Les Grossman folks! Pound for pound maybe the most entertaining bit character in movie history. The fact that there isn't some kind of Adult Swim short or HBO show based on him by now is an egregious miscalculation. Guy flat out stole Tropic Thunder outside of Robert Downey. Which brings me to an official Strange Brew happy birthday to Tom Cruise on his 50th! Now I know there's a lot of drama with him and Katie Holmes right at present. Something about separation and scientology, Cruise might be ghey blah blah blah. Listen I couldn't tell you the difference between a Scientology meeting and a Stone Cutter meeting. I don't know if Tom Cruise is ghey and I could care less. I mean did the Katie Holmes thing seem a little contrived? Sure. Jumping on the couch with Oprah and losing his mind all seemed like an act. And honestly it seemed like an odd choice for Katie Holmes too. Young, hot actress marrying young to a guy who hadn't really been in the limelight in quite some time. Made her choice of Charlie Conway over Dawson seem rational*. But all of that aside Tom Cruise is without question on the top 3 list of actors in the last 20 years. Tom Hanks is undeniably #1. There's a strong case for Denzel Washington as well. And no blog about great acting would be complete without Nic Cage. But Tom Cruise is right up there. I mean this guy's IMDB page is like a mix tape of my favorite movies. In no particular order they go:

1A. A Few Good Men

1B. Top Gun

1C. Rain Main

1D. Jerry Maguire

1E. Risky Business

1F. Days of Thunder

1G. Interview with a Vampire

1H. Minority Report

1I. Collateral

1J. Born on the 4th of July

2. Cocktail

Not a bad list huh? So I don't care if he's ghey, straight, black, white or even a Cubs fan. Just keep entertaining the crap out of me like you have since 1983.

*Did you follow the Mighty Ducks/Dawson's Creek reference there? Couple of layers going on there. Like a 90's pop culture Inception.

PS: What did people do before Google and IMDB? That used to be one of the most frustrating things of the pre-internet era. 'Oh God I can picture him! What was his name?!' 'Are you sure it was that movie bro?' These were things commonly said up until 1998. Bets were made, money exchanged and people went insane. Now if you can't remember a name or a movie you google it and hit up the IMDB page. Like it wouldn't shock me if suicide rates since the invention of IMDB went down DRAMATICALLY.