Tom Cruise Rewind

  This is where I would normally say this is Part 21 of my Tom Cruise rewind series, but COVID sort of ruined everything and I haven't updated it in two years because of how often the release date for Top Gun: Maverick was pushed back. This was the film that was next on that list, so it deserves something from me, I feel, even if my heart is not quite in it the way it once was. Just like I said for Eyes Wide Shu t, Magnolia required me to really mentally prepare myself to rewatch. The film itself is not why I delayed rewatching it for two years -- genuinely, I had a lot of stuff going on in the meantime, such as my 70 hour work weeks last summer -- but it is also true for me to say that this is a film I did have to be in the right mood to watch. And finally I was in the right mood, had the time to do it, AND wanted to actually see it -- so it worked out for me finally.  

Admittedly, it took me a very long time (a year, in fact) to get myself ready to rewatch Eyes Wide Shut . The idea of giving my thoughts on a Stanley Kubrick film when people have already said so much about them was daunting, but it becomes even more daunting when it's his final film -- and one that people absolutely adore to theorize about. Eyes Wide Shut is a peculiar film indeed, one full of motifs and symbolism that can be interpreted in a myriad of ways. So I'll take a swing at it, too.    

At the end of the 80s, Tom Cruise finally proved to critics that he was more than just the teen film star-turned-action hero with his role as a traumatized war veteran in Born on the Fourth of July . Halfway through the 90s, Cruise was back on critics' radars, this time for a role that was quite opposite to Ron Kovic. In Jerry Maguire , Cruise plays a high-strung, commitment-phobe sports agent in search of real friendship and love after the loss of his job. While Cruise had appeared in comedies and romance movies before, Jerry Maguire is arguably the first real romantic comedy he starred in -- and it remains one of the best outings of his career.

As much as people criticize the entertainment industry nowadays for their constant reboots and remakes, it could be argued that this trend started back in the 90s with the countless film versions of classic media staples, generally either TV shows or comics. Tom Cruise wasn't immune to this trend; in 1996, he starred in the film adaptation of the 1960s TV show Mission: Impossible . This movie had little in common with the original show, with only one shared character and a modern setting, but this doesn't matter much when Mission: Impossible went on to spawn 7 sequels. So how does it hold up 24 years later?

If I'm being honest, it's difficult for me to give an unbiased review of Interview with the Vampire as a fan of The Vampire Chronicles. The first time I saw it, I scoffed at the theatricality of it all and saw it more as a bad-but-enjoyable sort of movie; with each rewatch, however, there's something delightfully new that I discover. Perhaps this is a good summary for Cruise's career at the time, especially with the choice to play Lestat de Lioncourt, a bisexual vampire antagonist that seemed to be a far cry from his normal acting fare. But to start and stop there would be selling Cruise and Interview with the Vampire too short.

Only six months passed after  A Few Good Men was released before another film starring Tom Cruise as a lawyer premiered. This film is The Firm , a lengthy adaptation of the John Grisham novel by the same name. Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a lawyer fresh out of law school who has just received the job offer of a lifetime. However, it doesn't take long for Mitch's life -- and the movie in general -- to descend into outlandish chaos.

Courtroom dramas are a staple in the world of classic films, with popular movies like Anatomy of a Murder , Judgement at Nuremberg , and 12 Angry Men among them. By 1992, the format of these dramas was definitely well-established and familiar to most audiences. But despite the increased risk of slipping into the mediocrity of familiarity, A Few Good Men does the exact opposite and comes through with a script and performances so bombastic that it remains highly memorable almost thirty years after its initial release.

The second film Cruise made in the 1990s also happens to be his second film with his then-wife Nicole Kidman. Their status as newly-weds had a large impact on the film's production from the get-go, as it largely became a vehicle for the two of them to show off their relationship. While this movie aims to be a historical romance of epic proportions, the film's lack of exploration into topics like class and immigration and forgettable lead characters do little to create a lasting impact.

Days of Thunder ushered in a new decade for Tom Cruise. As his first film of the 90s, it marks both a fumbled transition from his reputation in the 80s to the more dignified image he crafted of himself in the 90s and a more dramatic transition in his personal life as his marriage to Mimi Rogers ended and his marriage to Nicole Kidman began. For better or for worse, it's the latter reason that makes this film more interesting than anything else. On its own, there's hardly anything memorable.