They played it again. This time I caught it almost from the start. A little more story line but not much improvement overall. Cruise is so vapid. S, What did you like about it besides the masks ?


- bill 3-06-2001 3:29 pm


First of all I am a Cruise fan. I appreciate his professionalisim. I always get the sense that no matter how dumb or good the role is he gives it 110% of his energy.
I think the film addresses men's suspicion and fear of the potent and vivid fantasies that women ingage in. This is a subject not very often addressed in movies, contemporary music etc.
As for the mask/cult bit, it really was a small part of the story. A sort of McGuffin. easily replaced by another.
As I intrepret it, the "coven" of men was not that powerful or any real threat to the life of Cruise's charactor. This silly party was their fantasy come true and they didn't want it jinxed by having the press or their wives find out about it. So they scared Cruise off by roughing up his friend the piano player. The girl wasn't murdered, she just overdosed.
Kubric was an old man. He spent the last 30 years of his life a hermit and was out of touch with many aspects of contemporary life, including a movie going public with an insatiable taste for kink and irony and an inability to understand that the subject of his last movie was love.
I also dug the photography.
- steve 3-06-2001 7:23 pm [add a comment]


  • a tom cruise fan? he may give 110% but its the same 110% he gave in the last movie. they just put him in a different costume and changed his name. im going to call you "maverick" from now on. in fact, ive got that kenny loggins song on in my head right now. highway to the dangerzone.
    - dave 3-06-2001 7:39 pm [add a comment]


    • one could say the same for Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, May West, Bill Murry, Jacques Tati, Clint Eastwood, Judy Holliday......
      - steve 3-06-2001 8:49 pm [add a comment]


      • But not who ? 1) Paul Neuman / I don't think Cary Grant belongs on that list of other people who do.


        - bill 3-06-2001 9:06 pm [add a comment]


        • no, i would say cary grant belongs on that list. they didnt even bother to change the suit for him. but he is so married to his image and he is so effortless in his delivery that it works. maybe in 50 years theyll say the same about cruise but somehow i doubt it.
          - dave 3-06-2001 9:30 pm [add a comment]


      • yes, hollywood is more interested in $tars than actors, and im sure its very difficult to not seem like what you are but....i think they call it typecasting. i havent seen wideshut yet but even in magnolia which was supposed to be a stretch it seemed like he was acting by the numbers. hes not quite as bad as keanu but who is?
        - dave 3-06-2001 9:27 pm [add a comment]






add a comment to this page:

Your post will be captioned "posted by anonymous,"
or you may enter a guest username below:


Line breaks work. HTML tags will be stripped.