SeeCupRider said:
he's handsome and it would seem that for him, "acting" means "looking intense" in the same way, film after film. Other people seem to like his movies. Risky Business was okay thanks to Rebecca and Top Gun had a lot of F-14's
You've nailed it. For many years I would see Tom Cruise movies (often for many reasons other than him starring in them), I would always come away feeling bothered with his performance, even though I'd have to admit he can actually deliver his dialogue (not so easy to do or else ANYBODY could boast they can act).
A couple of years ago when I saw the movie The Last Samurai with Cruise, a contender for a classic if only for their bungle of a lead actor, it finally dawned on me why I just can't stand the guy when I see his movies: his emotional range is hopelessly stuck between two settings, what SeeCupRider called his patented "looking intense" , or when he pulls a swerve on the audience and unleashes his less-often-seen "flipping out" manoeuver (when he abruptly flails his arms up with his eyes bulging out, acting all crazy for a few seconds).
This is why Cruise tends to stick to action movies for the most part, his lack of range. Even his "romance" in Mission Impossible 3 was pretty painful to watch as for the life of me I just couldn't make myself believe he was actually devastated when his "wife" is shot in front of his eyes.
Here's another thing I can't help but chuckle about Cruise, now I don't know if it's his ego/pride/vanity about his lack of height or the producer's decision in this case (I choose the former
), but if you go back and see the movie "Vanilla Sky", it's hilarious when you see Cruise and the varying size relations with his two leading ladies in this movie, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz: whenever Cruise has scenes separately with each woman they are always the same height, but the few scenes where Diaz and Cruz are together you can plainly see that Cruz is very tiny and Diaz is much taller than her
