OK: some good points, some bad points

Rating: Null/10 (17 October 2002)

I became a Tom Cruise fan after I saw "Eyes Wide Shut," which came out much later than this, so I've been slowly trying to catch up on renting videos of his back movies. I had put this one off for a long time, because I was afraid it was going to be scary and my husband didn't want to watch it with me. Now maybe it's because my TV has only a 5" screen, and maybe it's because I'm getting jaded in my old age, but this just didn't seem at all scary to me. I notice some other reviewers thought it was, but I didn't think so. So, if you, like me, are putting this off because you're afraid of being spooked, maybe you needn't wait any longer.
Anyway, I thought that the movie was more philosophical than scary. Tom seems to like stories that examine the inner workings of the human soul and that show moral complexity. This movie fits into that pattern ... not that it is really profound, mind you, especially if you've seen "Dark Shadows," where a lot of these issues are already examined.
One thing that disappointed me was that I was mislead by the cover photography on the video. I thought that because Tom had the largest photo he must be the lead. WRONG. Brad Pitt is the lead. Tom is a supporting actor here. This was frustrating to me as a Tom Cruise fan. The shots of him were too short. He moved too fast. I didn't get to focus on his face long enough. Now, Brad Pitt is a fine actor, and there were several lingering shots of his face, which should appeal to HIS fans ... BUT I'm not into blonds, so that didn't do too much for me. Tom is also wearing a light colored wig, which was a bit hard for me to look at.
The pleasant surprise was Antonio Banderas, who isn't even a tiny bit blond. I spent all his scenes wondering where I had seen him before. Then I went on IMDB and saw that he was the goofy dad from Spy Kids II. What a contrast, seeing him as a vampire! This guy can really act! For my money he out-acted both Pitt and Cruise, and was better-looking than both. He is definitely an under-appreciated talent.
Another pleasant surprise was gorgeous period costumes. I'm really a pushover for those old clothes, particularly the beautiful dresses that some of the female vampires got to wear: just oceans of shiny satin. I loved that.
Now this is going to be boring for those of you who are not big Tom Cruise fans, but you can really see that Tom's nose has changed if you look at this movie after seeing "Vanilla Sky". I see three possibilities: 1. he had a nose job; 2. his nose has grown, dramatically (A doctor once told me that our noses keep growing throughout our lives, so that older people have larger noses than younger people, so that could have happened.); OR 3. sometimes he wears a fake nose as part of his makeup. Does anyone know which of these is the case or is there some other possible explanation?