OT: Let's talk about movies (and TV shows)... Part XIX

[CalgarySnow]

the rock was pretty good doing the voice in Moana, planet 51 not so much.

and he is trying to expand his role, by being in every movie ever filmed.

Statham is pretty much an english Jackie Chan with less range. He might even know it but it probably doesn't bother him as he cashes check after check.

I had no idea that I said it but there are some on line discussions that actually do propose that he's playing the same character ( or a slight variant of it) in every movie.

Jason Statham has done well on limited talent and managed to bag Rosie Huntington Whitely (another one with no talent and IMO not that good looking). JS does have a great body though (useless fact he was chosen to represent GB in diving)

 

[Lshap]

Jack Reacher was good and Jack Reacher 2 is just as Awesome! Tom Cruise still got it! Oh yeah!

Haven't read a good book in awhile. Maybe I'll pick up the reacher books. I dunno.

I liked Jack Reacher. Haven’t seen the second but it is on my list. I wonder how good it is though because I read he doesn’t run as much in it as his better flicks.

I like Tom Cruise. The guy's a bit weird, but I'll hand it to him -- he makes great films. But... he is totally, woefully, painfully miscast as Jack Reacher. I haven't seen the films, but I've read every single Lee Child book in the series. Jack Reacher -- the character who Child brought to life in about 20 fantastic novels -- is a 6'5" physical beast whose mind works with the deductive precision of Sherlock Holmes. His size and his demeanor bears no resemblance to Cruise's 5'6" hyper laserbeam of energy.

Generalized summary: Almost anyone who's read the book can't stomach the image of Cruise inhabiting Jack Reacher (even though he's small enough to inhabit Reacher's sock). And anyone who's seen the film may have trouble reconciling their image of Tom Cruise with the mammoth figure of the original in-print Jack Reacher.

 

[sandviper]

I'm a little confused by your comment and your article. Firstly you say he doesn't run a lot in JR2 yet on Vanity Fair's list it's ranked 7th overall in terms of total running distance, and the first one is not even ranked yet somehow JR1 has a higher score of 62 on RT and JR2 has a score of 37? Ouch!

For the sake of transparency, it's been awhile since I watched JR1 so I had to watch a trailer to refresh my memory. I thought it was good but for some reason I think the 2nd one might be better? Some might say the story in the sequel might be shallower and that might be fair but I also feel like it moves faster and more fun? I never felt bored and honestly was hooked from the very first scene of the movie. I got a bit of vibe from The Firm also for some reason. There's a bit of a love story with Cobie Smulders so there's a bit of something for everyone including the girlfriend. No knock on Rosumnd Pike from the first one, she's a hottie in her own right.

A quick search and most critics seem to be slamming the sequel but RT also gave Passengers a score of 31 and I say **** them I absolutely loved that movie!

Also apparently there are 20 Reacher books. Ouch! I may have bitten off more than I can chew lol.

I was more joking around than anything. I am assuming the article was also meant to be taken tongue in cheek.

 

[sandviper]

I like Tom Cruise. The guy's a bit weird, but I'll hand it to him -- he makes great films. But... he is totally, woefully, painfully miscast as Jack Reacher. I haven't seen the films, but I've read every single Lee Child book in the series. Jack Reacher -- the character who Child brought to life in about 20 fantastic novels -- is a 6'5" physical beast whose mind works with the deductive precision of Sherlock Holmes. His size and his demeanor bears no resemblance to Cruise's 5'6" hyper laserbeam of energy.

Generalized summary: Almost anyone who's read the book can't stomach the image of Cruise inhabiting Jack Reacher (even though he's small enough to inhabit Reacher's sock). And anyone who's seen the film may have trouble reconciling their image of Tom Cruise with the mammoth figure of the original in-print Jack Reacher.

I’ll admit to never had read the book so I can understand how fans would think Cruise is miscast.

I haven’t seen the second film, and it’s been some years since I’ve seen the first, but I recall they channeled the Sherlock Holmes aspects of Jack Reacher pretty well. I don’t know how much physical combat there was in the books, but with Cruise being smaller, they went the Jason Bourne route where Reacher relied on speed and technique.

On the topic of fighting and Cruise, I have to say the bathroom fight in MI: Fallout was impressive, very brutal and had a lot of ouch moments.

While these fighting roles would be more realistic with larger actors, we had other conversations that some actors resemble wooden boards like Statham and Diesel. I guess, audiences want to see good fights in action movies, but at the same time, decent acting and good charisma.

I guess we can agree that actors of Cruise’s stature are in short supply

 

[Bryson]

I guess we can say actors of Cruise’s stature are in short supply

Although I get the joke, it's actually the opposite. Most of Hollywood's leading men are actually really short, so if anything finding tall actors is nothing short of a tall order.

the character who Child brought to life in about 20 fantastic novels -- is a 6'5" physical beast whose mind works with the deductive precision of Sherlock Holmes. His size and his demeanor bears no resemblance to Cruise's 5'6" hyper laserbeam of energy.

I've met him on a few occasions and he's 5'7. You can see his shoes or often ankle boots have massive beefed up soles. In the 80's he often wore boots with a heel, much like Prince, but in the 90's he switched to custom made boots that had beefed up soles and then additionally had internal padding that added another inch and made for very strange, blocky, clunky boots. More recently he seems to be wearing a lot of cowboy boots with a little heel. I suspect he's now "shorter" than he was in the 90's.

He's directed many of his own films and utilizes a lot of camera tricks to try and make himself look taller beyond the costume choices. The one thing he doesn't often do, that a lot of other smaller stature actors have done, is use apple boxes to appear taller reportedly because of his ego, he doesn't want it to be apparent what he's doing.

In the case of the classic Western Shane, nothing was done to make Alan Ladd taller... but they did dig ditches and trenches throughout the set to have taller co-stars stand-in in ditches so they would be shorter which required director George Stevens to shoot around a maze of ditches and trenches.

15 Actors You Didn’t Know Were Short | ScreenRant

Sylvester Stallone Age & Height: 5 Fast Facts | Heavy.com

In Ralph Keyes’s 1980 book titled, The Height of Your Life, the author concocted a theory about numerous actors — especially the males — are shorter than their fans believe.

“Here’s the deal as I finally figured it out. Entertainment in general is a haven for smaller guys. I think you have to be able to present yourself and be expressive to be an actor, but if you grow up average size or taller, then you don’t grow up with such a need to be forceful or expressive. I think that’s why so many of our actors are smaller guys. It’s no fun being a smaller guy and being given short shrift, so you want people to know that you may be small, but you’re not weak.”

Having had two chihuahuas and an Alaskan Malamute, I can attest to the fact that small dogs are much louder (expressive) than big dogs in order to make up and compensate for their lack of size. It's actually quite funny. The small female especially was a master manipulator. She could charm the pants off anyone.

​

 

[Lshap]

I’ll admit to never had read the book so I can understand how fans would think Cruise is miscast.

I haven’t seen the second film, and it’s been some years since I’ve seen the first, but I recall they channeled the Sherlock Holmes aspects of Jack Reacher pretty well. I don’t know how much physical combat there was in the books, but with Cruise being smaller, they went the Jason Bourne route where Reacher relied on speed and technique.

On the topic of fighting and Cruise, I have to say the bathroom fight in MI: Fallout was impressive, very brutal and had a lot of ouch moments.

While these fighting roles would be more realistic with larger actors, we had other conversations that some actors resemble wooden boards like Statham and Diesel. I guess, audiences want to see good fights in action movies, but at the same time, decent acting and good charisma.

I guess we can agree that actors of Cruise’s stature are in short supply

M.I. Fallout was one of the best action films I've ever seen. Holy **** did they nail it! Even more important than the requisite action sequences, which were brilliant, was the tight script that held everything together and gave the characters room to breathe. And the direction was perfect -- not too frenetic, not too loud, not too strong, not too flawless. That men's room fight was amazing; so were about four or five other pivotal scenes.

Mission Impossible could never work as a series of books because it's a visual, heart-pumping race against time. It's perfect for film. Jack Reacher, on the other hand, was built upon a literary method of inner dialogue and calculation, punctuated by short bursts of physicality. The original Jack Reacher will always be about Thought over Action. I'm not interested in seeing a favourite literary character radically rebuilt for the screen, even if I understand why they did it.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

I am a big fan of Tom Cruise. MI3, The last Samurai and Minority report are amongst my favorite movies ever and i like him in almost all his others movies: Collateral, MI4,5 and 6, Edge of Tomorrow, Top gun, a few good men, valkyrie, Jerry maguire, Rain man, Austin Powers , Tropic Thunder, Eyes wide shut, interview with a vampire, born in the fourth a july.

But, i despise Jack Reacher. It's one of the worse movie that i had the displeasure to have seen in theather. Terrible acting, text and story. I thought i was going to see at least a good action movie but it wasn't. It was a mess. If you compare the bathroom fight scene in Jack Reacher and the one in MI6, you realize that Jack Reacher is a joke. That fight scene could have been in a Home alone movie.

 

[Lshap]

It's important to remember how good Tom Cruise was in purely dramatic roles. You can say Dustin Hoffman carried Rain Man, but it wouldn't have worked if Tom Cruise hadn't held up his end so perfectly. Cruise's patented slickness was balanced by his wonderfully nuanced evolution as Hoffman's brother.

Jerry McGuire was a great script that depended entirely on Cruise's ability to coax depth out of a shallow sports agent. It's a tale of redemption and a sweet love story, and Cruise sells it beautifully. "Help me... help YOU" -- delivered with the perfect blend of swagger and desperation. Man , I love this film.

Like another action star, Matt Damon, Cruise brings legitimate dramatic talent to his action roles, which is a big reason why they're so successful.

 

[ArtPeur]

The funny thing about MI: Fallout is that Cruise broke his ankle while jumping from one building to the next roof. He got up and kept running. They actually kept that shot for the movie

 

[uiCk]

MI fallout was entertaining, 30 min less would of made it better. Bathroom fight scene was on par with Arnold's bathroom fight scene in True Lies, 10/10

Would like to mention Cruise in Magnolia as being up there with his best performance in a dramatic role, albeit a small role.

 

[HBDay]

My god, just re-watching all the mission impossibles before I go watch the new one.

Fnished Ghost Protocol last night f*** I love these movies.

In the car with the American Embassy Leader (ethans boss)

" Ethan, I'm taking you to Washington where you will be branded a terrorist and Rogue extremist, and the Kremlin bombing will be hung on you... Unless you were to assault Mr. Brandt and I and escape, this conversation having never taken place, your motives would be un-clear."

 

[Redux91]

My god, just re-watching all the mission impossibles before I go watch the new one.

Fnished Ghost Protocol last night **** I love these movies.

In the car with the American Embassy Leader (ethans boss)

" Ethan, I'm taking you to Washington where you will be branded a terrorist and Rogue extremist, and the Kremlin bombing will be hung on you... Unless you were to assault Mr. Brandt and I and escape, this conversation having never taken place, your motives would be un-clear."

watching rogue nation right before going to see fallout was the smartest thing i could do lol, im really glad i did and didnt think "ehh ill watch rogue nation another time" no you HAVE to see it first lol

happy to see some props for Cruise tho, just never really got the hate

 

[groovejuice]

Although I get the joke, it's actually the opposite. Most of Hollywood's leading men are actually really short, so if anything finding tall actors is nothing short of a tall order.




15 Actors You Didn’t Know Were Short | ScreenRant

Sylvester Stallone Age & Height: 5 Fast Facts | Heavy.com

In Ralph Keyes’s 1980 book titled, The Height of Your Life, the author concocted a theory about numerous actors — especially the males — are shorter than their fans believe.

“Here’s the deal as I finally figured it out. Entertainment in general is a haven for smaller guys. I think you have to be able to present yourself and be expressive to be an actor, but if you grow up average size or taller, then you don’t grow up with such a need to be forceful or expressive. I think that’s why so many of our actors are smaller guys. It’s no fun being a smaller guy and being given short shrift, so you want people to know that you may be small, but you’re not weak.”

Having had two chihuahuas and an Alaskan Malamute, I can attest to the fact that small dogs are much louder (expressive) than big dogs in order to make up and compensate for their lack of size. It's actually quite funny. The small female especially was a master manipulator. She could charm the pants off anyone.

​

At one time in Hollywood , there was actually a practical explanation for the plethora of short leading men. Quite simply, the actor and his leading lady looked less awkward in the camera frame at most focal lengths if they were of similar height.

 

[Bryson]

I am a big fan of Tom Cruise. MI3, The last Samurai and Minority report are amongst my favorite movies ever and i like him in almost all his others movies: Collateral, MI4,5 and 6, Edge of Tomorrow, Top gun, a few good men, valkyrie, Jerry maguire, Rain man, Austin Powers , Tropic Thunder, Eyes wide shut, interview with a vampire, born in the fourth a july.

But, i despise Jack Reacher. It's one of the worse movie that i had the displeasure to have seen in theather. Terrible acting, text and story. I thought i was going to see at least a good action movie but it wasn't. It was a mess. If you compare the bathroom fight scene in Jack Reacher and the one in MI6, you realize that Jack Reacher is a joke. That fight scene could have been in a Home alone movie.

Out of curiosity did you watch Jack Reacher 2 and did you dislike it as much as the first one? I quite enjoyed the sequel. Not sure how you can be such a fan of Cruise and hate that one. It was vintage Cruise, albeit a little older.

Well my string of good movie watching officially came to an end... decided to watch The Mummy, the one Cruise film I had yet to see... the movie is like 1h30ish long but it felt more like 3 hours and as if it was never going to end lol.

Going back to Bond for a second... I am actually really surprised that Henry Cavill has not been cast as Bond yet. He's got the rugged good looks and posh swagger that suits Bond perfectly. He's a little wooden but thought he was great in another Spy movie called The Man from Uncle. Highly Recommend checking it out if anyone hasn't watched it.

 

[Bryson]

watching rogue nation right before going to see fallout was the smartest thing i could do lol, im really glad i did and didnt think "ehh ill watch rogue nation another time" no you HAVE to see it first lol

happy to see some props for Cruise tho, just never really got the hate

Contemplating if I should watch Rogue Nation again before watching Fallout. What would be the reason? Do the stories follow eachother?

Cruise's "hate" probably comes from his real life antics. His movies are actually pretty good. Very few actors have his longevity and high quality track record.

At one time in Hollywood , there was actually a practical explanation for the plethora of short leading men. Quite simply, the actor and his leading lady looked less awkward in the camera frame at most focal lengths if they were of similar height.

That actually makes a ton of sense groove. More so than the theory that short guys are more "expressive" lol. If anyone has ever tried to kiss a short girl before, I could imagine trying to kiss a girl that's a foot shorter than you would look awkward on camera.

 

[Redux91]

Contemplating if I should watch Rogue Nation again before watching Fallout. What would be the reason? Do the stories follow eachother?

Cruise's "hate" probably comes from his real life antics. His movies are actually pretty good. Very few actors have his longevity and high quality track record.

Spoiler : ***** Yes, basically you cant watch Fallout without absolutely watching Rogue Nation first, both rogue nation and fallout are directed by the same person as well, christopher mcquarrie, so its his big story to the franchise, so again, im SUPER glad i watched it late at night before going to see Fallout lol *******

 

[Bryson]

Spoiler : Yes, basically you cant even watch Fallout without absolutely watching Rogue Nation first, both rogue nation and fallout are directed by the same person as well, christopher mcquarrie, so its his big story to the franchise, so again, im SUPER glad i watched it late at night before going to see Fallout lol

LOL thanks for the spoiler warning but I'm not reading that! Is there a spoiler free version?

 

[Redux91]

LOL thanks for the spoiler warning but I'm not reading that! Is there a spoiler free version?

its not really a spoiler lol im just being THAT careful, just read it it wont hurt i promise lol its just an answer to your question

 

[Runner77]

Upgrade

This is my sleeper hit of the summer.
It was bad-ass, hilarious, great concept/visuals and sort of reminded me of a mix between Terminator 2 and Minority Report, but not really.
Those looking for a fun thrill-ride - get on this ASAP!

8/10

I made a mental note of this and am intrigued to find out more.

 

[groovejuice]

That actually makes a ton of sense groove. More so than the theory that short guys are more "expressive" lol. If anyone has ever tried to kiss a short girl before, I could imagine trying to kiss a girl that's a foot shorter than you would look awkward on camera.

You look at the names of actors who were short and you find everyone from Bogart to Rooney to Newman to Redford to Stallone to Cruise. It's still very slanted toward smaller men.

 

[ArtPeur]

Out of curiosity did you watch Jack Reacher 2 and did you dislike it as much as the first one? I quite enjoyed the sequel. Not sure how you can be such a fan of Cruise and hate that one. It was vintage Cruise, albeit a little older.

Well my string of good movie watching officially came to an end... decided to watch The Mummy, the one Cruise film I had yet to see... the movie is like 1h30ish long but it felt more like 3 hours and as if it was never going to end lol.

Going back to Bond for a second... I am actually really surprised that Henry Cavill has not been cast as Bond yet. He's got the rugged good looks and posh swagger that suits Bond perfectly. He's a little wooden but thought he was great in another Spy movie called The Man from Uncle. Highly Recommend checking it out if anyone hasn't watched it.

I liked Man from Uncle. Actually... I like pretty much everything done by Guy Ritchie.. if you forget the movies between Snatch and Rock'n'Rolla

 

[GoodKiwi]

Lounging around and thinking of what (TV series) to watch next. Nothing in my sidereel's "Want To Try" pile looks enticing at the moment. Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[sandviper]

LOL thanks for the spoiler warning but I'm not reading that! Is there a spoiler free version?

It helps because the story does continue. MI3, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation and Fallout are all Bad Robot productions, JJ Abrams, while only directing #3, is a producer on the others. #3 is pretty disconnected from #4 to #6, but, here are the links I saw...

MI3: We are introduced to Julia, his wife I believe in the movie or at least engaged. I forget. No link plot wise to the others, but let’s just say you need to know about her.

MI4: Julia cameos at the end, but the more interesting tidbit was Luther I recall mentions the Syndicate.

MI5: All about the Syndicate.

MI6: Takes place a couple years later, but the storyline is a direct continuation. There are also callbacks to the prior 3 movies I mentioned. In fact, there are subtle call backs to #1 and #2, specifically the intros to both movies. Saying more would spoil it.

I made a mental note of this and am intrigued to find out more.

I’ve had this on my shortlist also. I saw the red band trailer a few months ago and it looked brutally awesome.

 

[sandviper]

happy to see some props for Cruise tho, just never really got the hate

I think it has a lot to do with THAT day on Oprah.

 

[Bryson]

I made a mental note of this and am intrigued to find out more.

I would just go in blind and enjoy the movie. Would be interesting to read your review afterwards. I am actually surprised to see that it got a good rating on RT. I guess that means other people liked it too.

I can make some other recommendations if you're looking for suggestions.

It helps because the story does continue. MI3, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation and Fallout are all Bad Robot productions, JJ Abrams, while only directing #3, is a producer on the others. #3 is pretty disconnected from #4 to #6, but, here are the links I saw...

MI3: We are introduced to Julia, his wife I believe in the movie or at least engaged. I forget. No link plot wise to the others, but let’s just say you need to know about her.

MI4: Julia cameos at the end, but the more interesting tidbit was Luther I recall mentions the Syndicate.

MI5: All about the Syndicate.

MI6: Takes place a couple years later, but the storyline is a direct continuation. There are also callbacks to the prior 3 movies I mentioned. In fact, there are subtle call backs to #1 and #2, specifically the intros to both movies. Saying more would spoil it.



I’ve had this on my shortlist also. I saw the red band trailer a few months ago and it looked brutally awesome.

I would recommend avoiding the trailer if at all possible. Trailers give away too much of the movie nowadays.

Would you mind sharing what your shortlist looks like? I've got a shortlist of my own except that it's not very short.