tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post114726067100401569..comments2024-03-29T04:57:26.162-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Mission: UntenableJohn Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-1147279904569315292006-05-10T12:51:00.000-04:002006-05-10T12:51:00.000-04:00Femme Fatale is a great film, Tony, you are absolu...Femme Fatale is a great film, Tony, you are absolutely right. What a brilliant work of art, and a return to form for a great artist.<BR/><BR/>Personally, I'm also a huge admirer of Dressed to Kill. That scene with Angie Dickinson in the museum of art, getting picked up by a stranger, is lyrical, expressive filmmaking at its best.<BR/><BR/>And I concur with your thoughts on Cruise and MI3. In the end, MI3 just isn't a must-see-on-opening weekend thing for me.John Kenneth Muirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-1147274271252978372006-05-10T11:17:00.000-04:002006-05-10T11:17:00.000-04:00Hey John,I believe in separating the art from the ...Hey John,<BR/><BR/>I believe in separating the art from the artist, in theory and in practice. However, in the case of someone like Cruise, someone who is more “idol” than “artist”, I think it becomes much more difficult for folks to make the distinction. When you’re much better at being a movie star than you are at being an actor, you should probably watch your public image carefully. This is something I think some of the old timers, John Wayne for example, understood to their credit.<BR/><BR/>I don’t really care about Cruise one way or the other. I thought he was good in Magnolia, but I remember thinking at the time that Frank TJ Mackie was probably as close to the real Tom Cruise as we’d ever seen. If you now consider the Mackie interview scene(s) from Magnolia in light of the recent Oprah incident, it’s almost spooky.<BR/><BR/>As for the M:I franchise, I can take it or leave it. The first one bugged me for pretty much the same reason it did you: I wanted to see a team of spies in action, and instead we got the Tom Cruise Show. What’s worse is that we started out with a team, and I was digging it. But then they were all quickly and unceremoniously killed off, leaving the star to go all loose cannon loner on us. Yawn. Still, I’m also a big DePalma fan and, even though he was in hired gun mode, he put just enough of himself in it to make it somewhat enjoyable.<BR/><BR/>I avoided M:I 2 like the plague, based on a very simple equation. John Woo + Hollywood = Crap. If I never see Face/Off again it will be far too soon. I do want to see M:I 3, but my primary interest there is in seeing how Star Trek’s new BMOC handles the director’s chair.<BR/><BR/>By the way, it’s nice to know you’re a DePalma fan. Was Femme Fatale a work of genius or what? Talk about back on form…<BR/><BR/>-Tony MercerAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com