"You can't handle the truth!!"

So I once again stayed up later than I should have, and I'm usually not a TV-watching sort of guy, but dang it (family blog) if they don't show some really good movies down here. After seeing the conclusion of the Lakers' game and Ron Artest's curious yet candid post-game interview, I checked the channel that plays the subtitled English movies a lot. Of course, I did not intend to stay up until 3 watching a movie, but what are you going to do when you see the all-star cast of Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi More, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, Cuba Gooding Jr, Christopher Guest, and Noah Wyle in arguably the greatest military courtroom drama of 1992? You get comfortable, grab some strange South American fruit, and watch it, that's what.

Despite his strange real-life activities I have always enjoyed Tom Cruise in his movies. From Ethan Hunt in the Missions Impossible (1 and 3, 2 was strange), Maverick in Top Gun, Cole Trickle in Days of Thunder, Lestat de Lioncourt in Interview with a Vampire, Jerry Maguire in his eponymous film (who doesn't like snobby word usage?), even Brian Flanagan in Cocktail, Tom Cruise has portrayed extremely likable characters. I did not even mention his comedic roles, and I know I skipped some of the other movies so as not to belabor the point, but how many bad movies/characters has Tom Cruise been associated with? Say what you want about his lifestyle and diminutive stature, I would definitely want to be friends with cinematic Tom.

Anyways, I digress from the original topic, which also digresses from the general theme of this blog. When Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom) cross examines Lt. Kendrick (Sutherland) about whether he gave the order for a code red....electrifying. And just when you think Kaffee doesn't have any more gas in the tank, he shreds Col. Jessep (Nicholson) by tapping into the colonel's self-righteousness and arrogance. All levity aside, if you haven't seen the back-and-forth between Cruise and Nicholson in the climactic moment in A Few Good Men, do yourself a favor and go check it out. I also appreciated that Rob Reiner never forced the issue of romance between Demi Moore and Cruise. It would have been an unnecessary distraction, and there were already enough emotional issues with the characters (Moore with her self doubt, Cruise with his fear of never filling his father's shoes, Kevin Bacon with his ridiculous basketball getup). When Lance Cpl. Dawson (yes I spent some time on IMDB to ensure accuracy) salutes Cruise at the end of the movie...well...it doesn't get any better than that.

I'll have some more pertinent material next time, including information on the new apartment and fun weekend activities.