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Tom Cruise rant- to save time includes Kevin Costner

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albee33,

There are two actors that produce some kind of automatic response such that I need to ensure I have to have a good sized bucket to hand- Tom Cruise and Kevin Kostner.

Your comment is very true that Cruise never seems to be an adult- I have this sensation about Micheal Fox and Matthew Boderick too. But as opposed to the latter two, Cruise just always seems wooden and in combination with his close set eyes under a monobrow give him an air of inattentive stupdity. It is difficult to imagine him in the role of a Samurai at all as I like to think of them as having a kind of super-vigilance and inner calm. With Cruise I can only think of a low-grade vacuum.

With Costner, I also see just some kind of walking shell and like Cruise, I am never affected by the acting, but only am drawn out of the movie experinece into contemplation of his succesful career and awards.

Sometimes, I even confuse Cruise and Kostner and wasonce in my oblidging way, telling a freind who likes Cruise that I thought he was was not too bad in "No Way Out". "Top Gun" was on the level of a budget movie about a high school student who we know in minute number one will get revenge on the big school bully. When the gorgeous astrophysicist appears in her Porsche Speedster, it was all over for me.

With Costner, I couldn't believe the cheap white-guilt movie "Dances with Wolves", with the noble Costner running around being so damn sensitive to everyone- and always his expressionless face on the screen 30' across with the Great Plains of the US as an insignificant background. How much more interesting if Costner had gone out to the frontier to join the genocide- as his background and heritage would've almost guaranteed at that time- and then learned of their nobility and culture by contact and come to defend them. Still, such a movie would still have Costner in it..

When I first heard of "The Last Samurai", I tried not to jump to judgement, and saw both the trailer and a little interview with him, but I can say that after refreshing memories of the movies on the same subject by Kurosawa of 40-50 years ago, I became a little dizzy and nauseous. The title alone of "Last"- implying that this is some kind of final word on the subject- is typical of some kind of discount super-sized Scientology-fueled ego.

Thanks albee, I feel better now!

Next time, perhaps could you bring up the great Shakespearen actor Kenneth Branagh?

Cheers,

Bambi B


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