Post by marishka on Mar 2, 2010 12:55:43 GMT
Constance Droganes, entertainment writer, CTV.ca
Date: Tuesday Mar. 2, 2010 6:22 AM ET
You can never be a full-fledged action hero in Hollywood without an Oscar-worthy war movie under your belt.
Just ask Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner.
Thanks to 1989's anti-war film, "Born on the Fourth of July," Cruise's Oscar-nominated portrayal of a paralyzed Vietnam War vet forever altered Hollywood's perceptions of the "Risky Business" heartthrob.
The same can be said of Jeremy Renner and his breakthrough performance in the modern war-time thriller, "The Hurt Locker."
Director Kathryn Bigelow hit the jackpot when she cast the 39-year-old indie character actor as Staff Sgt. William James, with his piercing, off-kilter stare rather than boyish prettiness.
thingyy to the point of reckless, Renner's man of action swaggers through the blood-stained streets of Iraq with explosive force.
The nerve-jangling results are tough to shake.
They also raise a curious question: Could 2010's hottest Oscar underdog possibly replace Cruise as Hollywood's new action hero?
"I think Jeremy is definitely headed in that direction as an action hero. But, there are differences that separate him from a Tom Cruise," says Claudia Puig, the film critic for USA Today.
Renner's smouldering intensity on screen and off is the first distinction.
"I have spent quite a bit of time talking to Jeremy about ‘The Hurt Locker,'" Puig tells CTV.ca.
"He is not a pretty boy. He doesn't want to chitchat about Hollywood parties or who is dating who. Jeremy is serious. He's right there in the trenches doing his work and does it with a ferocity that cannot be missed," says Puig.
Cruise's career, of course, has seen similar glimmers of such inward power.
"We do see flashes of that intensity in films like ‘Rain Man' and ‘Magnolia.' But, that's about it," says Puig.
Renner, however, makes that deep, inward intensity shine in everything he touches right from 2002's serial-murderer biopic "Dahmer" to 2007's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."
But does he have Cruise's star presence?
That quality is admirable says Los Angeles Times film critic, Betsy Sharkey. But, will it overshadow Cruise at the box office.
"Not very likely," Sharkey told CTV.ca.
"Don't get me wrong. I love Jeremy Renner. He is a fantastic, wonderful, interesting actor we will likely watch for years and years. But, he simply does not fill the screen like Tom Cruise does."
More than looks, height or macho appeal, the real difference between these two actors comes down to star presence.
"Jeremy is an interior kind of guy, not an exterior actor like Cruise. He keeps his characters very tightly wound even when he plays something softer. But, that does not a movie star make," says Sharkey.
"I have to give Tom Cruise credit," she adds. "Whether he is on screen or comes into a room he owns it. Something radiates off of him. Renner just doesn't have that quality."
Perhaps not yet. But, is Hollywood willing to bet on that changing?
"It is always very interesting when you catch an actor just on the way up,' says Puig.
"At 39, Jeremy is in a vastly different place in life than Tom Cruise was when fame found him after ‘Risky Business.' Cruise was barely into his 20s. He lacked the maturity and indie experience that makes Jeremy so strong today and so wonderful to watch," says Puig.
Whether those strengths, plus his Best Actor nomination, will transform Renner into Hollywood's next action hero remains to be seen.
But, as Puig jokes, "You could almost argue that Jeremy Renner is what Tom Cruise ‘the actor' wishes he could have been if Tom Cruise ‘the celebrity' didn't get in the way."
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100301/oscars_runner_100302/20100302?hub=TopStoriesV2
Date: Tuesday Mar. 2, 2010 6:22 AM ET
You can never be a full-fledged action hero in Hollywood without an Oscar-worthy war movie under your belt.
Just ask Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner.
Thanks to 1989's anti-war film, "Born on the Fourth of July," Cruise's Oscar-nominated portrayal of a paralyzed Vietnam War vet forever altered Hollywood's perceptions of the "Risky Business" heartthrob.
The same can be said of Jeremy Renner and his breakthrough performance in the modern war-time thriller, "The Hurt Locker."
Director Kathryn Bigelow hit the jackpot when she cast the 39-year-old indie character actor as Staff Sgt. William James, with his piercing, off-kilter stare rather than boyish prettiness.
thingyy to the point of reckless, Renner's man of action swaggers through the blood-stained streets of Iraq with explosive force.
The nerve-jangling results are tough to shake.
They also raise a curious question: Could 2010's hottest Oscar underdog possibly replace Cruise as Hollywood's new action hero?
"I think Jeremy is definitely headed in that direction as an action hero. But, there are differences that separate him from a Tom Cruise," says Claudia Puig, the film critic for USA Today.
Renner's smouldering intensity on screen and off is the first distinction.
"I have spent quite a bit of time talking to Jeremy about ‘The Hurt Locker,'" Puig tells CTV.ca.
"He is not a pretty boy. He doesn't want to chitchat about Hollywood parties or who is dating who. Jeremy is serious. He's right there in the trenches doing his work and does it with a ferocity that cannot be missed," says Puig.
Cruise's career, of course, has seen similar glimmers of such inward power.
"We do see flashes of that intensity in films like ‘Rain Man' and ‘Magnolia.' But, that's about it," says Puig.
Renner, however, makes that deep, inward intensity shine in everything he touches right from 2002's serial-murderer biopic "Dahmer" to 2007's "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."
But does he have Cruise's star presence?
That quality is admirable says Los Angeles Times film critic, Betsy Sharkey. But, will it overshadow Cruise at the box office.
"Not very likely," Sharkey told CTV.ca.
"Don't get me wrong. I love Jeremy Renner. He is a fantastic, wonderful, interesting actor we will likely watch for years and years. But, he simply does not fill the screen like Tom Cruise does."
More than looks, height or macho appeal, the real difference between these two actors comes down to star presence.
"Jeremy is an interior kind of guy, not an exterior actor like Cruise. He keeps his characters very tightly wound even when he plays something softer. But, that does not a movie star make," says Sharkey.
"I have to give Tom Cruise credit," she adds. "Whether he is on screen or comes into a room he owns it. Something radiates off of him. Renner just doesn't have that quality."
Perhaps not yet. But, is Hollywood willing to bet on that changing?
"It is always very interesting when you catch an actor just on the way up,' says Puig.
"At 39, Jeremy is in a vastly different place in life than Tom Cruise was when fame found him after ‘Risky Business.' Cruise was barely into his 20s. He lacked the maturity and indie experience that makes Jeremy so strong today and so wonderful to watch," says Puig.
Whether those strengths, plus his Best Actor nomination, will transform Renner into Hollywood's next action hero remains to be seen.
But, as Puig jokes, "You could almost argue that Jeremy Renner is what Tom Cruise ‘the actor' wishes he could have been if Tom Cruise ‘the celebrity' didn't get in the way."
www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100301/oscars_runner_100302/20100302?hub=TopStoriesV2