Once upon a time, Tom Cruise defined what it meant to be a true movie star. Everything he seemed to touch turned to gold and during the mid-80s to the early 2000s, he appeared to be untouchable. This was an actor that may have had murmurs lurking in the background about his personal life but he managed to overshadow them by consistently entertaining audiences with the kind of films that made us rush out to our local cineplex.
Cracks in his perfectly crafted image began to show in 2004 when Cruise, a truly outspoken advocate in favor of the Church of Scientology, began criticizing the use of psychiatry and suggested that it should be “outlawed”. This reached a fever pitch in 2005 when he criticized actress Brooke Shields for using an antidepressant called Paxil to deal with her postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. Cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. This led to a highly controversial interview on The Today Show where Cruise and host Matt Lauer got into a heated debate on the topic and once that interview began to spread, the public opinion on Cruise began to change.
You would think that him finding love with actress Katie Holmes in 2005 would ease the blow of public opinion but it only added to the weirdness that surrounded the actor at the time. The relationship seemed to come out of nowhere and his public declarations of his love for her, most notably on the now infamous couch jumping episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, were viewed as more signs that he was out of his mind rather than being crazy in love. All of these events led to a steady decline in his power as a true box office draw in the States. The man who was once guaranteed a $100 million+ domestic grosser, now had to struggle for it.
I mention all of these past Cruise stories that now live in infamy when it comes to celebrity pop culture because, despite some of them, Cruise still managed to overcome it eventually by relying on the traits that made him a star in the first place. He still was releasing quality films and, at least in my case, I could ignore a lot of the negative attention surrounding him because he was still doing his job as an actor. He was still providing me with entertainment and as long as he was doing that, I could care less that the guy was beginning to seem a bit weird over the years.
Here we are in 2017 and last weekend saw the opening of The Mummy, the film that was set up to establish Universal Pictures’ new extended universe of their classic movie monsters called The Dark Universe. Tom Cruise was the big name above the title and it had a prime summer release date but a few days before it opened it was met with horrid reviews. The reviews were so bad that many asserted it was by far the worst Tom Cruise movie of all time and it leads to a rather dismal domestic opening of $31 million on a $125 million budget. Granted its opening in the $170 million range worldwide is his biggest global opening of all time but overseas audiences have never wanted from Cruise, even when we began to in 2004. Overseas audiences love their movie stars and his image hasn’t been tarnished there, similar to how Johnny Depp still kills it overseas yet we seem to be growing tired of him over here.
After seeing The Mummy for myself and digesting the other reviews (it is now at a woeful 17% on Rotten Tomatoes) I began to realize that despite appearing in films that have entertained in the last decade or so, Tom Cruise has become lazy. This is an actor that has become the very definition of a one trick pony and I believe the backlash over his personal life is mostly to blame for a lot of it. Why take chances by stepping outside the box when audiences can easily be seduced by your ability to deliver a perfectly packaged blockbuster.
I would argue that Tom Cruise has been selling this perfectly packaged blockbuster since 2005. With the exception of Lions For Lambs in 2007, Valkyrie in 2008 & Rock of Ages in 2012, Tome Cruise has been on autopilot. Back in 1996, Cruise began his tenure with the Mission: Impossible franchise playing Ethan Hunt. The film was a huge hit in 1996 and it came out during a time when Cruise could do no wrong at the box office. Back in 1996, he didn’t have to rely on a role like this but the subsequent years it has become his crutch. In 2011, after a couple of his films underperformed at the box office, Cruise returned for a fourth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Ghost Protocol. The film brought the franchise back to greatness and it was warmly received by critics and audiences alike. Tom Cruise was back on top in a similar way he had been so many years before. This success, I believe, also began a double edged sword.
For someone like Cruise, who seemed defined by his box office hits, this is where you want to be. You want to be the talk of the town because your film did so well and then you begin a routine of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. With the exception of the three films mentioned above, Cruise has starred in 8 films since 2010 that finds the actor either playing Ethan Hunt, or a variation of that character. It feels like he’s playing a character that was manufactured in action star 101. The characters are inherently good, charming and show minimal flaws. There isn’t any great depth to any of these roles and the sameness of all these personalities could make you believe that they could star in one large 8 movie crossover. His character in Jack Reacher isn’t all that different from his turn in Knight and Day. Is that Ethan Hunt in Oblivion? I wouldn’t be mad if you assumed it was.
Tom Cruise the movie star is now a robot. He seems like something created by the Hollywood system to crank out hits. Back in the day, Cruise seemed to buck the trends that many of his peers chased. He never seemed like someone that needed a franchise but now he seems to be consistently chasing them like he doesn’t, we may forget about him. His recent moves reek of desperation and even if he’s appeared in films I’ve mostly liked during this period (Edge of Tomorrow is one of the best action/sci-fi films to come out in recent years) it doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t even seem to be trying anymore. Films like Edge of Tomorrow are good because of their high concepts, not because Cruise is bringing anything especially spectacular to the table as an actor.
Where is Tom Cruise the actor? I’ve missed him. I think the last time we saw him was in 2004’s Collateral. This is a film where he reminded us that he doesn’t need to be the perfectly chiseled good guy in order to get our attention. Cruise can be an expert villain with nuances, something he showed here and 10 years prior in Interview With the Vampire. This is the Tom Cruise I miss. The actor that was willing to take chances and surprise us. Look no further than 1999’s Magnolia for another fine example of his ability as an actor. The film earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards (I still argue he should’ve won) and for me, it’s his best performance. Another role where he didn’t seem burdened by movie star motifs. This is a completely stripped down performance that shows Cruise isn’t all smiles and charm. This is an actor with true ability and thinking back on these films (Jerry Maguire and Born on the Fourth of July are other noteworthy examples) makes his more recent efforts all the more frustrating.
There is a clearly a difference between Tom Cruise the movie star and Tom Cruise the actor. We haven’t seen the actor in quite some time and the movie star has fully taken over. The problem with this is, movie star Tom Cruise of today is a bad carbon copy of movie star Tom Cruise of yesterday. I saw Top Gun for the first time last year (blasphemous, I know) but the one thing that struck me while watching it was that this was the film that established Tom Cruise as a movie star and it was a perfect display of his early charm and ability to draw you in on his likability. This version of Tom Cruise, the movie star, seemed genuine and it was an image he effectively sold for years while mixing in films that showed he was much more than that (The Color of Money, Rain Man & A Few Good Men to name a few). That guy seems long gone now and maybe at 54 he doesn’t feel like he really needs to try anymore. He appears to have a strong work ethic and even though he’s churning out the same robotic character, he seems 100% invested in what he’s selling (I hear he was HEAVILY involved in the direction of The Mummy for better or worse). I just wish he would put more of that energy into surprising us again. I mention him being 54 because he has so much time to crank out quality films and performances that we will remember for years to come. Maybe he needs to remember why he fell in love with acting and film in the first place.
His next film, American Made, seems like a step in the right direction. The film tells the story of Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), a TWA pilot who is recruited by the CIA to help counter the emerging communist threat in Central America. Seal’s role in this major CIA covert operation led in turn to his involvement with the Medellin cartel, which ultimately embarrassed the Reagan White House after the Iran-Contra scandal became public. This feels inherently different from the product that Cruise has been cranking out in recent years and I have faith it will be. Oddly enough his film after this is another sequel in the Mission: Impossible franchise so it seems like it will be quickly back to basics for the actor but I hope that once that smoke has cleared, he will reevaluate and let Tom Cruise, the actor, come out of hiding.
