Wrong casting bites

Rating: Null/10 (21 June 2013)

The vampire-crowd are so thirsty for material that they often wind up reviewing the subject more than the actual film.
So here are my feelings: Anne Rice was right to have initially complained, publicly and bitterly, about the casting of Tom Cruise as LeStat -- and why she took back such criticism as the film was being released theatrically, I'll never understand.
I have nothing against Mr. Cruise, but he's all wrong -- in fact, terrible -- in the film. And Brad Pitt, duller and flatter than I'm accustomed to seeing him, is at least a tad better as Louis... But if you HAD to cast these two actors in "...Vampire", they're playing each others' parts!: Pitt would have been far better as LeStat than Tom. (As would several other stars)... I was hoping for a kind of "La Jetee" feel to the empty netherworld the story was attempting to portray, but these actors, especially Tom, simply weren't the ones).
The film is directed with some style, but the wrong casting keeps the movie a bit shrill and at arm's length the entire time.
A missed opportunity, nearly-ruined by Hollywood...