Tom Cruise

[jakedog56]

A ranking of Cruise movies (strictly my personal opinion). I propose that the vast majority of his movies were carried by the great directors that have been associated with them (Pollack, Spielberg, Stone, Coppola, etc.) but even that is not a guarantee of quality (Kubrick, De Palma, both Ridley and Tony Scott, Spielberg again, Woo, etc.). In fact, I think that replacing Cruise in many cases would have improved the movies (I will give him the benefit of the doubt on most of the Good movies on this, but see movies with an "*" after the title for my feedback on this).

Tom Cruise movies (descending by order of release in each catagory):

Good movies as a lead:
Risky Business*- Has not aged great but still is funny overall.
Rain Man- Co-lead but Hoffman certainly carries this movie.
Born on the Fourth of July- One of his best acting performances. Wish there were more. Oliver Stone.
A Few Good Men- Movie was carried by Nicholson and the rest of a fine cast moreso than Cruise.
The Firm- A Pollack film.
Minority Report*- Spielberg adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story.
The Last Samurai- A decent performance.
Collateral- Co-lead with Fox. Truthfully, he is not asked to do much acting but it is a good action performance.
Valkyrie- Pretty good movie. Not a bad performance by Cruise.
Edge of Tomorrow- Good movie and I actually liked Cruise's performance.

Good movies as a non-lead:
Taps- His 2nd movie. A supporting role as the 'roided out bad guy.
The Outsiders- A Coppola flick.
Magnolia- Not my fav, but my wife liked it a lot.
Tropic Thunder- I liked the movie. Quite a minor role for TC.

Watchable movies:
Legend- Interesting Ridley Scott work. Curry has the best role in the movie by far.
Top Gun- I personally think that it is complete shit but I will bump it up to Watchable due to the iconic status.
The Color of Money*- Pales by comparision to The Hustler. A Scorsese movie.
Far and Away*- I didn't really like it, but it is a chick flick. Ron Howard directed.
Interview with a Vampire*- Almost crap but some good stuff in it brings it over the line.
Jerry McGuire- Also just above the crap line. As noted, has not aged well. Cameron Crowe directed.
Jack Reacher*- Good start, but a bad second half drags it down as it becomes a Cruise vehicle.


Crap:
Endless Love- His first movie. A small role, so not his fault by any means.
Losin It- Very poor compared to his next comedy role in Risky Business.
All the Right Moves- Not even in the converstaion of best football movies. Mediocre at best.
Cocktail- Ugh! What a piece of shit.
Days of Thunder- Take Top Gun (which was already shit), and do a shittier version of it on a race track.
Mission Impossible- De Palma move, and one of his worst. Could almost be in the Watchable catagory, but the next ones in the series drag it down.
Eyes Wide Shut*- I wanted to like it just because I love Kubrick as a director, but this is his worst. Kidman's full nudity is the only redeeming feature here.
Mission Impossible II- A John Woo movie. Worse than the first by quite a bit.
Vanilla Sky*- Poor compared to the original. Could be Watchable but Cruise, Cruz, and Diaz all perfom so badly in it!
War of the Worlds*- "How to ruin a classic". A Spielberg feature.
Mission Impossible III- Better than II, but still faceless crap.
Knight and Day- One of the worst big budget movies I have seen in recent years.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol- A lot of people liked it. Personally, I still thought it was crap.
Rock of Ages- WTF??
Oblivion*- How the hell this dreck has a 7.0 on IMDB I will never know.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation- Again, a positive response that I just could not bring myself to like. Why did they bother making 4-5 movies of this series when it is essentially the same exact movie every time?
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back*- Another "Why bother?" follow up.

I suppose that you could move some of these Crap ones into the Watchable catagory pretty easily but I am jaded by Cruise's poor acting so much that I admittably roll my eyes a bit just knowing that he is associated with the movie.

Discuss!

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Hope I'm not in the minority here, but I actually liked all the Mission Impossible films. Even if they are always outlandish and pretty much a ripoff of the Bond movies I still enjoy them.



Not sure that there are too many Cruise films that I don't like though. I'd put all as either watchable or good. Haven't seen all of them though!

 

[beardown07]

His best role is Tropic Thunder, and it's not even close IHMO.

 

[Clayton]

Eyes Wide Shut gets mad props in my book because its basically a movie that trolls Tom Cruise in real life.

I think his performance in Collateral is my favorite because he is surrounded by great actors in that movie and holds his own. He very easily could've ruined that movie and didn't. He has a weird combination of unstable and full of self confidence in almost all of his parts and it seems to actually fit in this one.

Edge of Tomorrow and Tropic Thunder are his other good roles. Last Samurai probably would've been better with a different actor but he is good in that, as well.

 

[Omar 382]

As usual when rating actors, I will rate all the movies I've seen Tom Cruise in by year released, and then give the average rating:

A Few Good Men: 4.5/5
Magnolia: 3.5/5
Minority Report: 4/5
Tropic Thunder: 3/5
Oblivion: 1.5/5
Edge of Tomorrow: 3.5/5

AVERAGE: 3.33/5 stars

(I've also saw Knight and Day when it came out, and hated it, but didn't rate it then, nor do I remember enough of it now to rate it. I also saw the first Mission Impossible while high, and remember vaguely liking it, but didn't rate it. Lastly, I've seen parts of Valkyrie which was ok, but never the whole thing.)

For a more qualitative look at it, I really have enjoyed all of his performances, even in Oblivion, a movie I hated (hell, he was the only thing saving that movie from like a 0.5/5 star rating). I really don't get all the hate for the guy. Maybe it's the Scientology thing, which I think is a stupid reason to hate someone.

 

[jakedog56]

While I attempt to be unbiased, I admit that my dislike for his personality combined with his lack of acting range might affect my ratings of his movies. But I do think that he is one of those actors whose movies succeed based solely on his name, and not his talent.

Much like Keanu Reeves, I feel that most of his roles could have been improved upon by plugging a better actor into his slot. For example: I could think of many actors that would have improved Minority Report as a movie by putting them into Cruise's role. However, othertimes I don't get that feeling, Collateral, Edge of Tomorrow for example.

Clayton's example of "unstable and full of self confidence" is a fine way to describe it, and it is percisely why I generally dislike his work (except for when this type of character works for him, as in Rain Man, and, again, Collateral). Too much of the time he just comes off as a weirdly crazy smug dillhole, which is probably from his religion kissing his ass all of the time and acting like he is some kind of god.

 

[RP-29]

Tom Cruise movies I've watched in entirety (once):
Top Gun - I watched it with my parents when it came out for rent on VHS back in '87 because I liked F-14 Tomcats. The Tomcat scenes were the only saving grace in that trash heap.
Tropic Thunder - I watched it on Hulu about a month ago because it has a cult following. It didn't take long for me to realize that I'm never going to be a member of that cult. I watched to the end because I was too tired to find something else to watch.

Tom Cruise movies I've seen parts of:
Rain Man - I was channel flipping one day about 10 years ago and stopped to watch a few minutes to see why people liked it. After that few minutes, I decided that I'd be more entertained if I watched bowling or The Weather Channel.

Tom Crusise movies I've never watched beyond a trailer or popular clip:
Risky Business
Born on the Fourth of July
A Few Good Men
The Firm
Minority Report
The Last Samurai
Collateral
Valkyrie
Edge of Tomorrow
Taps
The Outsiders
Magnolia
Legend
The Color of Money
Far and Away
Interview with a Vampire
Jerry McGuire
Jack Reacher
Endless Love
Losin It
All the Right Moves
Cocktail
Days of Thunder
Mission Impossible
Eyes Wide Shut
Mission Impossible II
Vanilla Sky
War of the Worlds
Mission Impossible III
Knight and Day
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Rock of Ages
Oblivion
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

In short, I'm not a fan of his work.

 

[anotheridiot]

I will confess I have all mission impossibles and both jack reachers on dvd at my shop. These are not sit down and watch movies at work, just background noise, but I have watched many times. I thought the second Jack Reacher was interesting from the angle if what if he had a wife and kid and they were just like him.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

Nicole Kidman Naked.

Downhill after that.

 

[jakedog56]

Eyes Wide Shut gets mad props in my book because its basically a movie that trolls Tom Cruise in real life.

Interesting perspective. I might have to watch it again to relate. Please expand on that thought.

 

[jakedog56]

Tom Cruise movies I've watched in entirety (once):
Top Gun - I watched it with my parents when it came out for rent on VHS back in '87 because I liked F-14 Tomcats. The Tomcat scenes were the only saving grace in that trash heap.
Tropic Thunder - I watched it on Hulu about a month ago because it has a cult following. It didn't take long for me to realize that I'm never going to be a member of that cult. I watched to the end because I was too tired to find something else to watch.

Tom Cruise movies I've seen parts of:
Rain Man - I was channel flipping one day about 10 years ago and stopped to watch a few minutes to see why people liked it. After that few minutes, I decided that I'd be more entertained if I watched bowling or The Weather Channel.

Tom Crusise movies I've never watched beyond a trailer or popular clip:
Risky Business
Born on the Fourth of July
A Few Good Men
The Firm
Minority Report
The Last Samurai
Collateral
Valkyrie
Edge of Tomorrow
Taps
The Outsiders
Magnolia
Legend
The Color of Money
Far and Away
Interview with a Vampire
Jerry McGuire
Jack Reacher
Endless Love
Losin It
All the Right Moves
Cocktail
Days of Thunder
Mission Impossible
Eyes Wide Shut
Mission Impossible II
Vanilla Sky
War of the Worlds
Mission Impossible III
Knight and Day
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Rock of Ages
Oblivion
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

In short, I'm not a fan of his work.

While I cannot disagree with you about not being a fan, I will admit that there are some of his movies that are good, often despite him. Also, I watch a lot of movies.

What are some examples of movies that you do like?

 

[DirtDirtDirt]

Love All the Right Moves at the time

Hasnt dated well, but loved it back in the day

Looking forward to the Mummy

 

[jakedog56]

I really don't get all the hate for the guy. Maybe it's the Scientology thing, which I think is a stupid reason to hate someone.

I just don't like Tom Cruise in a general sense. While the Scientology thing isn't helping his case, in particular because of his specific standing in their "church", I like the works of some other Scientologists (Jason Lee (various early Kevin Smith movies, My Name Is Earl, etc.), Danny Masterson and Laura Prepon (That's 70's Show), Juliette Lewis (Strange Days, Natural Born Killers, etc.), Giovanni Ribisi (Saving Private Ryan, Ted, etc.), Billy Sheehan (Great rock bass player with Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, etc.), and additional.
So I think that it is Tom individually that rubs me the wrong way. He isn't a great actor. He acts like an ass a lot of the time (both in reality and in the interpetation of his characters). He comes off as smug and overprivilaged off camera. He also just seems weird in general.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Hope I'm not in the minority here, but I actually liked all the Mission Impossible films. Even if they are always outlandish and pretty much a ripoff of the Bond movies I still enjoy them.



Not sure that there are too many Cruise films that I don't like though. I'd put all as either watchable or good. Haven't seen all of them though!

I prefer them to the Craig Bonds.

And I really liked Last Samurai.

 

[DirtDirtDirt]

A Few Good Men

Tropic Thunder

For different reasons, at the top of the list for me

 

[RP-29]

While I cannot disagree with you about not being a fan, I will admit that there are some of his movies that are good, often despite him. Also, I watch a lot of movies.

What are some examples of movies that you do like?

Mel Brooks, Trey Parker and Quentin Tarantino have hit my entertainment sweet spot.

 

[Clayton]

Interesting perspective. I might have to watch it again to relate. Please expand on that thought.

Its a pretty dense (and boring) movie with no real conclusive meaning but some believe its a movie about Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's failing marriage. The general consensus is that its a movie about male ego towards marriage, the illusion that following the blueprint of normal life will lead you to some pinnacle of success or morality. Rainbows and rainbow colors are a huge theme in the movie and its usually centered around Tom Cruise's character. Generally speaking people think that it represents the fantasy of him finding a pot of gold at the end of his quest but it could also be about homosexuality and Cruise running away from it to protect his ego to placate what is normal. I think that would make sense given that Cruise made Top Gun and that movie is pretty homoerotic.

All I know is that the movie took years to make, the couple told their marital issues to Kubrick, and the ended up divorcing a short time after the movie's release.

 

[theboardref]

Older films good, present day is all Grade A Michael Bay league bull shit.

 

[redseat]

This is his best performance by far:

 

[theboardref]

This is his best performance by far:

Acting straight?