Tom Cruiseis one of the last real movie stars.
The 1990s were a defining decade for Cruise, marking his transition from heartthrob to Hollywood titan.
There’s some high-octane flair to be found here, butthe flick mostly leans into melodrama.
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Aesthetically,Days of Thunderis solid.
The result is basically justa revved-up vanity project, brought down by weak writing and generic dialogue.
Cruise and Kidman are great to look at, but there’s not much else here.
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What a corker you are."
The 140-minute runtime (170 in the extended edition!)
is certainly bloated, the pacing is uneven, and the plot occasionally gets lost in action spectacle.
It was like a great truth that suddenly dawned on me."
Butit’s Cruise who holds everything together, selling Mitch’s gradual unraveling without ever making him feel weak.
Here, the star dials back the charm and leans into paranoia.
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Still,it never quite rises above the source material, staying good rather than great.
6’Mission: Impossible' (1996)
Directed by Brian De Palma
“Red light!
Framed for treason, Hunt must go rogue to uncover the mole and clear his name.
Gooding Jr. also delivers an Oscar-winning supporting performance loaded with quotable lines.
I’m going to give you the choice I never had.
He brings an impressive amount of menace and swagger to the role.
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Where it succeeds is with itsmoody, philosophical reflectionsand a handful of genuinely eerie set-pieces.
Acting-wise, Cruise chews the scenery with gusto, but the highlight is probablyKirsten Dunst.
Instead, viewers were hit withan ambiguous, challenging mysterythat’s more about insecurity and illusion than eroticism.
Nevertheless, Cruise’s performance is commendable.
He’s believable as someone who is psychologically frail and utterly lost.
The films spine isAaron Sorkin’s rapid-fire dialogue.
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Even if you’ve never seenA Few Good Men, you know the quote.
He’s a kind of proto-Andrew Tate, a showman with a damaged psyche.
The climactic hospital scene with his dying father (Jason Robards) is raw and moving.
Surrounded by an all-star ensemble Julianne Moore,Philip Seymour Hoffman,William H. Macy Cruise still stands out.
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