MovieChat Forums > Magnolia (2000) Discussion > To this day I can’t get over

To this day I can’t get over


The fact Michael Caine won best supporting actor over Cruise. Caine gave a normal fine performance, while Cruise delivered one of the most iconic, entertaining, and multiply demsional characters of all time. The fact that Cruise has won 3 Golden Globes, but no Oscars show the biased they have against him.

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Cruise really isn't much of an actor. A hard worker, a star, yes, but not much of an actor.

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Yeah so I guess who haven’t seen Magnolia, Born on the 4th of July, Jerry Maguire, Collateral, Tropic Thunder, or Rain Man. You’re a complete fool and troll. Get a life

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BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY IS CRUISE'S BEST PERFORMANCE...AND IT HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO UNDER A TOP TIER DIRECTOR.QUITE FRANKLY..DUDE IS GOOD AT PUTTING THE CRUISE SPIN ON CHARACTERS.HE IS A MOVIE STAR.HE DOES NOT WORK WELL WITHIN CHARACTERS THAT HE CANT CONTROL.CONTROL IS A BIG PART OF HIS LIFE.THATS WHY HE DOESNT STRETCH HIMSELF AS AN ACTOR..HE WOULD HAVE TO TURN OVER TOO MUCH CONTROL TO OTHERS.

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Using all caps proves you’re a troll and an idiot. He’s a three time Golden Globe winner and a three time Oscar nominee. Also, Magnolia is his best performance. The guy is a fantastic actor, just because he does a lot of blockbusters that make money doesn’t make him a bad actor. Get a life troll

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CAPS DOES NOT EQUAL TROLL. JACKASSES RUN AROUND YELLING TROLL AT PEOPLE.

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Keep trolling

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IF BY TROLLING YOU MEAN COMMUNICATING MY OPINIONS ON MOVIES AND SUCH TOPICS VIA THIS SITE AND ITS BOARDS....THEN YES,I WILL....SO,WHY ARE YOU SO DEFENSIVE ABOUT TOM CRUISE?YOU REALLY SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR DIFFERENT OPINIONS WHEN YOU LOG ON.WHAT COULD BE DISCUSSION DOESNT HAVE TO BE ARGUEMENT.

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Using all caps just makes you look like an idiot mate.

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No, after reading through this thread's comments, it's clear that your pathological defense of Tom Cruise has led you to look kinda foolish. This is a place for tolerating differing opinions and perceptions. DISCUSSION.

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Troll get a life

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Good point, that it took Oliver Stone, a strong director, to get the most out of Tom Cruise...

I think you're on to something with the Cruise's need to be in control...

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I have seen all of those movies and the one thing you probably haven't noticed is - most of his characters, especially the ones who made him famous: Maverick, Brian Flanagan, Cole Trickle, Charlie Babbitt, Daniel Kaffee, Ron Kovic, Jerry Maguire, are, basically, the same character - an arrogant asshole, who goes through catharsis and finds redemption.

He makes great movies, but, for me, everyone else steals the show - Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson (even Kevin Polak), Jamie Fox, Brian Brown, Cuba Gooding Jr, etc

As far as Magnolia goes, don't you think Cruises role would fit Matthew McConaughey better?

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First of all: so what if his roles are similar? Tommy Lee Jones won an Academy Award and he's playing variations on very similar people. He just does it really well.

Secondly, I don't think that's all Cruise is doing. Joel in Risky Business, Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, Nathan in The Last Samurai, and Vincent in Collateral are all very, very different people.

Finally, I can only really picture Cruise playing Frank in Magnolia because he did it so very well that anybody else seems merely equal to the task, but never better. McConaughey probably could play the role, but Cruise owned that part.

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Vincent is a lot like Ethan Hunt. Lestat and Nathan weren't his proudest moments IMO and, like I said, even there others stole the show - Pitt (even Slater and Dunst) and Watanabe.

As far as TLJ goes, he's a good actor, but only Malkovich deserved the award less than him that year.

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I brought up Jones to point out that similarity between roles is no indicator of a lack of talent. Some actors do all kinds of roles, like Tom Hanks, others do very similar work, like Tommy Lee Jones, but that doesn't mean they aren't great actors. It was to refute the point that Cruise was always similar and therefore a bad actor.

I really don't see Vincent and Ethan as similar at all, and if you didn't like his work as Lestat or Nathan Aldren, what can I say? We just see those roles as very different. I will definitely concede that Watanabe and Dunst were brilliant in their roles, but that hardly should diminish Cruise's performances.

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I didn't say he is a bad actor. I said he wasn't much of an actor. If he weren't somewhat good, he wouldn't be where he is. He is the living proof that talent is less important than hard work. I can see the effort he puts into everything he does and he deserves what he has just for that. But it doesn't come as naturally for him as it does for most of his costars and it shows. That is why, at the age when most actors start focusing on character roles, he pushes himself to do more physical roles.

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I’m glad you know how Tom Cruise thinks in real life, you guys must be good friends.

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Just calling it like I see it. Since Magnolia, he's made 22 films. Out of those, 17 are action movies.

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Again, just because he does a lot of successful action movies doesn’t make him a bad actor. He can give an Oscar winning performance and he’s great at blockbusters. Go home troll

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NO ONE SAID HE WAS A BAD ACTOR...SIMPLY THAT HE CHOOSES ROLES HE CAN SPIN WITH HIS OWN THING,AND THE MAJORITY OR HIS WORK SINCE BECOMING A-LIST HAS BEEN SIMILAR ROLES.HE DOES NOT STRETCH OR TEST HIMSELF AS AN ACTOR THAT MUCH.

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The guy said he isn’t much of an actor which would mean he’s a bad actor

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You are correct; I misread "wasn't much of" as being a condemning dismissal of his skills, and it just meant he was lukewarm. I believe that he's really good. I think he demonstrates range and talent across many, many roles.

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He is a good actor, he works hard and kudos for that. I just don't think he's as deserving of the praise he gets as an artist. His range is very limiting and goes between angry, confused and flirty. What he does is chose good scripts with a good cast and it makes him look better. Look at "A few good men" for instance - anyone could have played his role, but no one could replace Nicholson. Or "Rain man" - he is easily replaceable, but no one could do it like Hoffman.

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I actually don't see him getting a lot of praise as an artist. I see most people taking a stance similar to yours: that he isn't terribly good, more tolerable, even if he does work hard.

He isn't as iconic as Nicholson or Hoffman in those films, but I truly believe he hit that level with Vincent in Collateral and Lestat in Interview with the Vampire. It's hard to imagine somebody else portraying those characters quite as well as Cruise did.

That said, most roles could have been done by more than one person. Retrospectively, we assume nobody could have handled a role - like Hoffman in Rain Man - except for the originator, but I'm sure somebody else could have.

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And vanilla sky in my opinion

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Glad someone else knows wtf they're talking about when it comes to Cruise's skills. It's just unfortunate he doesn't do more challenging roles these days, because he has the chops.

Also, legendary performance in Interview with the Vampire - no one could have played Lestat better. Great performance in The Last Samurai too, and others not mentioned. Very underappreciated

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He is also very well connected )
However, I enjoy some of his movies. Not the dramatic ones though.

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Cruise is better than Caine that's for sure. Caine is one of the most overrated actors of all time, he can't even change his accent convincingly.

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I am with you on that. If not TC it should have gone to Haley Joel Osment. Also Magnolia should have won best picture over American Beauty. I would like to see TC work with PTA again.

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I agree 100 percent. I’m just still baffled on how Caine won.

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Definitely his best performance probably alongside Born On the 4th of July. I disagree with someone on this thread who said he's not much of a actor. The guy can act up a storm but he's far more into been a Star. He should have won that Oscar and am surprised at this time in his life that he's not going for more meatier roles as well as the big blockbusters.

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Oscars = shit. Who cares.
Tom Cruise gave a great performance in this movie.
He was even better in other films like BOT4OJ.
Oscars are not a measure for anything other than the opinion of the academy.

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I agree, but other people say “he doesn’t even have an Oscar, he can’t be a good actor”.

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NO ONE SAID THAT...EVER.

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Cruise was great in this, particularly because it was so far against his persona. But, it's hard to say that Cruise was the best supporting actor in Magnolia

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What? This IS Tom Cruise. Self-obsessed and self-made man.

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i laughed at that dude's comment.

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"The fact that Cruise has won 3 Golden Globes, but no Oscars show the biased they have against him."

BEcause FUCK HIM, that's why. He doesn't deserve an Oscar.

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Exactly you just proved my point. It’s sad how jealous you are of Cruise. Go troll somewhere else.

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Jealous of Cruise? The only thing I might envy to Cruise is his wallet.. and yeah, typical attitude: "you don't like what I like, you are trolling ".. *eyes roll*

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You said he doesn’t deserve an Oscar because you don’t like him. You’re a biased troll get a life.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger won a Golden Globe... just saying.

And, btw, what is this new shitty trend to have this « you don’t agree with me and don’t like a certain actor/person, so you are just jealous and have a shitty opinion » mindset? And why do you feel the need to insult? I see it more and more lately.

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Arnie won for best newcoming Actor. What’s your point? Other than the fact that awards of bullshit because the deserving person almost never wins.

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You answered your own question.

And you didn’t answered why being vile and mean is necessary? He has the right to not like Cruise, it’s like if he were Daniel Day-Lewis. His opinion is just as good as yours.

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it's a showy performance. usually the subtler is rewarded. P-SH was better but he had less to do with his character.

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