Does Tom Cruise get unfairly criticised?

...which I had been led to believe otherwise before viewing, most likely because of people disliking Tom Cruise.

Perhaps if it TLS had been made around the time of Cocktail I would have been one of those people. I didn't really like Tom Cruise's movies until 1996, with the one-two punch of Mission:Impossible and Jerry Maguire. But by now it's a given that Cruise will learn whatever is necessary for the role and study the hell out of it, like learning gunplay for Collateral. So I knew going in that TLS would have Cruise doing the swordplay himself rather than having cutaways to a stuntman, which always bugs me.

yes...tom cruise does get unfairly criticized.

Everyone should stop 'dissin' the Cruise and adhire to his enormous acting talents!

Can't stand Tom as a person but absolutely love him as an actor.

Kinda have similar feelings about Russell Crowe, Mel Gibson, and John Travolta.

I go to the movies to see them act, and they all do it well.

But yeah, Tom hurt his acting career and credibility with all his off camera antics, and gets unfairly criticized as an actor as a result.

Yeah, I think he is. He had his odd phase where he was a little obnoxiously public about his beliefs in Scientology, but at the same time it's his right to believe whatever he wants. I don't really care. I think he's a talented actor, and I really took notice of him after seeing Born on the Fourth of July. Daniel Day-Lewis was a very worthy winner that year for Best Actor, but I think I would have given the slight edge to Tom Cruise for the win. He was incredible.

Definitely. I think a lot of people don't even give this film a chance because it was Cruise. At the time it was made, he wasn't considered the kooky guy he is now, but I think it was still hard for people to consider him a real actor. I thought he did a fantastic job in this film with a multifaceted role like this and more than held his own with Watanabe, who I think is a stellar actor.

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I think people just have a beef with scientology in particular. It is pretty weird after all.

If you look at the ratings for this film in particular there aren't many '1's which you'd usually see when people have a lot of hate (e.g. mel gibson movies). It makes me think the teasing of cruise is pretty superficial. I'm sure most people realise what a great actor he is.