Tom Cruise and Comedies: Time for a Career Change

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Tom Cruise and Comedies: Time for a Career Change

Written by Arya Ponto

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

With his numerous public displays of psychosis and his current status as Scientology's own Easter Bunny (not quite as divine as Jesus, but pre-packaged pretty to delight people), not a lot of people can take Tom Cruise seriously anymore as an action hero or dramatic actor. Mission: Impossible III underperformed and Lions for Lambs flat-out tanked. Though there were many factors to that fact, it's obvious that Cruise's diminishing star power played a hand. Yes, he's still a good actor as always, but the way celebrity works, the adoring public aren't so forgiving. People are laughing at him, his antics and his beliefs. So what's a guy gotta do? How about reinventing himself as a comedy star?

Throughout his career, Tom Cruise rarely partook in all-out comedies, save for his unexpected cameo as himself playing Austin Powers in Goldmember. The last movie of his that could be considered a comedy was Jerry Maguire, 12 years ago. Starting tomorrow, audiences will see a different side to Cruise in Tropic Thunder, where he plays a foul-mouthed studio exec that... Well, I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but let's just say that he's hysterical to the point of damn near stealing the entire movie.

Cruise has another comedy lined up for him called The Hardy Men, which has him and Ben Stiller portraying the famous Hardy Boys all grown up, but still playing detectives. The project is currently being helmed by Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy. Cruise also recently dropped out of the Kurt Wimmer-scripted thriller Edwin A. Salt (replaced by Angelina Jolie, obviously prompting a rewrite), signing instead to star in the comedy Food Fight, playing a snooty New York chef forced to take up a job cooking lunch at a school cafeteria.

Are we seeing a career turn for the biggest star in the world? It wouldn't be a bad idea. It might be the thing to keep him on-camera. Once the troubled Valkyrie comes out in the dead of next February to lukewarm response—partly because the production had been suffering from media sniping over Tom Cruise's ridiculous eyepatch, among others—can we then expect a comedy star to emerge from the serious actor? I say, if Christopher Walken can, why not Cruise?

August 12, 2008, Lex Walker said:

Personally my favorite Cruise moment comes from Risky Business - where he played a nice mix of comedy/drama. So I'm all for a Cruise Comedy Career....could be...interesting(?).

Votes: +0

August 12, 2008, Saul Berenbaum said:

Lions for Lambs kicked so much ass I couldn't maintain my glee. Tom is a phenomenal actor, and everything I've seen from Jerry Maguire to Magnolia to Rain Man where he's tried to really perform well, he's attained triumph in.

He can do comedy, of course. But with the record he has both as dramatic show-stopper and action superhero (because M:I3 was totally awesome), I can't see him sticking exclusively to comedy for very long.

And Night at the Museum was a disaster.

Votes: +0