Knight and Day: Actor Trademarks

I recently saw Knight and Day and am not going to give you a real review here, but I will give you my rating. I had heard from several people how good it was and others told me how disappointing it was. I guess they were both right. It could have been better, but I still enjoyed it. I really like Tom Cruise despite all of his critics. I give Knight and Day a 7.0 rating. While watching the movie I was reminded yet again of a Tom Cruise trademark that I have noticed in nearly every movie he has been in.

I first noticed this trend about fifteen years ago. At first I thought it was a coincidence or a random occurrence, but now I know it is an absolute given. If you see a Tom Cruise movie, you can expect a scene where he runs as fast as he can. If you don't believe me just check out The Outsiders, The Firm, Mission Impossible 1, 2, and 3, Far and Away, War of the Worlds, Collateral, Minority Report, Vanilla Sky, and Knight and Day, just to name a few. I was looking for proof of this and thanks to Youtube, you can see for yourself.

Cruise is not the only actor guilty of having a signature move. For Matthew McConaughey, it involves taking off his shirt. McConaughey's contract must state that he gets to take his shirt off in his movies within the first 10 minutes. I once pointed this out to others while watching Sahara and true to form, his shirt came off before the opening credits were even over.  Evidence of this can be seen in Fools Gold, EDtv, Reign of Fire, Failure to Launch, Sahara, and How to loose a guy in 10 days.

I'm really surprised that he kept his shirt on in Amistad. I'm guessing he must have pushed Spielberg for some reason to go shirtless during one of the court scenes. McConaughey may be the king of taking his shirt off but he has some close competition with Hugh Jackman, Jason Stratham, and Bradley Cooper close on his tail.

Inception

Inception was one of the few movies that I was really looking forward to seeing this year. It is directed by Christopher Nolan who also directed The Dark Knight. I really liked the Dark Knight but didn't care to watch it a second time since it was so dark, however, I would love to see Inception again and will probably have to in order to fully appreciate it. The last time I remember saying that after watching a movie was after viewing The Prestige which was also a Christopher Nolan film.

This movie features all the action and visual effects that you could ask for, but it also has a complicated and intricate plot. If you are a person who gets confused easily with movies then Inception may be a challenge for you due to it's length and complexity, but I thought it was refreshing and intellectually stimulating. I'm sure Inception will make a killing at the box office due to repeat viewers (and since it is so entertaining.)

Inception is much like the Matrix in that it deals with perception, reality, altered states, and dreams. Despite some basic similarities, it is a very original film with several surprise twists. The musical score by Hans Zimmer is great as usual. The entire cast, many of which you will recognize  from prior Nolan films, gave excellent performances. This is definitely the best movie I have seen in years. The only fault I could find was my pet peeve of close range machine gun fire throughout the movie that never seems to do any damage. I give it 9.0 stars

Invictus and Parnassus

Recently I saw two movies on DVD. They were Invictus and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. These movies have nothing in common, but I will attempt to give a quick review and share some of my delightful insights from each film. I can almost guarantee this will be the best dual review of both of these movies that you will find on the Internet this week.

I like sports movies, but I don't like Rugby. I like Matt Damon, but not with bleached hair. Despite these conflicts, I really liked this movie. Morgan Freeman did an excellent job of portraying Nelson Mandella. This movie kind of had a Gandhi feel to it with all the wisdom and self control that Freeman portrays. I think Clint Eastwood is a stud and an even better director than an actor. I enjoy his work and would gladly let him make a movie about me any day. Another thing I like about Invictus is how I can make a pun out of the title. I have been wanting to say "that they can't invictus of a crime we haven't committed," but there just hasn't been an occasion to say that yet. I give Invictus 7.6 stars.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is a Terry Gilliam project and has weird Monty Pythonness all over it. It is probably best known for being Heath Ledger's last film and it is very interesting how Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell all play different versions of the same character Tony. I thought the movie was very creative, but if you really want to get the most out of it, I'd suggest watching it after surgery while you are on pain killers. I give it 7.2 stars. The cast was great and they all had good performances, but If you don't like weird stuff, do yourself a favor and stay away.