I remember feeling somewhat foolish at the "macho" feeling Top Gun gave me (was big into sand volleyball back then) when someone pointed out the relatively overt alternate masculinity flowing through the movie ("Playin' With the Boys"). Still loved the movie, just dialed it back a few notches.
Lion King got me this summer, I'm a little gun-shy betting against cats of any ilk.
Charlie Sheen smoked and drank Tom Cruise.
Which was farther removed from reality, "Tiger Blood" Charlie Sheen, or Scientologist Tom Cruise?
As long as we can get Valeria Golino for Hot Shots: The Topper, I'll see it. Cary Elwes would likely come back as Admiral Gregory. Would Jon Cryer come back as Wash Out if Charlie Sheen were involved?
I made my wife re-watch the original with me today because I was so geeked out about the trailer. It'd been quite a while since I'd really sat down and watched it. Couple stray observations upon viewing again:
1. The impracticality of playing beach volleyball in full jeans is stunning. In normal beach wear, sands gets everywhere. In tight wranglers after diving face first into the sand, forget about it. Then to just hop on a motorcycle like it's nothing. In never occurred to me before but the reason Maverick keeps telling Charlie he needs to shower isn't because he's sweaty, it's because he needs to find a fire hose and power wash the sand out of his I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this.I'm a real wanker for saying this..
2. Val Kilmer's acting choices don't hold up. All that biting and sniffing. Who does that? Name one occasion when biting the air at someone is the reasonable thing to do.
3. I had completely missed that Tim Robbins is in this movie as Merlin. He's only in it toward the end but his appearance surprised me. It was circa Bull Durham Tim Robbins and if there's anyone who should NOT be flying a Navy plane, it's Nuke Laloosh.
4. From 1986 to 1996, Tom Cruise starred in the following movies back-to-back: Top Gun, Color of Money, Cocktail, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, Days of Thunder, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview w/ the Vampire, Mission Impossible, and Jerry Maguire. Talk about a murder's row. He OWNED that decade.
I'll bet, and this thread helps prove, that there were thousands of conversations like this these past couple of days. During a highly intellectual bbq-beer drinking festival in the backyard last night, my son and I took a deep dive into how Tom Cruise is the last and only bona fide "MOVIE STAR" right now. That his name and power guarantee money being made for everybody on the set.
Maybe he went a little wacky there for a while but he resurrected his image and sits on top of Hollywood in very rare air.
And he's still a hottie.
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
He went a little wacky, is an understatement. He's a Scientologist, and still is. He still has his beliefs, he's just not vocal about it anymore. Something tells me he's been making movies lately to please the masses and get back in good favor with the general public. I think Top Gun is a prime example of that concept.
With that being said, I hope it's great. I hope it is unapologetically full of American pride and bad-assmenship, I think we need that right now.
My son and I had this very same conversation over the weekend, but came to a very different conclusion. He asked me "who's the biggest star in Hollywood right now" and I barely paused before saying "The Rock."
Other than the Mission Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise hasn't been in a movie that made more than $101 million in domestic boxoffice since War of the Worlds in 2005. Rampage, in which The Rock befriends a giant monkey that knocks down buildings, made more money then Edge of Tomorrow, one of the better alien invasion films ever made.
Cruise is still a big star and I love that he has largely continued to make high quality films (American Made was quite good and all the MI films are great... let's not talk about The Mummy) but he isn't close to the star he was when he ruled Hollywood during the 90s.
-Jason "he's still in amazing shape and the fact that he does so many of these stunts himself is truly special" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
I'd probably go Schwarzenegger as the right comparison for The Rock over Cruise. A charismatic muscle-bound action hero that also did some fish out of water type comedies. What made Cruise's period of box office domination was his malleability and cross-genre appeal. He had action (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, MI), romantic comedies (Jerry Maguire), Drama (Born on the 4th, The Firm), campy horror/thrillers (Interview w/ the Vampire)...he was in freaking everything!
Nothing incites bodily violence quicker than a Duke fan turning in your direction and saying 'scoreboard.'
wonder if the auditions for the new one were anything like these:
Tim Curry absolutely slays in that movie as Darkness. The film is a silly, over-the-top, fairy tale but I love it.
Oh, and the Brian Ferry (Roxy Music) song from the film, "Is Your Love Strong Enough" remains one of my favorite songs to this day. In heavy rotation on my playlist for decades!
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Man, I'm glad you weighed in. When I was starting this thread and making that point about Cruise's decade of supremacy, I sat for 10 solid minutes debating whether or not to include Legend. I thought, if I include it and people have seen it, they'll think I'm nuts. If they haven't and google it, they'll think the same.
As far as I'm concerned, there are two damn unicorns in this picture!
TC Legend.jpg