I watched Top Gun for the first time yesterday (shocking I know) and Maverick, played by Tom Cruise is one of the most human characters in movie history whilst still being entertaining and almost larger than life.
To fill people in if they haven't seen the movie. Maverick is hot shot fighter pilot who has a tonne of skill but butts heads with his superiors for his cockiness and constant rule breaking. That part of the character already sets up some good conflict. Add that to the emotional center of the film, which is not the romance between Maverick and Charlie, but instead is Mavericks close friendship with his wing man Goose (Anthony Edwards). This really drives the movie along, following them getting in and out of trouble and then playing some very homo-erotic volleyball, but that's a different conversation all together.
On top of those things you have Mavericks aforementioned relationship with Charlie (Kelly McGillis) which is very genuine and has great on screen chemistry which is always the most important thing when portraying love on the big screen.
All of these things show that Cruise has incredible acting chops (that is excluding 'Cocktail') that he can pull off these things in one movie, not many other movie stars that I can think of would have been able to do that to such a high standard and with such style.
His range is also something that a lot of other high profile movie stars don't have.
He started off doing mostly drama and some comedy with things like 'Risky Business' and 'The Color of Money' and has been put up many times for many different awards for best actor, leading and supporting.
Just when everyone thought Tom Cruise was just a drama actor he goes and stars as Ethan Hunt in 1996's 'Mission Impossible', one of he best espionage movies of all time. That was followed up by more Mission Impossible movies (the fifth one to be released in the UK on the 30th of July) which are all great movie, with the exception of 2. This really cemented Cruise as a full blown action star backed up by other such films as 'Oblivion', 'Knight and Day' and the more recent 'Edge of Tomorrow' or 'Live Die Repeat' depending on what title you prefer.
Cruise also surpasses other action stars by doing pretty much all of his own stunts, he even throws tantrums if he isn't allowed, if recent gossip is to be believed. This adds so much more legitimacy to his movies and makes it a lot more immersive because there wont be any time where you notice a stunt double that looks a bit off (looking at you Terminator 2). This is epitomized in the trailer for Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation where he is strapped to the side of a plane taking off and it is clearly him the whole time, I mean that is a frickin' cool scene you just would't get with other actors.
Yes, he is a Scientologist, and yes it is stupid as s**t, and yes it almost killed his career (Jesus, you remember that Oprah interview). This however doesn't detract from his acting ability at all and to level it out he is a super nice guy in interviews and funny too.
To conclude it is very rare you get all of the talents and skills that Tom Cruise has and he looks so slick doing it. He looks awesome running to (even if he does it quite a lot) and he is so damn likable as pretty much any character. Even when he played the villain in 'Collateral'.
My top 5 Tom Cruise films would be
1. Edge of Tomorrow. That has been criminally underrated
2. Mission Impossible 1. Still the best of the franchise
3.Top Gun. One of the best buddy movies ever
4. Collateral. Nice to see a different role for Cruise and he does it so excellently
5. Minority Report. This film should be remembered a lot more as it is truly excellent
Thanks for hearing my thoughts, I would love to know who you think is the best movie star is?
These pieces about my opinions are basically going to fill gaps between reviews of movies and new trailers.
-Joe
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