Tom Cruise“The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you surprise yourself.” source: www.rottentomatoes.com |
An actor that needs no introduction, Tom Cruise is one of the most widely recognizable figures in the world. With over $2 billion in Box Office receipts it's easy to see why. It's also impossible to discuss Cruise without at least mentioning Scientology and some of his strange behavior. When you realize that he has spent pretty much his entire adult life in the limelight, however, a lot of his quirks become more defensible, as that sort of constant scrutiny is bound to result in a few strange behaviors. There've been plenty of accusations of him throwing his weight around in Hollywood (allegedly blocking a re-airing of a "South Park" episode for example), but given what we know about how the Church of Scientology operates, it seems entirely plausible to me that someone in their organization would apply pressure without his knowledge to "maintain" his reputation. Regardless, any of those issues are immaterial to the products he actually puts out on screen, and when it comes to those, few actors have as well-defined a niche as Cruise.
Cruise excels at playing a very narrow band of protagonist. Invariably physically capable, the closest any of his roles have gotten to an everyman would be in either Jerry Maguire or Rain Man. He cannot play second fiddle the way a Brad Pitt can in 12 Monkeys, nor can he play mentally unstable a la Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island or The Aviator. Even in Vanilla Sky, when Cruise's character isn't sure of his sanity, it comes off more as panic at a loss of control than actual uncertainty. Still, when you cast in the very specific type of role he's comfortable with, few can match him. In Jack Reacher, what should have been a rejected pilot for the latest acronym attached at the end of NCIS, rises to watchable purely on the strength of Cruise in the lead role. Though this is becoming somewhat of the tiresome go-to in Hollywood for building a picture around Cruise, pairing him with a second-tier, 20 years younger actress is where he's most comfortable. Within this narrow niche, his command of the screen is second-to-none and makes it possible to at least suspend disbelief while watching films like Oblivion or the upcoming Edge of Tomorrow, and buy into the idea that he really could be that sort of young, capable fighter.
At some point though, he'll eventually age beyond those roles as an option. It will be interesting to see if he has a later career evolution like Michael Caine or if he settles for just being a rich man's Liam Neeson, dependably cranking out actioners with hardly a memorable turn among them. With a reboot of Van Helsing still on his docket, he doesn't look to be giving up these roles anytime soon, and with Top Gun 2 in the works (director Tony Scott's suicide has put a little doubt into its future), he isn't afraid of comparing himself to his earlier works. Along with Mission: Impossible 5, a potential Jack Reacher sequel, and the aforementioned Edge of Tomorrow, it's conceivable that Cruise could cross $2.5 billion in receipts just with his projects already in development. That sort of staying power is rare, especially given the baggage he's accumulated over the years, but at this point, he appears to have weathered the storm of his divorce from Katie Holmes and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down at all. Even his critically-panned $100 million budget movies like Oblivion cross $200 million in sales worldwide, and as one of the few A-listers to not even hint at retirement, we can expect to keep seeing a lot of Cruise for years to come.
Cruise excels at playing a very narrow band of protagonist. Invariably physically capable, the closest any of his roles have gotten to an everyman would be in either Jerry Maguire or Rain Man. He cannot play second fiddle the way a Brad Pitt can in 12 Monkeys, nor can he play mentally unstable a la Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island or The Aviator. Even in Vanilla Sky, when Cruise's character isn't sure of his sanity, it comes off more as panic at a loss of control than actual uncertainty. Still, when you cast in the very specific type of role he's comfortable with, few can match him. In Jack Reacher, what should have been a rejected pilot for the latest acronym attached at the end of NCIS, rises to watchable purely on the strength of Cruise in the lead role. Though this is becoming somewhat of the tiresome go-to in Hollywood for building a picture around Cruise, pairing him with a second-tier, 20 years younger actress is where he's most comfortable. Within this narrow niche, his command of the screen is second-to-none and makes it possible to at least suspend disbelief while watching films like Oblivion or the upcoming Edge of Tomorrow, and buy into the idea that he really could be that sort of young, capable fighter.
At some point though, he'll eventually age beyond those roles as an option. It will be interesting to see if he has a later career evolution like Michael Caine or if he settles for just being a rich man's Liam Neeson, dependably cranking out actioners with hardly a memorable turn among them. With a reboot of Van Helsing still on his docket, he doesn't look to be giving up these roles anytime soon, and with Top Gun 2 in the works (director Tony Scott's suicide has put a little doubt into its future), he isn't afraid of comparing himself to his earlier works. Along with Mission: Impossible 5, a potential Jack Reacher sequel, and the aforementioned Edge of Tomorrow, it's conceivable that Cruise could cross $2.5 billion in receipts just with his projects already in development. That sort of staying power is rare, especially given the baggage he's accumulated over the years, but at this point, he appears to have weathered the storm of his divorce from Katie Holmes and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down at all. Even his critically-panned $100 million budget movies like Oblivion cross $200 million in sales worldwide, and as one of the few A-listers to not even hint at retirement, we can expect to keep seeing a lot of Cruise for years to come.