Tom Cruise

Days of Thunder (1990)

The Great Movie Re-Watch

Days of Thunder (1990)

Director:

Tony Scott

Writers:

Robert Towne

Tom Cruise

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Robert Duvall

Nicole Kidman

Randy Quaid

Michael Rooker

Cary Elwes

Blurb:

A young hot-shot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level.

Thoughts:

I am not a NASCAR fan. I always hated Sundays when my dad would watch it because it was so boring. I didn’t like football either, but something about cars driving around in circles was so much worse. I hated it. When I met my now husband, he was a big NASCAR fan. He loved to talk about it, and initially, because I wanted in his pants, I listened. Eventually, I listened because I loved him, and seeing him so excited about something was fun. I unwillingly learned more than I ever wanted to know about the sport. I now know it’s more than just driving in circles, along with a myriad of other facts. (In case anyone was wondering, he pays attention when I talk about topics I love and probably knows more than he’d ever want to know about romance books)

I never grew to like NASCAR, and in case it wasn’t clear, Days of Thunder is not my movie. In fact, I could have easily skipped it and felt no remorse over it, but my husband wanted to watch it, so I didn’t.

Alright, so Tom Cruise is a racer that can drive anything better than anyone ever, except he knows nothing about cars. Robert Duvall is old, even then, and he knows everything there is about making cars. Together, if they can get past their differences, they’ll be unstoppable. Enter Nicole Kidman, a super professional doctor, but after Tom Cruise puts her hand on his junk, she can’t seem to control herself. They hang out, and then seconds after she’s cleared him to drive again, they make out and become a thing. Also, Michael Rooker is the best driver until Tom Cruise comes along, and they have multiple dick-measuring contests. Oh, and Cary Elwes totally wants to fuck Tom Cruise.

That is Days of Thunder.

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018)

MI Fallout Gif

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018)

Director:

Christopher McQuarrie

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Henry Cavill

Ving Rhames

Simon Pegg

Rebecca Ferguson

Plot:

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.

Review:

The previous Mission Impossible movie was one of my favorite in the franchise, so needless to say I was fairly excited for this one. Sadly, for me, it did not live up to expectations.

Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise, and his team must have all taken stupid pills because for most of the movie they kept on failing stupendously. Even when they weren’t and were fulfilling normal MI tropes it all felt contrived. It was a huge let down.

I expect people to be working against him. I expect face masks. I expect good action. Mission Impossible Fallout had all of that, and yet it still failed.

At over two hours the movie was incredibly bloated. It had no business being that long. There was also something with the sound and score that had several scenes go really quiet and it drove me freaking crazy. I HATED whatever was happening on that front.

By the middle point of the movie I had my phone out, surfing the internet.

Tom Cruise did a great job but he needs to retire from these movies. Henry Cavill made me drool in just about every scene he was in that I paid attention to, but he made a piss poor villain. He was too over the top and, again, it just felt too contrived. He was also taken out like a little shit. The helicopter stuff was cool, but just falling down the side of a mountain to your death is not how a good villain is killed.

The Mission Impossible franchise is one of the most consistent franchises out there, which is kind of crazy, but Fallout was an unsatisfying addition to the series.

2/5

Knight and Day (2010)


Knight and Day (2010)

Director:

James Mangold

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Cameron Diaz

Plot:

A young woman gets mixed up with a disgraced spy who is trying to clear his name.

Review:

I’ve watched this movie twice and I still don’t know if the characters are crazy. If they are then I think the movie is asking the question, is crazy something you can catch.

Tom Cruise is a spy that uses Cameron Diaz to get past airport security. She ends up getting pulled into his crazy life and eventually catching the crazy. Or maybe he just brings what was already there to the forefront, not sure.

In all fairness, she tries to escape multiple times, but he repeatedly drugs her and she eventually just accepts her fate. Then decides if you can’t beat them best join them so she starts pulling her own crazy shit.

Honestly, the movie is odd because of how Tom Cruise decided to play the character. Maybe he was trying to make it very different from Mission Impossible but still remain a badass, I’m not sure. He was just odd and Diaz just went from there.

3/5

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

mission-impossible-rogue-nation-1

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

Director:

Christopher McQuarrie

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Simon Pegg

Rebecca Ferguson

Jeremy Renner

Plot:

Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate – an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF.

Review:

This was such a pleasant surprise. I’d honestly completely forgotten they were releasing a new Mission Impossible movie until my husband brought it up. Since our daughter is having her first sleepover with the grandparents I thought this was a great movie to keep me distracted.

The IMF is experiencing some backlash from their previous less than covert operations. Blowing up the Kremlin tends to piss off some people. Because of that this entire operation was spent with the agents dodging the bad guys and the good.

Simon Pegg was great, Tom Cruise was great, Rebecca Ferguson was great, you get the picture? The actors were perfect, the story was entertaining, and there were masks. I actually think the movie will end up looking better when I see it on a smaller screen, so much was going on that it was sometimes difficult to focus on everything.

Watching this made me want to re-watch the previous ones and I think once I’ve finished the Matrix Trilogy I will move on to the Mission Impossible series.

4/5

 

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Director:

Doug Liman

Starring:

Tom Cruise

Emily Blunt

Bill Paxton

Plot:

A military officer is brought into an alien war against an extraterrestrial enemy who can reset the day and know the future. When this officer is enabled with the same power, he teams up with a Special Forces warrior to try and end the war.

Review:

So I almost didn’t rent this because the cover makes it seem like the title is Live. Die. Repeat. The only reason I looked at it was because I’d not heard of a movie with that title. So not sure if that was a good move marketing wise.

Tom Cruise plays a coward well, was my first thought. Bill Paxton is awesome. Emily Blunts introduction is great. Before you even see her there are images plastered all over the world about how awesome she is and then the first image of her in person she’s in the middle of a hanger, doing a push up only the only thing on the floor is her hand.

Holy shit the aliens are freaking crazy. They move so fast and they’re all tentacles and machine.

Tom Cruises CG face looked like shit.

This movie is Groundhog day on steroids, it’s fucking insane. Also if you haven’t seen Groundhog Day watch it.

The end of this movie dragged on. A lot. I honestly like the first two thirds but by the time it was over I could barely pay attention. It’s 113 minutes but it felt like so much longer. The repeated days didn’t bother me but the ending that never came did. When it finally did it was total bullshit. A giant reset button that magically made everything better with no valid reasoning that I can see.

3/5

“On your feet maggot!”