Legend (1985)
Apr 27, 2003Adult Fairytale
Hugely underrated Ridley Scott film that was a box-office flop. Scott attempts to reconstruct the fairytale as something dark and primal and creates moments that are superlative cinema
Tom Cruise
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)
Jun 19, 2001Vampires/Anne Rice Adaptation
Most of the attention this drew at the time was over the controversy of casting Tom Cruise as the vampire Lestat; otherwise Neil Jordan conducts an excellent adaptation of the Anne Rice novel
Magnolia (1999)
Dec 31, 1999Interwoven Stories/Unexplained Phenomena
From Paul Thomas Anderson, a series of interlinking stories and character sketches, featuring some great performances. Underlining everything is a fascination with the inexplicable and the works of Charles Fort
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Jun 30, 2000Spy/Action Film
The second of Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films where he has the smarts to hire John Woo as director who brings his customary stylish flair with action to transform the film into something exhiliraing
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)
May 2, 2001Genre Director Documentary
Documentary about the life of Stanley Kubrick made by his brother-in-law that lifts the veil on the mystique that surrounded Kubrick in his later years and gives a good deal of insight into his working processes
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Dec 14, 2001Reality Bender
The English-language remake of Open Your Eyes, starring Tom Cruise. The Spanish version is still the superior of the two but this stays surprisingly faithful to the original
Minority Report (2002)
Jul 15, 2002Future Precognitive Police Force
Steven Spielberg takes on Philip K. Dick in a much grittier film than he usually makes. In the strong and intelligent script, Tom Cruise is an officer on a police force that predicts crime before it happens only to then be hunted by his own side
War of the Worlds (2005)
Jul 2, 2005Alien Invasion/H.G. Wells Adaptation
Steven Spielberg remakes the classic H.G. Wells alien invasion story, liberally rewriting it for the post-9/11 world. Not Spielberg's best film but a more than solid work on most grounds
Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Jun 21, 2006Spy/Action Film
For his third outing in the series, Tom Cruise made a smart bet on giving the reins to J.J. Abrams who made his directorial debut and turned in the most enjoyable entry in the series to that point. One of the best moves is in the casting of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the villain of the show
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
Jan 19, 2012Spy/Action Film
The best of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible films to this point. The live-action directorial debut of Pixar director Brad Bird proves an inspired move and Bird gets all the gadgetry just right along with a series of sensational action sequences
Oblivion (2013)
Apr 19, 2013Post-Holocaust Deserted Earth/Conceptual Breakthrough
This falls short of being a great science-fiction film by a hairs breadth. Not the big space/action film it was sold as, more a Philip K. Dickian conceptual breakthrough film that seems to have borrowed large chunks of its set-up from Moon
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Jun 7, 2014Man Forced to Repeat the Same Day Over/Alien Invasion
The rarity of a summer blockbuster with smarts – think Groundhog Day reworked by way of Battle Los Angeles. The timeloop idea is dealt with in clever ways making for an action film driven by an original sf story
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)
Aug 1, 2015Spy/Action Film
The Mission: Impossible films have become superbly polished vehicles with exotic locales, death-defying stuntwork and spectacular action sequences. This enacts it all well; the main problem is that Ghost Protocol is such a tough act to follow that this cannot help but fall in its shadow
Spielberg (2017)
Oct 23, 2017Steven Spielberg Documentary
Documentary made for HBO about director Steven Spielberg in which he reflects on his life and films. The documentary tends to focus more on his major hits and skips his minor films but does give worthwhile insight into Spielberg, his life and formative years
The Mummy (2017)
Jul 22, 2017Revived Mummy
The reboot of the Mummy series emerges as a wannabe Michael Bay film where even star Tom Cruise plays second banana to the CGI eye candy. Equally, an attempt to jumpstart a shared universe out of Universal's Famous Monsters with the inclusion of Dr Jekyll seems awkward
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
Dec 29, 2018Spy/Action Film
The sixth of the Mission: Impossible films. Not the best of the series but Tom Cruise and associates have everything polished to an expertly honed formula by now and the film is a kinetic ride of intensive and often jaw-dropping action sequences
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Oct 21, 2023Spy/Action Film
The seventh of Mission: Impossible films with Tom Cruise still on great form at age 61. He and the team raise the bar for the series to a new high
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Sep 13, 2025Spy/Action Film
The eighth of the Mission: Impossible films. The previous entry Dead Reckoning was a high point in the series and this is left wrapping up the storyline in what would appear to be Tom Cruise’s final outing for the series