PR Newsletter July 05

Tom Cruise, the preeminent actor and public spokesperson for Scientology has been in the press recently calling psychiatry a pseudoscience and that psychiatrists have never helped anybody. He says “there is no such thing as chemical imbalance in the brain” and what people need to do is explore the underlying reasons and then move beyond their problems. Presumably Scientology is a way to do that. To the actress Brooke Shields, who suffered from serious postpartum depression and took medication which helped her significantly, he said, she was doing terrible things to her body.

Tom Cruise is wrong, there are serious mental disorders that are dramatically helped by pharmacologic intervention. And even if we can’t always explain how they work psychiatrists and neuroscientists are learning more and more about those mechanisms. But it is also true that psychiatry may be moving beyond its arenas of expertise. And I say this as a psychiatrist, not an actor, I believe we are prescribing too many drugs and defining too many behaviors as diseases.

The results of a just-published, governmental-sponsored survey of the nation’s mental-health predicted then in a decade, more than half of Americans will develop a mental disorder in their lifetimes. The apparent good news is, that at the moment, only one quarter of all Americans is suffering from mental illness. How did we get so many sick people, you may ask? It has something to do with how we define mental illness.
The American Psychiatric Association, first defined mental illnesses in a manual printed in the 1950s. This first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM I) included 60 disorders. In the last 40 years, there have been four editions, the current DSM IV, includes 300 disorders. Everything from sexual arousal disorder , excessive shyness, hypersomnia (sleep too much), hypersexuality (too much sexual activity), dozens of shades of depression, bipolar disorders, borderline disorder and being hyperactive.
Psychiatrists developed the DSM, in the hope it would refine our understanding of mental illnesses. What happened however, was that we defined problematic feelings and behaviors as diseases, and in so doing we implied that because we named these manifestations, it meant that we knew how to treat the problem. We often don’t know how to best treat behavioral problems, and even when we do, what we prescribe for them often causes as much harm as good.. What we have done is to re-define what is ordinary in the human experience, and turned it into drug-taking conditions.
In most parts of the world, if you feel anxious, sad, can’t sleep, lose your appetite for food or sex, you’re not defined as mentally ill. Families gather, healing rituals are performed, support is mobilized and people generally pull themselves together. What’s happening in contemporary America is that we are defining lots of people as mentally ill, for diseases they may not have and over-prescribing drugs with all of their complications.

Consider this, there are close to 4 million children in the United States diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), representing 7 ½ percent of school-age children. Millions of prescriptions are written for these children every year for potent drugs. These drugs always come with a price; they are aimed at a specific constellation of symptoms, but they invariably cause others. A child diagnosed with the ADHD may get better focus but get more depressed, aggressive, sleepless, even suicidal. Today, 25% of all overdose deaths are from prescription drugs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Agency(SAMHSA) over the last decade there has been a 63% increase in emergency-room visits tied to the abuse of prescription drugs. SAMHSA estimates that 9 million people are now abusing prescription drugs, 3 million of them are kids between the ages of 12 and 17.

Often, these ADHD drugs don’t even work. In a recently completed national study, The New York University Child Study Center reported that 28% of parents with kids between the ages of five and 18 who gave their ADHD kids these drugs on a daily basis, said it didn’t work. Parents gave them anyway, because mental-health professionals teachers and administrators encourage it as the most expedient solution to the child’s problems. Furthermore, the medication is often covered by insurance, and it certainly easier then a commitment to counseling which is often not covered, or in the best of circumstances, is quite limited.

We need to stop defining the ordinariness of the human condition as a mental illness for which prescribing potent drugs is the best solution. When it comes to children’s behavioral problems let’s not use drugs as the first choice in changing their behaviors and consider other options:

Talk to somebody who can help you look at yourself and your children from another perspective. A therapist who doesn’t believe that drugs are the only tools to change behavior

Set limits, it’s an ego corrective experience. Saying “no” or “you can’t have it” is critically important if we are to survive as people and planet.

Restore the evening meal to a central family ritual. Gather around the dinner table with good food, sharing traumas and joys, things that are important to each member.

Watch less TV, limit phone use, take vacations somewhere you can suspend yourselves from all the ordinary expectations and demands and appreciate the awesome.

Exercise, eat more nutritional food, laugh and make connections with others who share your enthusiasm.

Tom Cruise doesn’t know much about psychiatry, and his certainties about its uselessness relegated to religious zealotry. But that doesn’t mean we ought to ignore the demoralizing trend toward the psychopathologizing of the human condition.

YOu can love or you can hate Tom Cruise’s role in movies, but it can not be denied that they are all interesting roles. Let see the performance of this super star in some of his famous films.

“Losin’ It” (1983)

Did you know Tom Cruise starred in an early 1980s lose-your-virginity sex romp? He did! It’s not very good! It’s actually pretty horrible. But it’s funny because it’s Tom Cruise and Shelly Long.

“Legend” (1985)

This isn’t based on the video game “The Legend of Zelda,” but it looks like it could be. Tom Cruise plays the role of a wimpy fairyland leading man in this strange fantasy film by “Gladiator” and “Alien” director Ridley Scott.

“Cocktail” (1988)

Most people watch “Cocktail” nowadays to laugh at all the 80s clichés.

Tom Cruise plays Brian Flanagan, a bartender at a T.G.I. Friday’s Brian works his way up into trendier bars that don’t have kareoke and air hockey tables eventually getting into a major fight that forces him to take a job in Jamaica as a bartender to raise money to buy his own place. It’s a fun romp, especially watching Cruise ham it up at the Jamaican bar.

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)

A strange but actually pretty good role for Tom, he plays the unhappily married Manhattenite role pretty well and I have to commend him for the risk he took in taking on this controversial role in Stanley Kubrick’s last film. Tom Cruise isn’t a complete hack, and this role in “Eyes Wide Shut” is proof of that.

“Magnolia” (1999)

One of the few believable Tom Cruise roles, in “Magnolia” he plays Frank T.J. Mackey, a mysterious author of “Seduce a Destroy” a misogynist self-help book teaching men to “tame” women. His character is self-obsessed outwardly, but inwardly deeply scarred and troubled by his father’s abandonment.

Tropic Thunder is the making of a movie within a movie.  This ensemble cast includes Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise.

The movies cast and crew has ventured into the jungle to film a war movie based on a memoir by a Vietnam veteran John Tayback played by Nick Nolte.

The characters include a fading action hero, a hip hop artist, an acclaimed actor, a comedian along with a host of others.

While on location filming a movie the director Damien Cockburn is presented with a series of problems,   but none more important than that of the studio executive threatening to close down productions if he doesn’t get it back on track.

Under intense pressure the director turns to the author of the memoir “Tropic Thunder” for guidance.  Vietnam veteran John Tayback suggests the director drop the actors into the jungle to illicit genuine performances from its cast.

Unbeknownst to the cast when they are dropped off into a real life situation and that’s when the adventure begins.  Immediately the director befalls a mishap but the actors can’t distinguish if it’s real or fake.  The main character Tugg Speedman played by Ben Stiller is convinced that everything is being orchestrated by the director and that they are being filmed.  Meanwhile, the other actors are not so sure and try to remind Tugg to be cautious.

Not until it’s too late does Tugg Speedman realize that he is in real life dangerous situation but by then it’s too late.

Tropic Thunder will have you laughing from beginning to end.  Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of an award winning method actor is so silly that it’s hilarious.  During the majority of the movie despite the circumstances he remains in character at all times.

Each part was perfectly cast, including that of Tom Cruise as the Hip Hop dancing menacing studio executive.  And that is very evident with his 2009 golden globe nomination.

While watching Ben Stiller you can’t help but to smile.  The way he goes about a role you just feel like saying you’re so stupid.  How can he keep a straight face playing the fool that he plays?

If you are looking for some laughs with a twist here and there then Tropic Thunder is the movie for you.  Ben Stiller fans will definitely enjoy this one.

Tropic Thunder is a movie I would definitely recommend and remember parents it is Rated “R” for a reason.

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First time to watch Sean Faris in this movie who’s really a Tom Cruise look-a- like for me. It was a story of a young man who often gets into fight and changes schools because of fighting. Jake Tyler transferred to another school only to find out that there is more than what he really needed to avoid and that is fighting.

 He met a girl in class who is Baja Miller played by Amber Heard who seems to get his attention as she invited him to attend a party that night only to be bullied by her boyfriend rich dude who is so ego centric Ryan McCarthy.

 This movie showcased different types of self defense whenever they fight. You can see some Judo, Karate, Capoeira and Wrestling being mixed. I never thought that Djimon Hounsou would be Jake Tyler’s fight instructor. The only rule Jean Roqua imposed to his students is that no fighting or else he will be out in the club. Anyway, the story is somewhat the same with other get ready to fight- study martial arts first movie.

 The only difference in here is that they have mixed the style in full contact fighting but anyway the outcome was just fine and acceptable. I just don’t like the way how Ryan beat down Max Cooperman, Jake’s friend. But anyway this is the next to climax thing where Jake challenges Ryan to Beat Down event.

 Jean didn’t want Jake to fight back and just let it go, but when Jake told him that it is much difficult to just stay and do nothing when things can still be fix and you only need to fight for it. This changed Jean’s idea to get himself back in the track to face his frustration and get back to Brazil to see his family.

 The ending went well when Jake and Ryan settled the score and they were okay at the ending of the story. The musical background was just fine. The story was somewhat not that original but it is still good to watch since it is action with drama movie.

Until the 1950′s, Hollywood was controlled by seven major motion picture studios. More importantly it was controlled by moguls, all of whom were men they of eastern European descent, who ruled the studio in the same way that the kings of their previous countries ruled the peasants. Creative control belonged to the mogul, while the money was always controlled by the New York bankers, the so-called “Suits”.

This power alignment began with the beginning of Hollywood prior to 1920, and continued for 40 plus years. What held it intact was the caste system, whereby the stars were controlled by individual studios. They were paid on a yearly basis, and had no say whatsoever in the movies they would appear in. In essence they were slaves to the system, not very different from how baseball players were handled until the Supreme Court outlawed career-long captive players.

The Hollywood caste system began to crack in the 1950′s, when Kirk Douglas, the father of Michael Douglas went independent, and formed one of the first independent film companies called Bryna, for his mother. They produced the “Vikings”, “Spartacus”, and “Seven Days in May”. The so called Studio system was now dead. Power shifted to the individual actors, who became BRAND NAMES in their own right.

Two developments began in the 1960′s. The Hollywood studios would be taken over by corporations, and then reacquired by giant multinational corporations seeking world-wide influence. The second development was that the stars began to exercise their power. Giant multinationals like Sony, Newscorp, and Viacom hated the fact that stars had so much power. In the last ten years, A-List actors like Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Robert Redford started to receive profit participations, which the studios only gave begrudgingly.

At first it didn’t matter because Hollywood accounting is such that somehow the studios could always show a loss on the movie. The stars got wise to that very quickly, and started taking front end participations, a percentage of the ticket when movie goers bought their tickets. In my 35 years on Wall Street, I participated in financing many movies, and I have to tell you that nobody ever made money on the backend. No matter how big the movie, somehow the movie always lost money when it came to the backend participations.

We have now reached a point where the giant multinationals that control media on a world wide basis are fed up with what they are putting up with on behalf of brand name stars. Mel Gibson as you know has run into trouble on the West Coast with his drinking, and purported anti-Semitic remarks resulting in Disney canceling a Holocaust series with Gibson’s production company.

Now Tom Cruise has had a falling out with Sumner Redstone, and Viacom. Publicly Redstone has stated he doesn’t like some of Cruise’s actions in the last year. This doesn’t make sense. Normally when a studio breaks with a star, there is no public statement. None is required to be given, and they just part ways. This is more personal.

It is rumored that Viacom had offered Cruise a million production deal, down from million in the previous deal, plus a million fund for the development of movie projects. Here’s the real deal. Tom Cruise did “Mission Impossible III” for Viacom, the movie grosses near 0 million world-wide. Cruise had negotiated as a fee, 25% of Viacom’s gross revenue on the movie.

This is the way it works. The movie does 0 million. The theaters get half, and Viacom gets half, that’s 0 million apiece. Cruise gets 25% of Viacom’s half, that’s million. In the end Viacom gets 0 million, and Cruise gets million. Sounds great for Viacom doesn’t it. Not really, Viacom must pay for the movie which had to be 0 million plus advertising. Viacom gets zero, and Cruise still gets million. This is why Sumner Redstone of Viacom is annoyed, and Cruise is sitting on top of the world.

In the end Redstone will last laugh, why you ask? There’s still Hollywood accounting to deal with. Remember that all the original Hollywood studios were sold off into the hands of multinational corporations (MNC’s). Do you really think the MNC’s bought the studios for the theater gross? Absolutely not. In reality movie ticket sales represent a third of a movie’s earnings power. Viacom can lose money on a picture, and still make a fortune on DVD sales (a third), and future television and cable rights (a third).

The MNC’s have never shared profits on these other two-thirds of the revenue, and they never will. They refuse to even discuss it, and the numbers are buried deep in the corporation’s financial statements. They are never broken out, and they are kept secret. Viacom has made, and will make hundreds of millions of dollars on Mission Impossible III.

Redstone got fed up and threw Cruise off the lot. There are now statements being made by Cruise’s production partner Paula Wagner. She says that Cruise is raising 0 million from hedge funds to fund Cruise’s future projects. Wait until these Wall Street hedge fund types learn about Hollywood accounting. They are going to lose their shirts funding movies. This is not an industry that Wall Street should want to get involved with. Losing your shirt is one thing, but not even knowing that you have lost it until you are standing naked in the street is quite another.

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Valkyrie is a film I saw advertised on the TV a few weeks ago and I just wanted to watch it. The film is rated a PG 12 so no one under the age of 12 should be allowed to watch it without an adult with them and is directed by Brian Singer.

Valkyrie is based on a true story and is based on a plot to assassinate Hitler. The film starts in 1943 in Tunisia where we see the main character Colonel Von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) who is fighting for Hitler and the Nazi`s. He is caught in an air raid and looses his left eye and his right hand.

Later on Stauffenberg joins other German officers who are disgusted by Hitler. They make a plot to assassinate Hitler and it is up to Stauffenberg to perform this unappealing task. If he fails it will result in death for the group of them and maybe their families.

Some of the supporting cast are: Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Carice van Hauten, Eddie Izzard.

I really enjoyed watching this film and liked the fact it was based on a true story. In the film it tells you this is not the only attempt on Hitler`s life and there were 15 overall! It was interesting to have a film where the Nazi`s were not all bad and showed not all Germans agreed with Hitler and some stood up for what they believed in. Although you know what is going to happen at the end already the storyline is brilliant.

The pictures are really good and this might be a movie worth purchasing on blu ray! It was so good that I did not want the film to end and was reluctant to leave the cinema (I had to in the end.) Most of the cast do a great job and I highly recommend this film to anyone who likes war films and I think even if you don`t usually like them give this film a chance and you will be surprised how good it is.

Trivia: (From IMDB)

Some scenes had to be re-shot when the original film was destroyed after being treated with the wrong chemical during development.

Germany has strict laws against displaying the swastika, though artistic displays are specifically exempt. Filmmakers usually use incorrect swastikas to avoid causing public outrage. The producer wanted swastikas for authenticity, so the crew posted warnings around the filming locations. Still, a local resident filed an official complaint with the city, who pressed charges against the owners of some filming sites.

Initially, Germany’s Ministry of Defense would not allow filming on Bendler Block. They relented after appeals from Tom Cruise and Screenwriter/Producer Christopher McQuarrie. The entire crew started every night of filming with a moment of silence in memory of Stauffenberg.

10. A League of Their Own

A League of Their Own is a 1992 American comedy-drama film that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell. The screenplay was written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel from a story by Kim Wilson and Kelly Candaele.

The film opens in 1988 with an elderly, widowed Dottie Hinson reluctantly attending the induction of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Dottie was once one of the league’s greatest players but, although she loved baseball, she never really considered it a big part of her life. Upon her arrival at Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field, Dottie is reunited with former teammates and friends. This prompts a flashback to how the league was started back in 1943. -Wikipedia.org

9. Cast Away

Cast Away is a 2000 drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. The film depicts his attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane’s cargo, as well as his eventual escape and return to society. Hanks was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 73rd Academy Awards for his critically acclaimed performance.

In 1995, Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a time-obsessed systems analyst, who travels worldwide resolving productivity problems at FedEx depots. He is in a long-term relationship with Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt), with whom he lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Although the couple wants to get married, Chuck’s busy schedule interferes with their relationship. A Christmas with relatives is interrupted by Chuck being summoned to resolve a problem in Malaysia. -Wikipedia.org

8. Splash

Splash is a 1984 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge. It was the very first film released by Touchstone Pictures (then called Touchstone Films).

As a boy, Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) is rescued from drowning by a young mermaid, and an instant connection forms between the two. However, Allen comes to believe the encounter was a near-death hallucination, but his bond with the mermaid proves so strong that his subsequent relationships with women invariably fail as he seeks the connection he felt with the mermaid. -Wikipedia.org

7. That Thing You Do!

That Thing You Do! is a 1996 film written and directed by Tom Hanks. Set in the summer of 1964, the movie tells the story of the quick rise and fall of a one-hit wonder rock band. The film also resulted in a musical hit with the song “That Thing You Do”. In 1964, Guy Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) is a drummer and jazz fan who works at his family’s Erie, Pennsylvania, appliance store. Rhythm guitarist/singer Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech) and lead guitarist/singer Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn) ask Guy to substitute at the annual Mercyhurst College talent show for their group’s injured regular drummer (Giovanni Ribisi). The group, including the bass player (Ethan Embry)[2] play a ballad written by Jimmy and Lenny titled “That Thing You Do”. Jimmy’s girlfriend Faye Dolan (Liv Tyler) suggests for the group the name “The Oneders”; it is pronounced “ONE-ders”, but it is almost always mispronounced as the “oh-NEE-ders.” -Wikipedia.org

6. Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depict the Omaha beachhead assault of June 6, 1944. Afterwards, it follows Tom Hanks as Captain John H. Miller and several men (Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies) as they search for paratrooper Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is the last surviving brother of three fallen servicemen.

Rodat first came up with the film’s story in 1994 when he saw a monument dedicated to four sons of Agnes Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania. The brothers were killed in the American Civil War. Rodat decided to write a similar story set during World War II. The script was submitted to producer Mark Gordon, who then handed it to Hanks. It was finally given to Spielberg, who decided to direct. The film’s premise is very loosely based on the real-life case of the Niland brothers. -Wikipedia.org

5. Apollo 13

Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr. and Al Reinert, that dramatizes the 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission, is an adaptation of the book Lost Moon by astronaut Jim Lovell (the story’s primary protagonist) and Jeffrey Kluger. Released in the United States on June 30, 1995, Apollo 13 garnered critical acclaim and was nominated for many awards, most notably nine Academy Awards including Best Picture; it won for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing. In total, the film grossed over 5 million worldwide during its theatrical releases.

The voice of Walter Cronkite describes President John F. Kennedy’s call for the United States space program to land a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s, as scenes of the Apollo 1 fire that killed three U.S. astronauts are shown. On July 20, 1969, veteran astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) hosts a party for other astronauts and their families, who watch on television as Neil Armstrong takes his first steps on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. Lovell, who orbited the Moon on Apollo 8, tells his wife Marilyn (Kathleen Quinlan) that he intends to go back. -Wikipedia.org

4. Big

Big is a 1988 American romantic comedy film directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish “to be big” to a magical fortune-telling machine and is then aged to adulthood overnight. The film also stars Elizabeth Perkins, and Robert Loggia and was written by Gary Ross, with Justin Schindler and Anne Spielberg. The story was heavily inspired by, though not an actual remake of, the 1987 Italian film Da grande.

After being humiliated and told he is too short for a carnival ride while attempting to impress a teenage girl, 13 year-old Josh Baskin (David Moscow) from Cliffside Park, New Jersey goes to a fortune-telling machine called Zoltar Speaks, and wishes that he were “big.” By the next morning, he is shocked to discover that he has been transformed into a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks). Fleeing from his mother, who thinks he is a strange man who has kidnapped her son, Josh rents a cheap hotel room in New York City with the help of his best friend, Billy Kopeke (Jared Rushton), and gets a data entry job at MacMillan Toy Company. -Wikipedia.org

3. Catch Me if You Can

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical comedy-drama film based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor and Louisiana attorney and parish prosecutor. His primary crime was check fraud; he became so skillful that the FBI eventually turned to him for help in catching other check forgers. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale and Tom Hanks as Hanratty as well as Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen, and Nathalie Baye.

Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio), 16 years old, lives happily in 1963 New Rochelle, New York with his father Frank Abagnale Sr (Christopher Walken), and French mother Paula (Nathalie Baye). When a loan for Frank Sr. is denied at Chase Manhattan Bank, due to a series of IRS tax frauds by Frank Sr., the family is forced to move from their grand home to a small apartment. Paula carries on an affair with Jack (James Brolin), a friend of her husband. In the meantime, Frank poses as a substitute teacher in his French class. Frank’s parents file for divorce, and Frank runs away. When he runs out of money, he begins to use confidence scams. Frank’s cons grow ever bolder and he even impersonates an airline pilot. He forges Pan Am payroll checks and succeeds in stealing over .8 million. -Wikipedia.org

2. Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer-animated film, the first Disney/Pixar film to be made, as well as the first feature film to be made entirely with CGI. Directed by John Lasseter and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, the film was co-produced by Ralph Guggenheim and Bonnie Arnold and was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Lasseter, Joss Whedon, Andrew Stanton, Joel Cohen, and Alec Sokolow, and featured music by Randy Newman. Toy Story follows a group of toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present, and focuses on Woody, a pull-string cowboy doll (Hanks), and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure (Allen).

Woody, a pull-string cowboy doll, is the leader of a group of toys that belong to a boy named Andy and come to life whenever humans are not around. With his family moving to a new home and one week before his birthday, the toys stage a reconnaissance mission to discover Andy’s new presents. Andy receives a space ranger Buzz Lightyear action figure, whose impressive features soon see him replacing Woody as Andy’s favorite toy. Woody is disappointed and resentful at his replacement, while Buzz does not understand that he is a toy, believing himself to be a real space ranger, and sees Woody as an interference in his mission to return to his “home planet”. Andy’s next door neighbor Sid Phillips has been kicked out of summer camp earlier and Woody explains to Buzz that Sid is a person who tortures and destroys toys just for fun. -Wikipedia.org

1. Toy Story 2

Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American computer animated film, the third Disney·Pixar feature film, and the sequel to Toy Story, which features the adventures of a group of toys that come to life when humans are not around to see them. Toy Story 2 was produced by Pixar, directed by John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich and Ash Brannon, and released by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States on November 24, 1999, in some parts of Australia on December 2, 1999 and the United Kingdom on 11 February 2000. Toy Story 2 was re-released in a double feature with Toy Story in Disney Digital 3-D on October 2, 2009.

Woody prepares to go to cowboy camp with Andy but his arm is ripped, forcing him to stay home. He is accidentally included in a box of toys to be sold at a yard sale, and although Andy’s mother refuses to sell him, he is stolen by a greedy, enthusiastic toy collector who Buzz Lightyear and the other toys recognize as the owner of Al’s Toy Barn. They set out to rescue Woody. -Wikipedia.org

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10. Risky Business

Risky Business is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman in his directorial debut. It stars Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The hit film launched Cruise to stardom.

Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is a normal high school student who lives with his wealthy parents in the North Shore area of suburban Chicago. His father wants him to attend Princeton University, his alma mater, so Joel participates in Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity in which students work in teams to create small businesses.

When his parents go away on a trip, Joel’s friend, Miles (Curtis Armstrong), convinces him to take advantage of his newfound freedom to have some fun. On the first night, he raids the liquor cabinet, plays the stereo loudly, and dances around the living room in his underwear and pink dress shirt to “Old Time Rock and Roll”. The following day, Miles calls a call girl named Jackie on Joel’s behalf. Jackie (Bruce A. Young) turns out to be a tall, masculine transvestite. Joel pays Jackie to go away, but before she leaves, she gives Joel the number for Lana, another prostitute, promising that she’s what “every white boy off the lake wants”. -Wikipedia.org

9. Mission Impossible

Mission: Impossible is a 1996 action thriller directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. The plot follows Hunt’s mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire IMF team. Work on the script had begun early with filmmaker Sydney Pollack on board, before De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp, and Robert Towne were brought in. In fact, the film went into pre-production without a shooting script.

De Palma came up with some action sequences, but neither Koepp nor Towne were satisfied with the story that leads up to these events. U2 band members Larry Mullen, Jr. and Adam Clayton produced their own version of the original theme song. The song went into top ten charts around the world and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The movie was the third highest grossing of the year. It is the first movie based on the television series of the same name and was followed by two sequels, Mission: Impossible II (2000) and Mission: Impossible III (2006), with a fourth installment, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, due in 2011. -Wikipedia.org

8. Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 drama film based upon the 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story), which was written by Arthur Schnitzler. The film was directed, produced and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, and was his last film. The story, set in and around New York City, follows the sexually charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long, eventful sexual adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy of an underground cult. The film appeared on July 16, 1999 to generally positive critical reaction.

Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) and his wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), go to a Christmas party, given by one of his wealthy patients Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack). Before going, Alice complains Bill is paying no attention to her appearance. At the party, Bill runs into an old friend, Nick Nightingale (Todd Field), who dropped out of medical school and now plays piano in a band for night clubs and parties. A Hungarian man tries to pick up Alice. Two young models try to take Bill off for a tryst telling him they are going to “where the rainbow ends”. He is interrupted by an urgent call from his host, Ziegler, upstairs, who has been having sex with a young woman who has overdosed on a speedball. Ziegler asks Bill to keep the encounter confidential. -Wikipedia.org

7. Top Gun

Top Gun is a 1986 American action film directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with the Paramount Pictures company. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and was inspired by the article “Top Guns” written by Ehud Yonay for California magazine. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerritt. Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a young Naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards) are given the chance to train at the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School. The film depicts Maverick’s progress through the training, his romance with a female instructor, and his overcoming a crisis of confidence following a fatal training accident.

United States Naval Aviator LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and his Radar Intercept Officer (RIO) LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) fly the F-14A Tomcat aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65). They, with Maverick’s wingman “Cougar” (John Stockwell) and his RIO “Merlin” (Tim Robbins), intercept MiG-28s over the Indian Ocean. After one of the MiGs missile locks on Cougar, he is too shaken to land, despite being low on fuel. Maverick defies orders and assists Cougar in landing despite also being low on fuel, but Cougar gives up his Wings of Gold citing his newborn child whom he has never seen. Despite disliking Maverick’s reckless flying and repeated violation of rules, due to his talent CAG “Stinger” (James Tolkan) must send him and Goose—now his top crew—to attend the Top Gun school at NAS Miramar. -Wikipedia.org

6. War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum’s version and Pendragon Pictures’ version. It stars Tom Cruise as Ray Ferrier, a divorced dock worker estranged from his children and living separately from them. As his ex-wife drops their children off for him to look after for a few days, Earth is invaded by martians riding in Tripods, and Ray tries to protect his children and flee to Boston to rejoin his ex-wife. War of the Worlds marks Spielberg and Cruise’s second collaboration, after the 2002 film Minority Report. The film was shot in 73 days, using five different sound stages as well as locations at Connecticut, New York, California, Virginia, and New Jersey. The film was surrounded by a secrecy campaign so few details would be leaked before its release. Tie-in promotions were made with several companies, including with Hitachi. The film was released in United States on 29 June and in United Kingdom on 1 July. The film generally received positive reviews, and attained a 73 percent “fresh” rating on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 240 reviews. War of the Worlds was also a box office success, and was 2005′s fourth most successful film both domestically, with 4 million in North America, and worldwide, with 1 million overall.

Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a dock worker residing in Bayonne, New Jersey. One day, his ex-wife, Mary Ann (Miranda Otto), drops off their children, Rachel (Dakota Fanning) and Robbie (Justin Chatwin), at his house as she is going to Boston to meet with her parents. While Ray sleeps, Robbie takes Ray’s car out of the house without his permission. When Ray wakes up, he goes out to search for his son, and notices a strange wall cloud, which starts to send out electromagnetic pulses in the form of lightning in the nearby area, which disables all working electronic devices in the area, including cars. Ray then leaves to investigate, along the way telling Manny, the local mechanic, to replace the solenoid on a dead car. Ray and other numerous people are then attracted to a small hole in the ground caused by the lightning strikes. The ground then starts to rip open and a massive machine standing on three long legs appears. After emerging, the Tripod makes a loud blaring sound, and then opens fire with its Heat-Ray and begins vaporizing bystanders and destroying everything in its path. Ray manages to escape and return to his house. Knowing it is no longer safe, Ray packs up his kids and leaves. He then manages to steal the vehicle Manny repaired, and along with Robbie and Rachel leave as the tripod destroys the town around them. -Wikipedia.org

5. Magnolia

Magnolia is a 1999 American drama film produced, written, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, narrated by Ricky Jay, and starring Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Jay, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards, and Melora Walters. Magnolia is an epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

Police officer Jim Kurring investigates a disturbance at a woman’s home, finding a body in her closet. Other police officers arrive but disregard his report. A young boy, Dixon offers to help Jim by performing a rap. Dixon claims that he told Jim who committed the murder, but Jim ignores him. Former TV producer Earl Partridge is dying of cancer, and is cared for by a nurse, Phil Parma, while Earl’s trophy wife Linda collects prescriptions for morphine. Earl asks Phil to find his estranged son, Frank Mackey. -Wikipedia.org

4. Collateral

Collateral is a 2004 crime thriller film starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. It was directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie. It was Mann’s first feature film to be shot mostly with high-definition cameras. Mann had previously used the format for portions of Ali and for his CBS drama Robbery Homicide Division. The film is set in Los Angeles, California. In an HBO movie review, director Michael Mann stated that the film takes place on the night of January 24 to 25, 2004 from 6:30 PM to 5:40 AM. Foxx was widely praised for his performance and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Nightshift cab driver Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx) drives U.S. Justice Department prosecutor Annie Farrell (Jada Pinkett Smith) to her office building to spend the night preparing for a pending federal grand jury drug indictment case convening the following day. Annie takes a liking to Max, leaving her business card as he drops her off. Vincent (Tom Cruise) hails the cab next, explaining he is in town for one night closing a real estate deal and bribes Max with US0 on the pretense of chauffeuring him to his five appointments. As Max waits at the first stop, Vincent enters an apartment complex and shoots drug dealer Ramone Ayala. Ayala unexpectedly falls out of the window directly onto the cab, forcing Vincent to reveal himself as a hitman. He coerces Max to hide the body in the trunk and continue with their arrangement. -Wikipedia.org

3. A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men is a 1992 drama film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore. It was based on a play of the same name by Aaron Sorkin. A courtroom drama, the film revolves around the trial of two US Marines charged with the murder of a fellow Marine and the tribulations of their lawyer as he prepares a case to defend his clients.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Daniel Kaffee (Cruise), son of a former Attorney General and Navy Judge Advocate General, is an inexperienced U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps lawyer who leads the defense in the court-martial of two Marines, Private First Class Louden Downey and Lance Corporal Harold Dawson, who are accused of murdering a fellow Marine of their unit, PFC William Santiago, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Santiago compared unfavorably to his fellow Marines, had poor relations with them and failed to respect the chain of command. He went above his superiors to bargain for a transfer in exchange for blowing the whistle on Dawson for firing a possibly illegal shot towards the Cuban side of the island. When Dawson and Downey are later arrested for Santiago’s murder, Naval investigator and lawyer Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway suspects that they were carrying out a “code red”: a euphemism for a violent extrajudicial punishment. -Wikipedia.org

2. Rain Man

Rain Man is a 1988 comedy-drama film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond, a man with autism of whose existence Charlie was unaware.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbitt, Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt, and Valeria Golino as Charlie’s girlfriend, Susanna. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote. Rain Man received overwhelmingly positive reviews at the time of its release, praising Hoffman’s role and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay.

Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), a Los Angeles car dealer in his mid-twenties, is in the middle of importing four grey market Lamborghinis. The deal is being threatened by the EPA, and if Charlie cannot meet its requirements he will lose a significant amount of money. After some quick subterfuge with an employee, Charlie leaves for a weekend trip to Palm Springs with his girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino). -Wikipedia.org

1. Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe. The film released in North American theaters on December 13, 1996, distributed by Gracie Films and TriStar Pictures. The film received mostly positive reviews and, on a million budget, was a financial success, bringing in more than 0 million worldwide. Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is a glossy 35-year-old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI).

After suffering a nervous breakdown as a result of stress and a guilty conscience, he writes a mission statement about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. He distributes copies of it, entitled “The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business”. His co-workers are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause, but the management sends Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Maguire’s protégé, to fire him. Jerry and Bob call all of Jerry’s clients to try to convince them not to hire the services of the other. Jerry speaks to Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), one of his clients who is disgruntled with his contract. -Wikipedia.org

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PR Newsletter July 05

Tom Cruise, the preeminent actor and public spokesperson for Scientology has been in the press recently calling psychiatry a pseudoscience and that psychiatrists have never helped anybody. He says “there is no such thing as chemical imbalance in the brain” and what people need to do is explore the underlying reasons and then move beyond their problems. Presumably Scientology is a way to do that. To the actress Brooke Shields, who suffered from serious postpartum depression and took medication which helped her significantly, he said, she was doing terrible things to her body.

Tom Cruise is wrong, there are serious mental disorders that are dramatically helped by pharmacologic intervention. And even if we can’t always explain how they work psychiatrists and neuroscientists are learning more and more about those mechanisms. But it is also true that psychiatry may be moving beyond its arenas of expertise. And I say this as a psychiatrist, not an actor, I believe we are prescribing too many drugs and defining too many behaviors as diseases.

The results of a just-published, governmental-sponsored survey of the nation’s mental-health predicted then in a decade, more than half of Americans will develop a mental disorder in their lifetimes. The apparent good news is, that at the moment, only one quarter of all Americans is suffering from mental illness. How did we get so many sick people, you may ask? It has something to do with how we define mental illness.
The American Psychiatric Association, first defined mental illnesses in a manual printed in the 1950s. This first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM I) included 60 disorders. In the last 40 years, there have been four editions, the current DSM IV, includes 300 disorders. Everything from sexual arousal disorder , excessive shyness, hypersomnia (sleep too much), hypersexuality (too much sexual activity), dozens of shades of depression, bipolar disorders, borderline disorder and being hyperactive.
Psychiatrists developed the DSM, in the hope it would refine our understanding of mental illnesses. What happened however, was that we defined problematic feelings and behaviors as diseases, and in so doing we implied that because we named these manifestations, it meant that we knew how to treat the problem. We often don’t know how to best treat behavioral problems, and even when we do, what we prescribe for them often causes as much harm as good.. What we have done is to re-define what is ordinary in the human experience, and turned it into drug-taking conditions.
In most parts of the world, if you feel anxious, sad, can’t sleep, lose your appetite for food or sex, you’re not defined as mentally ill. Families gather, healing rituals are performed, support is mobilized and people generally pull themselves together. What’s happening in contemporary America is that we are defining lots of people as mentally ill, for diseases they may not have and over-prescribing drugs with all of their complications.

Consider this, there are close to 4 million children in the United States diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), representing 7 ½ percent of school-age children. Millions of prescriptions are written for these children every year for potent drugs. These drugs always come with a price; they are aimed at a specific constellation of symptoms, but they invariably cause others. A child diagnosed with the ADHD may get better focus but get more depressed, aggressive, sleepless, even suicidal. Today, 25% of all overdose deaths are from prescription drugs. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Agency(SAMHSA) over the last decade there has been a 63% increase in emergency-room visits tied to the abuse of prescription drugs. SAMHSA estimates that 9 million people are now abusing prescription drugs, 3 million of them are kids between the ages of 12 and 17.

Often, these ADHD drugs don’t even work. In a recently completed national study, The New York University Child Study Center reported that 28% of parents with kids between the ages of five and 18 who gave their ADHD kids these drugs on a daily basis, said it didn’t work. Parents gave them anyway, because mental-health professionals teachers and administrators encourage it as the most expedient solution to the child’s problems. Furthermore, the medication is often covered by insurance, and it certainly easier then a commitment to counseling which is often not covered, or in the best of circumstances, is quite limited.

We need to stop defining the ordinariness of the human condition as a mental illness for which prescribing potent drugs is the best solution. When it comes to children’s behavioral problems let’s not use drugs as the first choice in changing their behaviors and consider other options:

Talk to somebody who can help you look at yourself and your children from another perspective. A therapist who doesn’t believe that drugs are the only tools to change behavior

Set limits, it’s an ego corrective experience. Saying “no” or “you can’t have it” is critically important if we are to survive as people and planet.

Restore the evening meal to a central family ritual. Gather around the dinner table with good food, sharing traumas and joys, things that are important to each member.

Watch less TV, limit phone use, take vacations somewhere you can suspend yourselves from all the ordinary expectations and demands and appreciate the awesome.

Exercise, eat more nutritional food, laugh and make connections with others who share your enthusiasm.

Tom Cruise doesn’t know much about psychiatry, and his certainties about its uselessness relegated to religious zealotry. But that doesn’t mean we ought to ignore the demoralizing trend toward the psychopathologizing of the human condition.

Related Tom Cruise Articles

TomCruise.com, the most visited official male movie star site on the Web, according to Google Website Trends, Compete.com and Quantcast.com, has launched an iPhone

The iPhone version of the website allows iPhone visitors to view an exclusive and celebratory retrospective film career video clip that includes movie clips from many of the Tom Cruise moviesover the last 27 years including; Taps, Outsiders, Risky Business, All The Right Moves, Legend, Top Gun, The Color of Money, Cocktail, Rain Man, Born on the 4th of July, Days of Thunder, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with a Vampire, Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Mission Impossible II, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible III, and Lions for Lambs.

iPhone visitors will also be able to register for website updates right from their

If one doesn’t have an iPhone handy to view the site, one can still view the iPhone site experience via an uploaded YouTube video of the site viewed on an iPhone here: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=KPrNAJauDcg.

The iPhone focused addition to the site is added as the latest evidence of the site’s commitment to integrating cutting edge technology with many more surprises planned to follow.TomCruise.com, the most visited official male movie star site on the Web, according to Google Website Trends, Compete.com and Quantcast.com, has launched an iPhone

The iPhone version of the website allows iPhone visitors to view an exclusive and celebratory retrospective film career video clip that includes movie clips from many of the Tom Cruise moviesover the last 27 years including; Taps, Outsiders, Risky Business, All The Right Moves, Legend, Top Gun, The Color of Money, Cocktail, Rain Man, Born on the 4th of July, Days of Thunder, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with a Vampire, Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia, Mission Impossible II, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds, Mission Impossible III, and Lions for Lambs.

iPhone visitors will also be able to register for website updates right from their iPhone smart phone device.

If one doesn’t have an iPhone handy to view the site, one can still view the iPhone site experience via an uploaded YouTube video of the site viewed on an iPhone here: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=KPrNAJauDcg.

The iPhone focused addition to the site is added as the latest evidence of the site’s commitment to integrating cutting edge technology with many more surprises planned to follow.

Tom Cruise battles it out with Matt Lauer, who is just being glib, whilst demonstrating his considerable “knowledge” of psychiatry.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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