Last movie watched...

[von Boom]

watched 47 ronin & to my surprise it was f-kin brilliant

Yeah 47 Ronin was great. It got dumped on because 1) it wasn't historically accurate and c) Keanu Reeves.

It's a bloody great fantasy film and should have been marketed as such.

[Tiplodocus]

I'm not picking on just Bill Murray here. It happened a lot in the Eighties where they mistake being a dick for being edgy and enigmatic. (Tom Cruise in Top Gun is another prime example).

[Theblazeuk]

Oh man I watched Top Gun for the first time last week. I wanted Maverick to die more than the MiG pilots.

At least Venkman is supposed to be the slime ball...

[zombemybabynow]

still can't stop watching Solomon Kaine once a month or so - brilliant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIBwQsOwEeM

[Mardroid]

"That devil be a roight bad un, an' no mistake.
Arrrr!"

Sorry. Joking aside, that actually looks rather good.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Oh man I watched Top Gun for the first time last week. I wanted Maverick to die more than the MiG pilots.

At least Venkman is supposed to be the slime ball...

Top-Gun is the classic American-jet-fighter-pilot film of the 80's.

I can't believed you missed it this time around and for this amount of time.

A lot of people found Tom Cruise and his role obnoxious earlier in his career. Some still do, but he has been impressing people more lately. I still think he would be difficult to get on well with beyond any of his professional courtesy every famous person owns.

[Hawkmumbler]

Tom Cruise i've always thought something of a self loving git. When he acts well he's OK, Cocktail and Edge of Tomorrow for example, but he was an unbearable bore in Top Gun a movie which I have no affection for.

[JamesC]

I think Tom Cruise is an excellent film star. He's a pretty good actor, looks good and is undoubtedly pretty fearless when it comes to doing stunts. He very rarely makes bad films in my opinion.
His nutcase activities with that bonkers science fiction cult isn't something I concern myself with.

[Richmond Clements]

I think Tom Cruise is an excellent film star. He's a pretty good actor, looks good and is undoubtedly pretty fearless when it comes to doing stunts. He very rarely makes bad films in my opinion.
His nutcase activities with that bonkers science fiction cult isn't something I concern myself with.

Exactly how I feel. When people point out the nonsense he believes, I usually point out that I know someone who believes a carpenter came back from the dead 2000 years ago..!

[Tiplodocus]

Wise up and check out The Cruiser in Magnolia. He's brilliant. As is the whole film.

[I, Cosh]

Simply don't believe it when someone claims not to like Top Gun. Unless they just mean they can't be arsed with the boring 65 minutes in the middle when nobody is flying a plane. Inverted or otherwise.

I'll put myself down as a fan of Cruise and of protagonists who are dicks. It's part of what makes those films great. Snake Plisskin is kind of a dick, but he's also awesome. Everyone on the team in Predator is a total bellend except maybe the guerrilla woman who wants to kill them but, damn!

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

...Plisskin is kind of a dick...

Kind of? He's literally a one-eyed Snake

[TordelBack]

Yeah, I often recoil from the concept of watching a Cruise movie, but in reality most of them are pretty darn good, and when they aren't it's very rarely because of his performance (see also: Tom Hanks).  And if I started disliking people because of their religious beliefs and odd relationship choices I'd be a very lonely boy.

Top Gun, however, is unwatchable. 

[Jim_Campbell]

Top Gun, however, is unwatchable.

Never seen it. It was Days of Thunder that put me off watching anything with Tom Cruise in it for a decade or so... I was persuaded to watch Interview With A Vampire many years after its release and was pleasantly surprised by how good Cruise was in it and, in fairly quick succession, watched Last Samurai, Minority Report and Collateral, and was impressed by the sheer variety of both subject matter and role — here was an actor who was undoubtedly a star but who was clearly able to fit a wide range of roles. In all honesty, Days of Thunder excluded, I don't think I've ever seen Cruise be bad in anything, although I wouldn't claim to have seen the majority of his movies.*

Cheers

Jim

*See also: Brad Pitt.

[Theblazeuk]

Snake Plisskin is an out-and-out anti-hero; he's a dick, but the people surrounding him are even bigger dicks, and they're the ones to blame for this sorry state of affairs.

It's ok for protagonists to be arseholes in the best 80s movies as we're not really placed in any sympathy with them beyond their struggle against the enemy - a Predator, an island full of crazies, even a shapeshifting monster (MacReady does try to save people though) - or because they are clearly trying to prevent some injustice, ala Matrix in Commando with his daughter or even Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. Venkman was comic relief and was more of a cocky wiseass than a proper dickhead - the ghostbusters get a paycheck at the end of the day, they are not superheroes.

Top Gun is however about Maverick being Maverick and takes itself so seriously I couldn't stomach it.

Top-Gun is the classic American-jet-fighter-pilot film of the 80's.

I can't believed you missed it this time around and for this amount of time.

I was 3 in the 80s and my jet-fighter movie was Independence Day, which has a far more likeable cocky protagonist and a better plot line.

Like Tom Cruise a great deal in Interview with a Vampire and have time for him in plenty else. He's a little shit in Top Gun though.