Face-Off: Tom Cruise vs. Will Smith

Tom Cruise has brought his A game to every single role he’s been in, to the point it’s hard to pick roles to highlight. Eyes Wide Shut, Few Good Men, Interview with the Vampire, Magnolia, Rain Man, and Jerry Maguire are a few of the films I think of where I feel Cruise has particularly been able to shine. He knows when to downplay a performance and he knows the appropriate moments to bring the intensity, which he is great at. I think the best example and the biggest compliment one can give Cruise is the initial reluctance Anne Rice had when the role of Lestat went to him, and upon seeing the performance showered him praise. He lets his talent speak for itself. Extra points for Cruise’s great comedic moments in Austin Powers Goldmember and his brilliant turn in Tropic Thunder.

Let’s just get it out of the way and say there is no way in hell Cruise isn’t taking this category. From classics like Risky Business and Top Gun, to quality franchises like the Mission Impossible films, Cruise sure knows how to pick em. Cruise is one of those actors that I respect for making interesting choices in his career to go with roles that will appeal to the masses. I’m looking at you Eyes Wide Shut, Vanilla Sky, and Magnolia. Cruise has had what I feel were duds, wasn’t a big fan of stuff like Knight and Day and Valkyrie…but thankfully the good has FAR outweighed the bad.

All throughout the 90’s at the peak of his popularity Cruise has been on numerous lists ranking him among things like Most Beautiful People, 100 Sexiest Stars, and Power 100 lists. His star seemed to fade when we started seeing more erratic behavior emanate from Tom, but any publicity is good publicity and it did nothing to negatively affect his performances. Me personally, and I’m sure this is the case for many is that I will go into anything Tom Cruise is in with a smile on my face, he’s that charismatic on the screen. In 2006 Japan also declared they would hold an annual “Tom Cruise Day” in honor of him making more trips to Japan than any other actor, so damn awesome.

Tom Cruise has provided me with so many memorable moments in most of his movies that I will watch any film of his if it happens to be on TV. As I write this I want to go out and rent Collateral to marvel at that great performance again. Cruise is an interesting character off-screen but when he’s jumping into a role he’s always had it where it counts, even the films I’m not too fond of have been improved with his presence. I respect the man as an actor for the chances he’s taken as far the work he’s chosen goes, and the life risking things he’s been willing to partake in to add to a films excitement. Mission Impossible has been that much more amazing knowing Cruise is really out there doing that sh*t. You can see dedication from Cruise in every bit of his performances.