Tom Cruise has pulled off one of the great career rescues of all time. A
couple of years ago the guy was a joke, and it looked like he shit away
his entire career in one hour on Oprah’s couch. But as is the case with
all good action heroes, when the chips were down Cruise pulled it off,
and all of a sudden we’re looking at a summer 2010 where a Cruise film
could be one of the biggest hits of the year and there’s a Mission:
Impossible IV coming down the pike that, judging by the
director (Brad Bird) could be actually interesting.
But even
still, Cruise has to be keenly aware that he’s in the diminishing years
of his action movie career. I think he’ll be in good enough shape to
keep running and jumping on screen well into his 60s, but he doesn’t want to just churn out Mission: Impossible movies for the rest of his life. He’s definitely going to take another couple of flying leaps at the Oscar before he’s done (his last time invited as a nominee was 1999!), but I don’t think a glut of serious pictures is what he’s after either.
Which is why the reappearance of Les Grossman, his character from Tropic Thunder, has been so interesting. Grossman showed up at the MTV Movie Awards last night and, by some reports, stole the show (I have no idea because I couldn’t be fucked to sit through the program).
I don’t think Tom Cruise does anything just for the hell of it, and I definitely don’t think he undergoes a long make-up process just for a gag. And consider this: the reason for him being on the awards show was to pimp his upcoming Knight and Day, so why dress up like a character from a two year old movie while doing that?
So what if the Les Grossman thing is something Cruise is considering spinning off? Maybe he brought the character out to see if people still react positively to him, and they do. If Cruise is about going to head into Oscar mode in the next couple of years, having a raucous comedy on the side can only help demonstrate his range. And since Cruise’s intensity simply doesn’t work in non-fatsuit comedies (he always has to be the intense straight man), Les Grossman opens up brand new doors for the actor.
This is all spitballs and bullshit, obviously. Maybe Cruise just has a latex fetish. But something tells me that there are people somewhere in a room in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood talking about packaging a deal for the further adventures of Les Grossman.
UPDATED: Yup, Cruise told EW there’s a Grossman movie in the works. Don’t doubt me! Thanks to Brian Gallagher for that link.
15 comments
Or it could just be that the MTV Awards are known for their comedy skits, and having Cruise turn up dressed as Ron Kovic would have killed the mood.
A movie version? He's funny, but an entire movie would be a bit much I think. To me, Les is the type of character that should be done in small doses, but also funny popping up in random movies/tv shows/award shows, etc. It would keep us wanting more in my opinion.
Interesting. I'd support it.
i'd love to see les grossman Vs sergio from get him to the greek. maybe combine universes lol
One of the great injustices of the 2008 Award season was that Cruise wasn't nominated for this performance.
I thought it was the funniest part of the show next to Aziz's Precious parody/Tavon "Swagger Coach" acceptance speech.
I'm guessing it has probably more to do with the fact that Ben Stiller has a long history of doing parodies on the MTV Awards, then Cruise calculating his every move(though I'm not saying they weren't testing the water for something in the future). Stiller's Mission Impossible 2 parody, which Cruise appeared in, was pretty hilarious(Google search Tom Crooze). I would definitely watch a Les Grossman movie, especially if Stiller is involved.
UGGGGGH. They ran the character in the ground already, in Tropic Thunder. It's not Tom Cruise demonstrating his range, it's Tom Cruise playing a character that caught people off-guard in a charmed way and he just wants to be relevant again. I'm sure tons of people think the Les Grossman character is just the funniest thing they've ever seen in their lives, but seriously, an entire MOVIE around that character? Let me know how it turns out cause I'm not going NEAR a theater playing that shit.
i think they made this movie already, it was called "Jiminy Glick in Lalawood", aka "Awful one note characters that are borderline mildly amusing, if that"
All of those who keep raising the word "relevant" shut up! Tom Cruise is probably one of the most relevant actors in the world. Just because he might not appeal to teeny boppers doesn't make him irrelevant. So get off of it and onto something else, like having sex with your babe or something.
Finally, a movie with this guy would not involve a 2 hour stint of just Les. He would probably be the hub of the movie but I'm sure there would be many a supporting actor taking roles and appropriate doses of Grossman to anchor the film in comedy.
So get off your shit and laugh a little at the stuff. Don't take everything so seriously will yeah.
Les Grossman (and the trailer for Simple Jack) were about the only things funny about Tropic Thunder. Actually Nick Nolte was funny too. I wouldn't mind seeing the movie
Yeah, why not.
WTF happened to CHUD's O'Don Piano-meter?
like u said, he's just trying to promote knight and day.
him showing up as an old character gets SOME press but saying there's a movie in the works means you right an article about it. cruise wins the day.
Whatever happened to the Hardy Men movie he and Stiller planned to do together? That sounded promising.
So many comments have this so right. Bad idea.
Remember how awesome Jack Sparrow was as a supporting character? Then, do you remember how the novelty wore off when he became front and centre in the Pirates sequels? I think it would be worse for Les Grossman. Brilliant supporting player – not sure he could carry the show himself. Sometimes less is more (or Les is more if you're that way inclined).
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