What are you watching these days?
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With the current events, I watched 'Eyes Wide Shut' again, with Tom Cruise.
You know, about how the elites have private sex parties, and the women who speak out end up dead. Totally creative works of fiction. Ignore that Kubrik died a few weeks after the movie was released, if you don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
What was very noticeable to me was just how wooden the acting was in this movie. Cruise and Kidman were married when this movie was made, but the acting in the relationship seems forced. Tom Cruise, who is generally a great actor, was not believeable at all in this role, along with Kidman. His entire acting seemed forced. It's weird to see this now.
You know, about how the elites have private sex parties, and the women who speak out end up dead. Totally creative works of fiction. Ignore that Kubrik died a few weeks after the movie was released, if you don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
What was very noticeable to me was just how wooden the acting was in this movie. Cruise and Kidman were married when this movie was made, but the acting in the relationship seems forced. Tom Cruise, who is generally a great actor, was not believeable at all in this role, along with Kidman. His entire acting seemed forced. It's weird to see this now.
For sit-coms I've really been enjoying St Denis Medical.
Longer form I just started Last Frontier on Apple TV. Really great writing with all kinds of twists and turns.
Longer form I just started Last Frontier on Apple TV. Really great writing with all kinds of twists and turns.
This is a bit of an interest for me... I love the films of Stanley Kubrik... "2001" is in my all-time top 10, and "Strangelove" and "Full Metal Jacket" are way up there too. I bring up "2001" in discussion all the time as an example of a kind of film that barely exists anymore... a film that you have to think about what the director is trying to say... and what it all means. While George Lucas may have ripped-off some of the spaceship shots and modelling, "Star Wars" (a fun film) is at the exact opposite end of the spectrum of story telling (i.e., the narrative is as simple and familiar as possible). Brilliant film, "2001" in my view.
Anyway, "Eyes Wide Shut," I am not saying that you missed the point... as I feel it is all very much open to interpretation... but don't you feel like.... the narrative plays out inside of Dr. Bill Harford's (Tom Cruise's) subconscious? The whole thing is like a dream...a bad dream... a crisis dream... or a nightmare. Those kinds of nightmares where... the thing you don't want to happen... inevitably happens... crisis scenarios appear out of nowhere.... again and again... the guy on the street is following you... the people at the party know you are an imposter and an intruder.... when you show up at the gate, they are watching you, they know you are coming before you get there.... your close friend knows way more than you thought, and is in on it.....the prostitute you just had unprotected sex with is HIV positive.... and now she is deceased... and on-and-on it goes... everything unfolds like a bad dream. A subconscious riddled with guilt.
And the setting.... it looks NOTHING like New York City. It is a "New York City" like someone from the Soviet Union might imagine in the 1980s (and Kubrik was always an absolute sticker for detail). And the "doctor" is nothing like a real doctor.... the relationship with the wife is not like a real relationship.... etc. Everything plays out like a dream... a kind of tortured subconscious.
I mean... this is a hooker review website... so I am not going to write a thesis or anything... but, I always found this movie fascinating, and kind of creepy, if you take it on this level. It is not supposed to look or feel real. It's like a dream.... a subconscious reconciling itself to its own guilt.
I know Marty Scorsese... Roger Ebert... many big names... really liked this film. It is interesting if you take it on this level.
My fave Cruise movie is Top Gun: Maverick. And it's no different from any of his other movies: When he is engaged in some action sequence, he's brilliant. When he's interacting with men, he's really good. When he has a scene with women, particularly something romantic, he does seem really awkward.
His relationship history with women seems really strange at times. Lots of hot women in his past, but he looks like the guy who just bought that new sports car he doesn't know how to drive. So a movie like Eyes Wide Shut which requires lots of interaction with people is likely going to make Tom look rather wooden at times. I don't think he really interacts with people very well (check out his talk show appearances as well. He often looks like he is 'acting' rather than just being himself).
End of my two cents!
Thanks for the positive comment!
It is worth noting as well... this movie, "Eye Wide Shut" is an adaptation of a famous Austrian novella, which has been adapted several times, that has "dream" right in the title:
Rhapsody: A Dream Novel, also known as Dream Story (German:Traumnovelle)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Story
Bit of a "spoiler" here (for a movie from more than a quarter century ago!
) but.... just as in the film: "Fridolin (the doctor) returns home that night to find Albertina asleep, with his mask from the previous night (i.e. from the "sex gala") set on the pillow on his side of the bed. When she wakes up, Fridolin confesses all of his activities."It is so totally the dream of a guilt-ridden subconscious. It's like... wherever he turns... he is busted! There is no fighting it. Ultimately reducing him to just breaking down crying... begging forgiveness.
So the real, and harder, question is.... are there clues in the story as to what he is seeking forgiveness for? Why does he feel so guilty? Because men are jealous and crave sex and adventure? All men are like that.. Which parts are "real" when you (the viewer) are only experiencing it through his tortured guilt dream. Why is he so tortured?
That is how I look at it. The question is not really resolvable. It makes you think. Just like the question in "2001" ... man... like Neanderthal.... like artificial intelligence... will fight for survival. This we know. But why is the first resort to murder?
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Maybe he has wood in real life, but with respect to onscreen romance, dude is a tin man.
I actually like some of his movies. He has a 40 year resume of some very good movies. The Firm from 1993 A few good men. Those movies didn't suck. He seemed to carry his own in both of them.
Tom Cruise's movies have grossed over $13.3 billion at the worldwide box office, cementing his status as one of the highest-grossing actors of all time as of early 2025. His top-performing film is Top Gun: Maverick (2022), which grossed over $1.4 billion, while the Mission: Impossible franchise alone has generated nearly $5 billion.
Tom Cruise Movies List
Further up this thread I mentioned being a fan of Cruise movies and Maverick being one of my favourites (as just pure unadulterated action!). But his 'action' when it comes to women seems ... eh ... a bit stiff in the wrong places.
I'd say the same about Harrison Ford. For pure entertainment and action, he's going to deliver. Always seems a bit uptight interacting with humans.
I should throw in a plug for Guillermo del Toro's ultra-faithful (and, at the same time, imaginative) adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(2025_film)
I really wanted to see this when I heard it was coming, and it didn't disappoint. Not to go all spoiler... but Oscar Isaac's Victor Frankenstein is the real "monster" of this one, with Jacob Elordi's Creature being vastly more sympathetic.
This is also the only adaptation I can think of that involves a ship, captain and crew in the Arctic, as in the novel.
It is a bit long (2.5 hours) and slow in places, but is really quite interesting if you are interested in this kind of thing... where historical drama, meets horror and sci-fi.
Great performances from:
Also... from Guillermo del Toro, from three years earlier, and also done for Netflix, the totally wild... and definitely not Disney ... adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_del_Toro's_Pinocchio
Guillermo comes by his moniker, "The Nerd's Nerd," honestly. He is so totally one of us... the fans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(2025_film)
I really wanted to see this when I heard it was coming, and it didn't disappoint. Not to go all spoiler... but Oscar Isaac's Victor Frankenstein is the real "monster" of this one, with Jacob Elordi's Creature being vastly more sympathetic.
This is also the only adaptation I can think of that involves a ship, captain and crew in the Arctic, as in the novel.
It is a bit long (2.5 hours) and slow in places, but is really quite interesting if you are interested in this kind of thing... where historical drama, meets horror and sci-fi.
Great performances from:
Also... from Guillermo del Toro, from three years earlier, and also done for Netflix, the totally wild... and definitely not Disney ... adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_del_Toro's_Pinocchio
Guillermo comes by his moniker, "The Nerd's Nerd," honestly. He is so totally one of us... the fans.
Reading the books now, Bosh as well. Both series follow the books pretty closely. Just really good entertaining ready, kinda like trashy detective novels with classy trashy if you know what I mean. Kind of how I like my women!!
Michael Clayton. Great fucking movie IMHO. Keep watching it and finding details I missed, due to being half corked usually. George Clooney has a resume of really nice movies.
Sentimental Value
Norwegian movie, up for 9 Oscars
I got roped into watching it with one of my FWB's and ooo eee am glad I did.
The Singers
Short flick on Netflix
Just watch and listen, it got to me.
Norwegian movie, up for 9 Oscars
I got roped into watching it with one of my FWB's and ooo eee am glad I did.
The Singers
Short flick on Netflix
Just watch and listen, it got to me.
