doctor had to save him. That’s who he is; the person who would give his life to save one of us ‘ordinary’ people. Beautifully acted and one of the saddest moments in new Who.



“I don’t want to go”Not ashamed to admit this…I was so incredibly close to tears watching this. Ten, alone, in the TARDIS, scared witless and not really ready to regenerate. The visits to previous companions just before this really ramped up the emotion, as well as the fact that the line had a double meaning as we had all known for a while that David Tenant was leaving and that the line probably was half Doctor, half Tennant. As the end of Ten’s life as well as the RTD era, I think it was pretty much perfection.

"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut!"

To get the full Iron Man 2 feeling, you should really read this review while listening to this.



Anyway, the movie itself. I was pretty excited for it to be honest, having loved the first, and number 2 did not disappoint.

As much as people say they go for the action, I went to see this for RDJ. He is literally perfect in the role, a smarmy smug A-hole but yet you can't help but like him. My favourite scenes in the movie were the ones in which a lot of characters are talking at once and then Tony comes in with a great one liner. My favourite being the scene in the bar at the Monte Carlo track, with Tony, Pepper, Hammer and the reporter from the first movie ("Yeah, she did a spread last year for me. Wrote an article too" or something like that. Genius.)

As brilliant as RDJ was, the other actors weren't too shabby either. Sam Rockwell was great as the almost Tony Stark but not quite chacrter, Justin Hammer. Although he was just a smug smarmy A-hole. Don Cheadle was pretty good as War Machine is this, taking over from the other guy in the first movie (don't remember his name); he's pretty much playing the straight man, but has a good couple of moments both in and out of the suit. I also liked that Jon Faverau's role as Tony's bodyguard was bumped up as I think Faverau's funny in anything he does. And to be fair if I were the director of the movie I'd probably try and put myself into a scene with ScarJo if I could, so fair play to him. On to Scarlett; well, she was really a bit pointless in this movie, and is just basically serving as a springboard to the forthcoming Avengers movie. However, her one big action scene has a great pay off gag at the end (pepper spray). And she's hawt, which didn't hurt. Gwyneth Paltrows role in Iron Man 2 wasn't as great as in the first but she still had some great comedy sparring scenes with Tony.



And Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury was just Samuel L Jackson playing every role he's played in the past ten years. He's sort of become a parody of himself, but it's SAmuel L jackson, he's so damn cool he just about gets away with it.

And now on to the action: a lot of people complaing that there wasn't enough. Rubbish. Those people are the ones who can't watch five minutes of a movie without something blowing up. Go watch Transformers 2 then. Obviously the Monte Carlo bit was a highlight, with the suitcase suit, which was awesome.



See?

The final fight was pretty cool, with the drones chasing Tony and War Machine unwittingly chasing him as well. A different spin on a chase scene which was nice. However the fight with Whiplash was pretty dull and a rehash of the first movie climactic battle too.

Whiplash in the previous 2 hours however was great. Mickey Rourke giving him just enough quirkiness while never losing the menace or turning into a pantomime villian even when he was wielding his skipping ropes of death.

Overall though, it's my favourite movie so far this year. And if you didn't stay for the post credits scene, Here it is. The geeks among you will know what it's about. Everyone else will be all WTF?