Tom Cruise Movies

By: Casey LaMarca

Before there was Asterisk Tom Cruise, he was simply known as Tom Cruise. While still a gifted actor, he is not turning in as many memorable performances as he used to. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the once most bankable movie star in the world has several worthy credits to his name.

We begin with, Top Gun (1986, Dir. Tony Scott), not his most critically acclaimed role, but it’s hard not to say that this 80’s blockbuster is Cruise at his most likeable. After Risky Business, Cruise was a star. After Top Gun, he became the man we all have come to know. As Lt. Pete Mitchell (call sign Maverick) Cruise delivers the looks girls ogle over and the confidence men desire. I will not look down upon a person who dislikes Cruise as the person he has become today, but I will look down on you if you dislike Cruise as the movie star if you’ve never seen Top Gun, which still stands to this day as one of the most entertaining action movies one can offer.

Cruise continued to hit it big, including a great performance in the Best Picture winner Rain Man and his first Oscar nominated performance as a wounded veteran who protests in Vietnam in Born on the Fourth of July. While on paper these may his finest roles, but for me, it’s his performances in the career choices he made after becoming the world’s unstoppable movie star. Cruise pocketed $75 million for Mission Impossible in 1996, but that’s not the highlight of his year. He gave a wonderful performance in Jerry Maguire (his second Oscar nomination), both funny and touching, deep and true. Teaming up with Cameron Crowe, the film gave Cruise another force among box-office draws. He was a hero of the action genre as well as mastering the romantic-comedy. At the time, it’s as though the words “You complete me” became the moviegoer’s decisive response upon viewing his work.

Cruise was not only rolling as an audience favorite, but continued as a critical darling in his great supporting role as Frank T.J Mackey in Magnolia, Paul Thomas Anderson’s courageously weird take on a day in the life of nine characters who all connect in one way or another (picture Crash on crack).  Cruise is electric as a sex guru who leads a seminar called “Seduce and Destroy, which can help men get women to sleep with them. In his third Oscar nomination (for supporting actor this time around), Cruise displayed a side we rarely get to see. It’s a riveting portrayal.

After that, he did Mission Impossible II, made another chunk load of change (the film itself was the highest grossing film of 2000, making $215 million domestically), and maintained his status as the world’s hottest movie star. Then he did Vanilla Sky, which got critically dismantled, but personally, I found it fascinating. A remake of the Alejandro Amenabar film “Abre Los Ojos” (Open Your Eyes), the film is a very daring choice for Cruise, consisting of a psychological thriller wrapped around some big Science Fiction themes. Re-teaming with Cameron Crowe, the film deserved more attention to Cruise’s successful attempt at playing such a different role. It proved that he could do ANY kind of movie he wanted and STILL have it gross over $100 million.

One year later, another $100+ million hit and another critically acclaimed smash. Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report is one of Cruise’s best blockbuster roles. Not only did it open to rave reviews, it’s considered to be one of Spielberg’s finest. When that’s the case, the lead actor’s performance must be recognized.

Tom Cruise isn’t the world’s biggest movie star anymore. However, we must remember that he was once, for a long, long time. Almost two decades of cinema has his name written all over it, as both a commercially and critically ordained movie star. Will he reclaim his thrown? While he’s still pulling in some strong performances (Valkyrie was criminally underrated), it remains to be seen.

Note: Cruise will be re-teaming with his Vanilla Sky co-star Cameron Diaz in James Mangold’s upcoming summer action-comedy Knight and Day, opening on June 25, 2010.

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