Why Tom Cruise Working With Prestigious Directors Is Good!
Tom Cruise has been one of the biggest movie stars of the last 40 years. He’s done several of my favorite films of all time. He’s done great blockbusters and dramas, over the last couple of weeks he’s been in talks with prestigious directors for future movies. Why do I think this is a good idea? Here are my thoughts!
Which Directors?: A couple weeks back it was reported that Tom Cruise was in talks to join Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film, The Film Critic. Then just a few days back, Cruise also began early talks to be in Alejandro Inarritu’s next film. That project is being kept under wraps so there’s not much about it. That’s the directors that Cruise is in talks with, who knows if they will actually come true but they might. And I think that’s a good thing for Cruise’s career and here’s why.
Missing part of career: I wasn’t exactly sure how to phrase this one, but I feel like Tom Cruise in a weird sense is underrated. At first calling Tom Cruise “underrated” sounds crazy, but I feel like he’s underrated as a dramatic actor. Where people forget that he’s a world class actor, he can deliver great dramatic performances but that’s not something that he’s fully focused on over the last 10-15 years. He’s done a lot of Mission Impossible films, a little film called Top Gun: Maverick. He’s known as of late as the blockbuster guy, he’s known as the guy who does these crazy stunts. But what people forget, he wasn’t always a dramatic actor. When he did Mission Impossible (1996) that started his action career. But before that he was a dramatic actor, he did a Martin Scorsese film called The Color of Money opposite Paul Newman. He did Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, and Jerry Maguire, all films that show off his acting range. A phrase I’ve heard about Cruise that I don’t like is that he’s “the white version of The Rock”. The Rock gets a lot of crap for playing the same character in every movie. Black Adam was very much a Dwayne Johnsonified version of the character. People apply that to Tom Cruise and it’s unfair, it’s wrong. If you’ve only seen Tom Cruise do Mission Impossible films and Top Gun: Maverick that’s only one portion of his career. You watch his earlier films, more dramatic roles he’s much more versatile than people sometimes give him credit for. Even the scene with him and Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, that little scene shows Tom Cruise’s acting range. You think if you apply Tom Cruise’s acting range to a script by Quentin Tarantino you could get something really cool. Alejandro Inarritu directed The Revenant, he helped Leonardo DiCpario finally get his Oscar. For years, DiCaprio was known as the top actor who’d never won an Oscar. DiCaprio did The Revenant, he finally won an Oscar. Maybe Inarrtiu can give Tom Cruise an Oscar.
Getting Older: Tom Cruise is a great example of an actor that has aged really well. This July Tom Cruise will turn 62 years old, he does not look like that. He looks like he should be in his 50s, maybe late 40s. He's aged very well. It’s still impressive that at 60 he rode a motorcycle off of a cliff in the latest Mission Impossible. In his late 50s he flew fighter jets while filming Top Gun: Maverick, there’s not that many people his age doing what he’s doing. BUT, he is getting older. He is in his 60s and he can’t do a lot of the stuff that he could do when he was younger. Next year, the eighth Mission Impossible film comes out and soon we'll be getting Top Gun 3, maybe those are the films to close out his big scale action blockbuster career. Maybe the latest little run of his career, he’s doing more prestigious films with directors. He won’t leave the A-list, but he’ll be respected more as a dramatic actor. I would say, he’s probably the top actor that doesn’t have an Oscar. It’s weird he doesn’t have an Oscar, I think he should. I think he should have gotten a Best Actor nomination for Top Gun: Maverick.
Closing Thoughts: When I heard this piece of news I was excited. I like the fact that he’s going to be working with more prestigious directors in prestigious films. He’s of course a fantastic movie star, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning was my favorite film 2023. Top Gun: Maverick fantastic film one of the best of all time. But I always want him to showcase his acting abilities, working with Tarantino and Inarritu is a great way to start that.
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