Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Live. Die. Repeat. That’s the smart mantra behind “Edge of Tomorrow,” the unfortunately titled but damn entertaining Tom Cruise sci-fi actioner that marries “Groundhog Day” to “Starship Troopers.” The trailers promises action and explosions. Those we get. But it’s also a surprisingly funny romp about a pompous PR-hack-turned-soldier (Cruise) who resurrects every time he is killed in battle against alien creatures that mesh robotics and Red Lobster dinner fare. How so? Not important. What is of interest: Dozens of those deaths are comedy gold such as when Cruise -– let’s face it, the guy has ego to spare –- eats some tires getting run over while escaping push-up duty. But there’s a better reason to cheer: Emily Blunt plays the kick-ass hero who pummels Cruise’s worm into a deadly warrior. Blunt -– best known for comedy -– is damn good. Never weak per some script mandate. Cruise again gives his all, his eyes going from vacant to deadly smart. Director Doug Liman (“Bourne Identity”) wraps up with a popcorn friendly finale, but the ride is worth repeat views. Female hero. Pure send-up of macho action tropes. Bill Paxton satirizing “Aliens” bravado. Far better than its given title. B+

Jack Reacher (2012)

In “Jack Reacher,” Tom Cruise is the coolest guy in the room who’s miles ahead of everyone else, can fight five guys no sweat, and when he walks by -– even at a Goodwill –- every woman swoons. The college girls, too. Yes, Cruise may be “playing” Jack Reacher, but really he’s spinning on his own ego. And since Reacher is one of those secret Army guys with no personality or background, why not let Cruise do so? He is the main attraction. Sorry Lee Child books fans. Here, Reacher investigates a mass murder carried out by an ex-Army sniper who we know is innocent because we saw another man (Jai Courtney) do the deed. Fear not, Reacher/Cruise will down every villain, right up to the one-fingered evil Blofeld cousin (famed director Werner Herzog) with an agenda so uninspired 007 would yawn. Not Reacher/ Cruise. He coolly threatens, scowls, and drives a Chevelle in a kick-ass car chase that’s a riotous hoot. All of this is carried out as a massacre plot that shies at the shock of violence to get a kid-friendly PG-13. But post-Sandy Hook, when a movie killer targets children, why are we not looking at an automatic R rating? B-

Oblivion (2013)

Futuristic thriller “Oblivion” is a surprising effort from Tom Cruise and director/writer Joseph Kosinski for all the wrong reasons: It’s a dud film timed for Earth Day. Every scene, fight, character, and reveal is recycled from better films in my DVD collection. 

Cruise is Jack, a memory-wiped repair guy on a wasted 2077 Earth who looks after massive machinery that provides energy for humanity, now stored up on a spaceship and ready to bolt for distant refuge. Jack is alone but for his monotone (and ginger-haired) companion (Andrea Riseborough) who runs his life. A robot in high heels, her.

“Oblivion” is a knock-out artistically, but it’s also -– in case you haven’t been paying attention -– a nonsensical awful reverse of “Moon,” a new-classic sci-fi films. Yes, Jack meets another Jack. Really. Duncan Jones could sue. Also lazily ripped: “2001,” “Star Wars” and “Independence Day,” among others. No moment of this thriller thrills, it rehash future where reveals land like bricks.

When Cruise’s hero inexplicibly (mind wipe!) recalls a football game, I forgot I like him as an actor. Kosinski made “Tron: Legacy,” another great-looking sci-fi epic stuck in the past. Pattern? C

Rock of Ages (2012)

Worst fuckin’ episode of “Glee” I ever watched. And it lacks anyone half as cool as Chris Colfer. Blockbuster wannabe “Rock of Ages” tosses Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Bryan Cranston, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Paul Giamatti, plus two shiny youths -- Julianne Hough and Diego Boneta –- in an insipid mix-tape, mashed-up, lip-sync heavy rock story (sound familiar?) about fame and love that leans slightly more dangerous than “Bye Bye Birdie.” If “Birdie” were set in 1987. That’s the year “Ages,” based on a Broadway hit likely snipped of its balls on its way to the screen, takes place, when Poison, Def Leppard, and Jon Bon Jovi ruled MTV, radio, and record stores. Tone deaf from frame one with a sing-along Night Ranger bus ride, “Ages” sock hops between celebrating rock n’ roll big hair hedonism and giving a mocking F.U. finger to anyone who longs for vinyl records. Not that it matters. Our rock stars here drink, but never get drunk. Flirt and strip, but never screw. Drugs? No. Never. This is Wal-Mart rock, scrubbed clean for the kids who once listened to Quiet Riot, but now vote Romney, and party in PG-13 style. D+

Knight and Day (2010)

Tom Cruise plays a cartoon version of his “Mission: Impossible” superspy in “Knight & Day,” a comedy-action-thriller that smells of 200 rewrites and old cliches in cheap paint. But – shocking to my snob tastes – it works. Mostly. As Cruise hilariously mocks his own onscreen heroics, Cameron Diaz -- she of the trillion watt smile and ditzy double-take – adds more wink-wink charm as the helpless/ hapless woman. Cruise is Roy Miller, a spy on the run who spots Diaz’s car restorer at an airport and sees the perfect unwitting partner who can help get him through his life’s woes before the end credits roll. See, Cruise as Miller knows he’s in a movie. Every shot in the film is too … perfect. This is all satire. (It better be.) Director James Mangold skips over gaping story holes by having his leads get knocked out and then woken up in new time zones and all-new clothes. “Knight” dissipates from the mind like rubbing alcohol on skin, but Cruise and Diaz are all sugar-high smiles on this candy corn flick. It all glides by. B-

Valkyrie (2008)

"Valkyrie" is as dramatically deep as your average brownie and contains a myriad of accents that are, for the most part, not even close to German. But this Tom Cruise-starring dramatization of the failed July 1944 assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler is in line with the great WWII thrillers from the 1950s and 1960s that starred Gregory Peck, William Holden or Richard Burton.

The miracle here is that director Bryan Singer and co-writers Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander make us want the would-be assassins to succeed despite a minimum of action and a known outcome. (If you're remotely shocked at this "spoiler," turn off the Internet and pick up a friggin' history book.)

Cruise stars as Claus von Stauffenberg, the severely wounded Nazi army colonel who sees his Fuhrer for what he is -- evil incarnate -- and decides to stop him. Through a casual comment here and a few chance encounters, Stauffenberg meets with like-minded German men and the murder-by-bomb plot is on. Cruise, one eye covered by a patch and without the use of his right hand or most of his left hand, is a great Hollywood hero. He never digs deeps into the role as he did in "Born on the Fourth of July" or even "Tropic Thunder," but he's nonetheless solid.

I wish the script presented us with a crisis of conscious or eureka moment for Stauffenberg, but the character is against Hitler as the opening credits roll. It's a big disappointment in an otherwise good film.

Where some people see the lack of German accents as a minus, I take it as a plus. No one tries on a voice they can't carry. Cruise sounds exactly like Cruise, the same with the supporting players Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard and Kenneth Branagh. Why is that good? Think of Kevin Costner trying for Brit in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and try not to wince. Singer ("The Usual Suspects") made a wise choice. B+

Tropic Thunder (2008)

"Tropic Thunder" certainly is the busiest action-comedy-spoof in ages. Aping Hollywood egos and serious war films such as "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now," it has a cast and budget that rivals those two classics plus a dozen more epics.

Star, director and co-writer Ben Stiller is Tugg Speedman, an action film star on a career nosedive after he starred in an Oscar hopeful about a "retard" titled "Simple Jack" that not only crashed and burned, it seemingly offended half the known world. Speedman is now starring as Four Leaf Tayback in "Tropic Thunder, a hellish take on the real Tayback's experience in Vietnam. The film has a first-time Brit director (Steve Coogan), two wild co-stars -- an Australian method actor named Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) who's made up in black face, and a comedic drug addict (Black Jack) trying to go serious. Both are gods in their own minds. But the cast soon find themselves hunted by real Southeast Asia killers in a real war after a funny mix up kills the director.

The film is wildly offensive and all over-the-map, not only making fun of on-set ego fights and productions, but zipping back and forth to Hollywood to dig at a kiss ass agent (Matthew McConaughey) and an immoral studio executive (Tom Cruise). But nearly every dig feels true (even if it isn't), from the self-importance of film actors and Hollywood in general to the way whites would like to think they know how it is to be African-American. Alas, Black returns to full Tasmanian wild-eyed devil mode, while Stiller continues his happy "loser" character he's played to death for for the past decade. The clear champs are Cruise and Downey. Both under heavy make up, Cruise looks like he's having the time of his life, while good ol' Iron Man continues to show he's the best actor of his generation. Downey's every line is classic.

The film is a bit too hectic to win absolute love, and the best comedic bit is the quickest and most quiet. In a spoof trailer at the film's opening, Downey as Lazarus and Tobey Maguire as Tobey Maguire play monks in love, fondling each others' ... rosary beads. Hilarious. B

Lions for Lambs (2007)

Robert Redford's well-acted "Lions for Lambs" follows a liberal California professor (Redford), a Republican senator (Tom Cruise), and a journalist looking at the end of her career (Meryl Streep). The film goes against the Hollywood grain by showing every conceivable side to the debates on war, religion and Bush, but for the worse. Once the lines are drawn and the opinions given, this by the first half hour, the film doesn't have anywhere to go. Scenes involving two former students turned G.I. Joe don't really pay off as they obviously have been shot on a soundstage. Or badly CGI'd. Still, the best poke in the eye is how Redford demands us to give a damn, be it right or left or wrong. C+