Now Playing: Queen: Bohemian Rapsodie
Topic: Rambling Rumminations
When Orson Welles broadcasted his (almost) namesake's classic War of the Worlds on October 30th, 1938, he caused New Jersey residents to flee their homes en masse. Despite the inclusion of disclaimers, that it was all just fiction, the folks in New York's bracken backwaters actually believed the actor's rendition of Martians terrorizing the state.
Not to worry - it won't happen this time around. The only possibility of a stampede following Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg's version of the same story would come about as a result of simply too much bad acting. Mr. Cruise, paired up with another midget thespian, Dakota Fanning, has largely survived the last decade because of his undeniably good looks (at least where the face is concerned - there isn't much of a body!), and because there simply isn't much in terms of competition in the leading young men category these days.
Lately, however, his public antics about Ms. Holmes and the Scientologist Body-snatchers, are beginning to erode what ever goodwill his besotted fans have left. Who knows? Maybe this utterly forgettable mis-adaptation of a movie will be the start of a movie era without Cruise-control! My only regret would be: why hasn't this happened sooner.
Meanwhile, over in the Jolie Pitts of domestic violence-oriented movies, Mr. and Mrs. Smith duke it out in true American fashion: guns blazing! It could have been a lot worse. Although the movie owes its box office success more because of domestic dramas off the set, it wasn't half bad. The camp acting by both stars ensures that nobody but the densest imbecile from Wisconsin would take it as anything else than a farce. And as such it has a quite a few laughs, if you can overlook the regrettable inclusion of Vince Vaughn, who - unfortunately - did not get shot in the first scene of the movie.
