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Podhoretz on Movies: Edge of Oblivion
Editor’s note: This week, we’re introducing a new feature. Our favorite movie critic/podcast host/raconteur, John Podhoretz will pick a movie he has recently reviewed for The Weekly Standard and discuss his review and the movie. This week, John reviews and discusses the new Tom Cruise movie, The Edge of Tomorrow.
Movie stars go cold. It’s part of the way popular culture works. For a long time, people just love watching them. People can’t get enough of them. And then, after they go to the well once too often with a formula that has gone flat, or after their messy personal lives get all mixed up in the characters they’re playing, stars become even slightly distasteful.
TOM CRUISE
Just in the past year, it’s become clear that Will Smith, for a decade the biggest star in the world, has lost it. And after two enormous flops, Johnny Depp—who single-handedly earned Disney nearly $3 billion in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies—can’t get anyone to see him in anything else. Adam Sandler, an incredibly reliable money-maker in his self-produced fare for the better part of two decades, can’t get audiences to the theaters. And this past week has shown that Tom Cruise has now indisputably fallen into the also-ran category as well. His latest vehicle, a $175 million futuristic war epic calledEdge of Tomorrow, was a major box-office disappointment in its opening days.
The Cruise case is especially interesting because, of all the A-list Hollywood actors over the 30 years he’s been a star, he has distinguished himself in his effort to make the best movies he can—not good little movies or indie-film character studies, but high-quality fare intended to reach large audiences. That is particularly true of Edge of Tomorrow, which—until a dull climactic sequence and a stupid coda—is a genuinely inventive and thrillingly clever picture.
Read the rest of The Weekly Standard review here, then come back to Ricochet and discuss it.
Published in General
I agree about Cruise on The Color of Money. Cruise was perfect. I thought that movie was brilliant. The fun part is that Cruise and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are really stand-ins for Eddie himself. Eddie Felson is a conflicted character: one half great player but cocky jerk (Cruise), opposed by a nice person but who isn’t entirely sure of himself (Mastrantonio). That’s what he sees in the two, and “the hustle” is his attempt to manipulate himself as much as them. And what makes the movie is that Cruise doesn’t take the manipulation … and instead does quite a bit of manipulation and hustling on his own in return.
And just as pool is all about leaving yourself in good position for the next shot, the Cruise/Newman mutual manipulation is a series of shots, where each guy is trying to get position on the other. I thought that was great, and Cruise was terrific.
A very clever movie.
I enjoyed the movie and was struck by the notion that this is what Starship Troopers (the Paul Verhoven film) should have looked like. This film has a much closer approximation of what Heinlein’s “mobile infantry” were supposed to be like.
I have enjoyed Tom Cruise for years but don’t see everything he is in. He is fine actor and a star able to hold his own with the greats he has shared the screen with.
I have been sorry to read about Cruise’ life choices and the seemingly self-made difficulties he continues to arrive in.
Bob Hope should be the model for actors and actresses. Bob was humorous, self-effacing, and welcome everywhere that an Englishman who became an American should be welcome. He gave people a good reason to like him rather than turning people off by the drove.
There are some actors and some directors I won’t see, no matter how good the film is. (You know who you are.)
Maybe this was obvious to the greatest dullard on earth. What I saw was a movie that had to have been pitched to the studio as “so, you know how when you play a video game and get killed, you start all over again and hopefully learn enough to get a scene or two farther? How about a movie from the point of view of the game avatar? As if he’s real?”
So, not exactly Groundhog Day (which I admit I have not seen). Entertaining, and funny on several levels, with that pitch as the subtext.
I’ve tended to ignore Cruise’s real-life antics, and have enjoyed his movies (although, per the list, I don’t think I’ve seen any of his good ones). His stuff falls into the films-with-explosions genre enough that we see a lot of it – but not necessarily because he’s in a given film.
Don’t know if John will be reading this, but IMDB says that Cruise is preparing another Jack Reacher film, Never Go Back.
Kelly B: I think you’re right. The movie is based on a book/Japanese manga and it was definitely aimed at the young gamer guys. I thought the movie was wonderful, but I had just been kinda disappointed by “Godzilla” so I was excited to see something that made sense and had fun at the same time.
You MUST go rent Groundhog Day and watch it immediately. One of the great comedies of all times. I also recommend this column by Jonah Goldberg as a companion piece to the movie.
It is never too late. Thank you.
I’m puzzled by the “controversy” surrounding the quirk in the Weekly Standard’s pagination, but, moving on…
As John and perhaps others are still reading this thread, I’ll just add that my family saw The Edge of Tomorrow with one objective: to share a summer family movie viewing experience as I did with my parents in the days of Jaws and Star Wars. I wouldn’t rate The Edge of Tomorrow as highly as those films, but it delivered on our basic objective. My 11-year-old son enjoyed the action and my 14-year-old daughter enjoyed seeing a strong female character who was beautiful and also able to kick butt. Cruise was compelling and likeable in his role, and he almost made me forget that he is an adherent of a crackpot cult.
I do hope that John continues with this feature as I am a fan of his movie reviews and I don’t often have the opportunity to interact with film critics (the exception being a conversation with Kyle Smith at the NY Ricochet meetup where, inexplicably, I did not say hello to J.P., holding court on the backside of the bar).
I don’t see why you were so prickly about this, John. A simple “I don’t run Weekly Standard and have no influence over their web site design–maybe you should check out Commentary instead” would have sufficed!
Actually, on NRO, you can see “all” by clicking “print”….
John, great review. Until I clicked on that second page at Weekly Standard’s website, and there was nothing. I have never known anger this deep. It’s nauseating to think that you’re making money from this epic fraud. You are pond scum.
Two words: Oil. Exploration.