Pop culture Q&A

August 19, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Pop culture Q&A

By Rich Heldenfels

Folks are still miffed about Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher.

You may recall a previous lament over Cruise playing the character created by novelist Lee Child, since Reacher is much larger than Cruise. I noted that movies often cast actors who do not match the print (or real) personalities they are playing, But some folks are not mollified. As in:

Q. Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher: What a stretch. We need a young Steven Seagal. Not only does he have the look, but he has the right demeanor. That’s one movie I’ll gladly miss. Too bad, it could have had a good run with the proper casting. Tom Cruise. I’m still laughing.

And:

Q. Anyone who is a fan of Jack Reacher books knows that the reason Reacher is Reacher is because of his physical image. Tom Cruise, no matter how good an actor, is not the actor to play Jack Reacher. Besides the obvious physical difference, he does not have the persona that Jack Reacher needs to have. Jack Reacher is not the hero because he is trying to be, but because he can. I would like to see Dwayne Johnson play Reacher; at least he would be believable.

A. That’s just a sample of the passionate reactions, and we will see how the movie does when it hits theaters in December. For now, you can find a trailer for the movie — called “Jack Reacher” — on YouTube and decide how tough that makes Cruise look.

This may all sound too familiar to Cruise. Back in 1994, when Cruise was cast as the vampire Lestat in the screen version of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire,” Rice was publicly and repeatedly disapproving of the casting, and told People magazine that “I wanted a great actor of appropriate voice and height who could carry the part — [John] Malkovich, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jeremy Irons. It’s a different league” than Cruise. But when she saw the performance, she approved.

Q. What happened to “Mad Men”? It has not been on for awhile.

A. The Emmy-winning series makes only about 13 episodes per season, and so ended its fifth season in June. New episodes will begin airing in 2013.

Q. “Justified” is one of our favorite shows. We bought seasons one and two, and had a marathon one weekend a while back, and absolutely loved every minute. We are so excited about seeing season 3, and have been looking everywhere for more information on its DVD release date.

A. I have not seen a release date for the third season, which has finished airing on FX. The two previous seasons have hit home video in January 2011 and 2012 respectively, not long before the next season’s premiere, and I would expect a similar pattern for the third season: a DVD and Blu-ray release shortly before the fourth season begins.

Q. In the 1950s, I saw a movie called “You Can’t Run Away From It” with Jack Lemmon and June Allyson. It was a remake of “It Happened One Night” with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. For years, I have been unsuccessful in my search for this movie. I cannot find it in stores, at the library, or any site online. Are you aware of it being available anywhere? I would enjoy being able to see it again.

A. The search for old movies and TV shows has gotten trickier. Not only are there DVDs and Blu-rays for sale in retail stores and from online vendors, not to mention some sellers of old VHS tapes, there are copies of some films made on demand by distributors like Warner Bros., and online downloads and streaming of productions via Hulu, Netflix, Amazon.com and iTunes. I do not know of a hard copy of the 1956 musical “You Can’t Run Away From It” but did see it available as a download on Amazon.com, both for rental and purchase.

2012 Akron Beacon Journal

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