Tom Cruise

American Made has got to be one of the most perverse films I’ve seen this year, and I mean it as a positive. That’s “perverse,” not “perverted,” by the way. “Perverse” in the way that what we’re watching is meant to be a man’s illicit life, yet we’re laughing savagely at it. Those of you […]

There’s a reason why a character like Jack Reacher – either in the films or in Lee Childs’ novels – speaks to us. Here’s a man who’s free from all obligations, a former member of the Army Military Police Corps who wants to see the country he spent so much time defending, wanting to be […]

Good evening, Mr. Hunt. 36 hours ago, there was a breach in our military’s communication network. Now, an emerging terror organization known as The Syndicate has control over our entire drone fleet. Their targets: Unknown. Your mission, should you choose to accept it… — the closing “tape scene” of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol With […]

“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” has more than  its share of clever ideas and death-defying stunts. Even before the opening credits, star Tom Cruise, consistently narrowing the divide between himself and the super spy that he’s portraying, clings to the side of a cargo plane as it makes a rather abrupt ascent from takeoff. Ethan […]

If you didn’t get enough of the time travel thing with “X-Men: Days of Future Past” earlier this month, fear not: “Edge of Tomorrow” will throw you for a loop. Or a hundred. It’s kind of like that level of “Call of Duty” you can’t seem to get past. In an undisclosed time in the […]

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on April 18, 2013.) Science-fiction is a very broad genre these days. My wife once told me that traditional science-fiction can be boiled down to two specific premises: technology gone awry and social commentary. A lot of what passes for “sci-fi” films are really action movies, like […]