At this point with Netflix's service and Hollywood Video's $9.99/mo. "rent three not-New-Release movies per day, no fee" plan, I probably wouldn't have considered seeing this movie in the theater. It seems as if it's a matter of a month or two before a movie I might have been interested in, in the theater, is available on DVD from Netflix. A month after that, it's "free" with the Hollywood plan.
But without those (and assuming I wasn't succumbing to the laziness that comes from getting older), I think I would have avoided this movie in the theaters. I shy away from agenda actors, or at least shy away from giving them my money. I want them to act, not attempt to educate or convert me. I'm a liberal, but Tim Robbins doesn't get my money. Anyone peddling their hack sociology, politics or religion or Scam Faith doesn't get my money or the Vote of Acceptance that comes from buying a ticket. If being political or religious is your schtick, that's fine. But once you turn the celebrity from being just an actor into celebrity proselytizing, I'm done with you.
So while I wasn't likely going to go see War of the Worlds anyway, Cruise pretty much cemented that decision. I knew for years that he was a Scientologist, but because he didn't make a big deal about preaching it or namedropping it, it didn't matter. I saw his movies. But now that he seems to want to trade on his celebrity to be an active huckster for his cult, I'm not spending money on him. It's a small gesture and likely immeasurable by his or a studio's standards. But it doesn't inconvenience me (the DVD will be out just after I blink), and it goes with my conscience.
It's a tough call.....I hate Cruise, but Spielberg has made only a handful of poor films in his entire career. Roger Ebert (who's usually one of Spielberg's biggest fans) only gave the movie two stars, and that might be the deal-breaker for me.
Man, couldn't Orson Welles have just directed this movie 60 years ago?
"You can look the other way once, and it's no big deal, except it makes it easier for you to compromise the next time, and pretty soon that's all your doing; compromising, because that's the way you think things are done. You know those guys I busted? You think they were the bad guys? Because they weren't, they weren't bad guys, they were just like you and me. Except they compromised... Once." -- Jack Bauer
Just got back from seeing War of the Worlds. It's the cinematic equivilent of Benoit/Angle from WrestleMania 17: Well-executed, technically sound...but a shit finish.
Originally posted by brick but the wife wants to see it so I'm sure we'll be going in the next week or so.
WA-CHHHHH.
Heh. I apologize for that.
Anywho, isn't every religion a cult in its first hundred years? What legitimizes a religion? That would seem, to me, an abitrary set of qualifications. Most Christians I know say they would have followed Jesus immediately, but with the seek-and-destroy that Christ's early followers underwent, I find that very hard to believe. Few people are that courageous.
To me, it's got to show some longevity before I can characterize it as a "religion". For it to be a religion, it has to have been around longer than the cast of the original star trek. But other than that, scientology is no less of a religion than any other group of people who have the same beliefs. Lots of people jumped off buildings screaming about Jesus and Muhammad too, but no one blames those religions for that (Well, maybe the latter). So stating I won't see a movie someone is in because they are involved in scientology, when all I know about it is what I read on a link, is the kind prejudice that is thoroughly against my character. I don't care what anyone believes, nor do I think Cruise has become a shill for scientology. God, he talks about when asked, how is that shilling?
I walked by a scientology centre here in Toronto three to four days a week for several months when I worked a temp job (the "temp" aspect known only to me, hehehe) nearby, and no one ever sacked me, injected me with some unknown serum, and left me to awaken in an ice-filled tub with my kidney on a cookie sheet next to me. Why isn't anyone doing any research on the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? I would never say scientology is close to as legitimate, but the more legitimate the institution, the more dangerous it becomes. All of these religions, at various times, have become too powerful and in different parts of the world all are currently too powerful, in my humble opinion.
Now, Jesus was a cool guy. I'm not comparing the guy who wrote the story that was adapted into Battlefield Earth to Jesus. Jesus smokes him. But he wouldn't want you boycotting a movie because of what someone believed. He wasn't about that, now was he?
That being said, I probably won't see this. Doesn't look good. *Shrugs*
Hot Virgins-The World's Most Steadily Shrinking Commodity
without wanting to generalise, only yank moral judgements are so warped and incorrectlty focused as to allow someone's dedication to a non-judeo-christian religion (or athiesm) to decide whether or not to go and see a movie with that person in.
Originally posted by Hogan's My Dad>Now, Jesus was a cool guy. I'm not comparing the guy who wrote the story that was adapted into Battlefield Earth to Jesus. Jesus smokes him. But he wouldn't want you boycotting a movie because of what someone believed. He wasn't about that, now was he?
No, Jesus would want me to boycott this movie on the grounds that it looks like crap, because I know Jesus and Jesus is all about the art-house cinema.
Well that and the whole Tom Cruise bashing Brooke Shields and planks in eyes and first stones and all that jazz. I don't think he'd be keen on that.
If this was coming from ANYONE else at the moment, I'd agree with them but since it's Tom Cruise saying it... it just makes him sound even more like a nutcase...
...and I actually feel the same way, which makes ME feel like a nutcase as well. Why can't he just go fly a commercial airline like John Travolta's doing, and go away.
This al said, I'll probably go see the film just to remind myself that Tom was a good actor once upon a time, and could carry a film just by BEING Tom Cruise and not 'I'm wacky, I'm in love with a girl old enough to be my daughter' Tom Cruise.
(edited by Cerebus on 29.6.05 1250) Cerebus: RIP 1977-2004.
"What do you think it's like being created by a manic-depressive, paranoid schizophrenic, hypochondriac, misogynist with delusions of grandeur and a messiah complex?"
Anyone who wonders why Scientology gets the major cult treatment from everyone else should just run a quick Google search on "Scientology." Everything except their own website is a site based on trying to spread the (very, very scary) secrets about what goes on behind their closed doors. I read a bunch of articles about it some years ago, and I've got to say it's pretty creepy. If even half of what former members report is true, then they've really earned their cult status.
Most famously, those who reach OT level III will learn about Xenu, the galactic tyrant who stacked hundreds of billions of his frozen victims around Earth's volcanoes 75 million years ago before blowing them up with hydrogen bombs and brainwashing them with a "three-D, super colossal motion picture" for 36 days. The traumatised thetans subsequently clustered around human bodies, in effect acting as invisible spiritual head lice that can only be removed using advanced Scientology techniques. Reportedly, the cost of reaching OT III approaches $360,000.
The Church of Scientology has been, and remains, a controversial organization. Countries have taken markedly different approaches to Scientology. In the United States, Scientology declares itself to be a religion and regularly cites religious protection under First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In Canada the Church of Scientology is legal but has the unique distinction of being criminally convicted as a corporation of two counts of breach of the public trust (for an organized conspiracy to break into government offices) following a trial by jury.
Other countries, notably in Europe, have regarded Scientology as a potentially dangerous cult and have significantly restricted its activities at various times, or at least have not considered that the branches of the Church of Scientology met the legal criteria for being considered religion-supporting organizations. In Germany for instance, Scientology is not seen as a religion by the government but as a commercial business with potentially anti-democratic tendencies, and has been subjected to state surveillance as a result. The United Kingdom government does not recognize Scientology as a bona fide religion, and it has been subjected to considerable pressure from the state in Russia.
"You want to tempt the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing?" --Toby, West Wing
Originally posted by dwatersTom Cruise is everywhere. I think he pumped my gas this morning.
I don't think I'll see the movie--even though he is running down the street. Think of every Tom Cruise movie trailer you have ever seen--he is running down a street as fast as he can. The Firm, Jerry Maguire (I think), Minority Report, etc. It must be part of his contract or something.
I don't really remember him running in the trailers for Far & Away, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Risky Business, Color of Money, Legend, Born on the Fourth of July, Interview With the Vampire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Collateral or Rain Man. It's amazing that they would show him running from the police in a movie where he's a fugitive...
Originally posted by dwatersTom Cruise is everywhere. I think he pumped my gas this morning.
I don't think I'll see the movie--even though he is running down the street. Think of every Tom Cruise movie trailer you have ever seen--he is running down a street as fast as he can. The Firm, Jerry Maguire (I think), Minority Report, etc. It must be part of his contract or something.
I don't really remember him running in the trailers for Far & Away, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Risky Business, Color of Money, Legend, Born on the Fourth of July, Interview With the Vampire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Collateral or Rain Man. It's amazing that they would show him running from the police in a movie where he's a fugitive...
Originally posted by dwatersTom Cruise is everywhere. I think he pumped my gas this morning.
I don't think I'll see the movie--even though he is running down the street. Think of every Tom Cruise movie trailer you have ever seen--he is running down a street as fast as he can. The Firm, Jerry Maguire (I think), Minority Report, etc. It must be part of his contract or something.
I don't really remember him running in the trailers for Far & Away, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Risky Business, Color of Money, Legend, Born on the Fourth of July, Interview With the Vampire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Collateral or Rain Man. It's amazing that they would show him running from the police in a movie where he's a fugitive...
He WAS running in the trailer for Collateral.
And in the trailer for Far & Away (it's the clip from the land grab scene, everyone was running)
The kid is all confused and thinks to himself "I'm not calling anyone mommy because the last time I did that, it led to this." -My Wife on adoption
Originally posted by dwatersTom Cruise is everywhere. I think he pumped my gas this morning.
I don't think I'll see the movie--even though he is running down the street. Think of every Tom Cruise movie trailer you have ever seen--he is running down a street as fast as he can. The Firm, Jerry Maguire (I think), Minority Report, etc. It must be part of his contract or something.
I don't really remember him running in the trailers for Far & Away, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Risky Business, Color of Money, Legend, Born on the Fourth of July, Interview With the Vampire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Collateral or Rain Man. It's amazing that they would show him running from the police in a movie where he's a fugitive...
He WAS running in the trailer for Collateral.
And in the trailer for Far & Away (it's the clip from the land grab scene, everyone was running)
He also does some running down a NY street in Eyes Wide Shut. It's not a full run, but it's enough to count in my eyes.
For all your CZW and Nickels Trivia information. There will be a huge Survivor Series match at Nickels in-between the big IWS/CZW Double Show on July 9'th!
Man, the early respondants to this thread couldn't have missed the point more if they tried. That's not your fault, though, since M. Night is still being dragged down by the problem that's plagued him since Signs was released: