Languish.org

With Maverick blowing up both the box office and SU-57s, I think we can look back at Cruise's career. He's been around forever, and with the MI flicks he's managed to sustain his status as a star during 4 decades.  And now with Maverick he seems poised to get his biggest movie ever.

So, what's your favorite movie of his? You can chose up to 3 options. He has a pretty extensive filmography, so I presume there will be some glaring omissions in my list (Jack Reacher!). I left out Tropic Thunder because his role is pretty small there.

For me:

1) Edge of Tomorrow: Groundhog Day + Aliens, very well done actually, the best Groundhog Day movie that's not Groundhog Day. It's funny, clever and thrilling.

2) Mission: Impossible: I admit that Fallout is probably the best MI flick, but I must have rewatched the first one dozens of times. A favorite movie of mine.

3) Minority Report: Another good movie, that while not a classic I feel it's unfairly forgotten. Super-inventive (Spielberg has loads of fun in this - Cruise chasing his own eyeballs!) and entertaining.

1) Live Die Repeat ;)
2) Oblivion
3) Jerry Maguire

You forgot "Taps"

It's interesting - many of the Tom Cruise movies seem to stay with me only for a couple of scenes. The whole seems to be less than the sum of its parts.

Those that have remained with me are flawed movie, but have striking visuals, some haunting scenes.
Such as Eyes Wide Shut.

Minority Report is a great movie, perhaps the best representation of our upcoming corporate future, that Spielburg unfortunately had to ruin by doing a Spielbug: a happy ending. The real movie ends about half an hour earlier when Cruise is made to take the fall for Max von Sydow.

I have a fondness for Interview with the Vampire, mostly because of the time in my life I saw the movie, my friends at the time, etc.

The Outsiders.

Lot's to choose form though.

I forgot about Vampire when I voted. I like Tom Cruise in that movie, but Brad Pitt was miscast IMHO.

My favourite was a Few Good Men, but that was despite Cruise.

Rain Man - although that's more Dustin Hoffman than Tom Cruise

A Few Good Men - Again, without Jack Nicholson, this would not work as well

The Firm - The best of Grisham's many similar stories. I feel Cruise fits here perfectly

I also liked Interview with a Vampire

NB: Haven't seen all on the list.

(https://c.tenor.com/qMYeRjYjkSIAAAAC/dance-tropic-thunder.gif)

For some reason Mrs B and I went to see Tropic Thunder in the movie theatre when it first came out.  Cruise's role in that movie was uncredited and not announced.

I remember the very slow dawning realization: "who is that, he seems familiar, wait is it, no, couldn't be, Holy Shit that's Tom Cruise!"

Because he's such an A-list Movie Star, he kind of just plays a Tom Cruise Character in every movie he is in (Maybe Born on the 4th of July was different, been decades since I saw it).  So to see him play so very against type was kind of a thrill.


Otherwise though - he's always seemed kind of creepy, in particular with the Scientology / Katie Holmes stuff, so not really a fan.  I do want to see Top Gun 2 though.

Some time ago I heard the theory that you can watch any Tom Cruise film as he's an alien masquerading as the movie's character, since he's so weirdly awkward in all scenes that involve "everydayness".  :P

I think he's had a great career making solid popcorn stuff. It's rare the case where I've watched a film of his (except some of the awful Oscar bait he's done over the years like Lions for Lambs or The Last Samurai), and not have had a decent time, even if it's nothing memorable.

Collateral, Edge of Tomorrow and Oblivion.

Tom himself does a great job in the first one. It is also the one movie I've seen where he doesn't play his classic role.

Groundhog Day is one of my absolute favourite movies and I love sci-fi, so Edge of tomorrow is kind of a no-brainer.

As for Oblivion, sci-fi again, with breathtaking visuals and a truly gorgeous soundtrack by M83.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 02, 2022, 10:07:28 AMYou forgot "Taps"

Good call.  Also left off Days of Thunder.

I voted Edge of Tomorrow and Jerry McGuire (best chick flick ever).  I might give Taps my third vote.

For all his kookiness Tom does generally pick good scripts.  Not a lot (no?) stinkers on the list.

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 02, 2022, 02:09:13 PMFor all his kookiness Tom does generally pick good scripts.  Not a lot (no?) stinkers on the list.

Okay, how about:

Rock of Ages (didn't see it)
Knight and Day (I did see this - super meh)
Last Samurai (some enjoyed it, but come on - Dances with Wolves in Japan)
Far and Away (didn't see it)

But okay, over 40 years that I can point to 4 bad movies probably proves your point.

Never even heard of Rock Ages.  :huh:

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 02, 2022, 02:25:53 PMNever even heard of Rock Ages.  :huh:

I haven't seen it, but I remember hearing about it.  Came out in 2012, a musical with 80s rock / hair metal songs, kind of in the vein of Mamma Mia.  It seemed very strange.

A Few Good Men. It's hard to top Jack Nicholson's performance in this one, and he's the star.

Top Gun, both of them.  I liked Iron Eagle.  And it wasn't because of the acting or superior plot.  :sleep:
I got a weak spot for aircraft fighter movies, I guess.  I really wanted to pilot a CF-18.  Faith decided otherwise.

Quote from: Barrister on June 02, 2022, 02:31:28 PM

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 02, 2022, 02:25:53 PMNever even heard of Rock Ages.  :huh:

I haven't seen it, but I remember hearing about it.  Came out in 2012, a musical with 80s rock / hair metal songs, kind of in the vein of Mamma Mia.  It seemed very strange.

It's a light hearted silly comedy.  Similar plot to Coyote Ugly and many other quite ordinary movies of the same style.  But I got to admit that Tom Cruise is fantastic in his role.  So was Catherine Zeta-Jones.  Come to think of it, all of the supporting actors are great.  The problem lies with the leads. And the silly rehashed plot.

But if you remove the soundtrack, that movie is totally worthless.

Days of Thunder.  When I skipped that one, I skipped an auto racing movie and a Tom Cruise movie.  The Tom Cruise movies I have enjoyed have all been in spite of his appearance.  I find him stiff, phony, and boring.

He's been in a lot of halfway decent movies, but no great ones.

Not a big Tom Cruise fan, but Edge of Tomorrow for me. Probably because his smug character gets killed in many hilarious ways. :P

He always mystified me. As said he seems pretty creepy. Not much variety in his performances, not particularly natural, and he's a fairly basic looking short guy.... Yet time and again he keeps getting blockbuster films, even after some duds nothing stops him, even picking weird Sci fi scripts it usually works, his career keeps going and he remains a superstar.
And I don't think it can all be credited to scientology as this goes right back.

Edge of tomorrow was good I recall for sure. As was minority report.
I think I remember the firm being decent but that may just be memories of wolf of wall street.

He has maintained possibly the largest fan base of any actor in the world. That probably makes him very low risk for blockbusters.

Quote from: Josquius on June 03, 2022, 01:51:53 AMHe always mystified me. As said he seems pretty creepy. Not much variety in his performances, not particularly natural, and he's a fairly basic looking short guy.... Yet time and again he keeps getting blockbuster films, even after some duds nothing stops him, even picking weird Sci fi scripts it usually works, his career keeps going and he remains a superstar.
And I don't think it can all be credited to scientology as this goes right back.

Edge of tomorrow was good I recall for sure. As was minority report.
I think I remember the firm being decent but that may just be memories of wolf of wall street.

His brother Ted is really creepy.

Quote from: Maladict on June 03, 2022, 05:22:16 AMHe has maintained possibly the largest fan base of any actor in the world. That probably makes him very low risk for blockbusters.

There's this American distributor I met once, and said that they divided up the world (market-wise) between "sophisticated" and "unsophisticated" countries. Apparently "they love Tom Cruise" was for them a marker of belonging in the second group  :lol: 

Quote from: celedhring on June 03, 2022, 11:29:32 AM

Quote from: Maladict on June 03, 2022, 05:22:16 AMHe has maintained possibly the largest fan base of any actor in the world. That probably makes him very low risk for blockbusters.

There's this American distributor I met once, and said that they divided up the world (market-wise) between "sophisticated" and "unsophisticated" countries. Apparently "they love Tom Cruise" was for them a marker of belonging in the second group  :lol: 

Tom Cruise hasn't made a "sophisticated" movie for the last twenty years.  Even before that he made very few more arthouse-type movies (Vanilla Sky, Eyes Wide Shut, Magnolia).

Tom Cruise makes blockbusters.  They might not all succeed, but they're aimed at a wide audience.  So he might not get the same recognition from the film cognoscenti, but he remains a box office draw for 30+ years.  If you go to see a Tom Cruise movie you know you'll probably be entertained.

Definitely Edge of Tomorrow

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 02, 2022, 02:09:13 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 02, 2022, 10:07:28 AMYou forgot "Taps"

Good call.

Watched it the other weekend.  Had no idea a young Giancarlo Esposito was in it.  He was the cadet that got burned trying to refuel the boiler.

Collateral is underrated, you should watch it.

Legend.

Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 12, 2022, 08:05:28 PM

Quote from: Admiral Yi on June 02, 2022, 02:09:13 PM

Quote from: CountDeMoney on June 02, 2022, 10:07:28 AMYou forgot "Taps"

Good call.

Watched it the other weekend.  Had no idea a young Giancarlo Esposito was in it.  He was the cadet that got burned trying to refuel the boiler.

He was also in Do the Right Thing.

I went with Eyes Wide Shut; primarily because Nicole K. has some hot scenes in that.