Posts Tagged ‘Tom Cruise’

Totally tropical taste

It’s all change at Picturenose – Brussels-based journalist and critic Jeremy Slater joins the fold, with his review of Ben Stiller’s comedy epic…

As James pointed out in his recent review of What Just Happened? (2009) there is nothing quite like a great spoof of our favourite fun factory, Hollywood, for the real film buff. And here we have another one, Tropic Thunder (2008), with the schtick being, as in the rather fine Galaxy Quest (1999) , a group of actors who suddenly find their imaginary adventures becoming horribly real.

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The good German?

Ever since The Usual Suspects (1994), director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie have seemed more than capable of delivering the good stuff, when they’re together.

Further to that point, along with co-writer Nathan Alexander, who is also on board for Valkyrie (2008), and whose first film this is, they also seem to be able to get the best out of one Tom Cruise. Picturenose’s other half, Colin, has previously made his thoughts quite clear concerning ‘the stunted one’ (his words, not mine) – I, on the other hand, have always had a good deal of time for the Cruiser and his acting range, even if, as I must concede, he really shouldn’t espouse cults masquerading as life choices, or make a complete tit of himself on Oprah.

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Cruise controls

A double first for me. The first first (?) is that I am writing a review for the first time in a good long while. I’m sure James will thank me for the input in his own inimitable way. The second is that I am reviewing a film that stars Tom Cruise that I actually enjoyed. I wouldn’t normally spoil these lovely pages by lauding the stunted one’s celluloid output, but – and credit where it’s due – this is actually not half bad, Cruise or no Cruise.

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Best of Impossible worlds?

Domesticity beckons for everyone’s favourite ‘super-spy’ Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) – he has turned his back on active duty and is now training new IMF (Impossible Mission Force) agents.

The cover story for beautiful wife-to-be, Julia (Michelle Monaghan) is that he works in traffic-control management, but, on the night of their engagement party, he’s called back into action to confront uber-villain Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons and information mercenary untroubled by bothersome human traits such as remorse or conscience. With new recruit Lindsey (Keri Russel) fallen into Davian’s clutches, Hunt hits the trail with old team-mate Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames), transportation expert Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and background operative Zhen (Maggie Q).

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Store men

In an effort to be absolutely bang up-to-date here on Picturenose, I thought it would be a good idea to review a movie I managed to miss for a good 14 years. I don’t think it necessarily matters, though. You could see it for the first time tomorrow and it would be certain to entertain you in some way. While certain topics are hardly current (the quite delicious discussion of The Return of the Jedi (1983) for example), the dialogue really is the selling point for this ultra-low budget affair, which cost only around $54,000 to produce.

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