![]() The feature live-action directorial debut of beloved animation auteur Brad Bird, Ghost Protocol was the first in the M:I series to really feel like a “team saving the world” movie rather than a mostly personal revenge narrative-with Bond-level nuclear war stakes. Ghost Protocol was the installment in which the transition occurred, and remains the best fusion of both approaches. In the beginning, however, it was an extension of Cruise’s desire to work with visionary directors, from Brian De Palma to John Woo, and allow them to put their own distinctive spins (or doves) on the material. Nowadays, the Mission: Impossible series is best known as the franchise in which Tom Cruise risks his life trying some crazy stunt for the sake of an Imax screen. Whatever its merits (or demerits) the film did one thing right: it introduced Cruise to writer Christopher McQuarrie who would go on to direct Cruise in 2012’s Jack Reacher and then shepherd the M:I series starting with 2015’s Rogue Nation. However, the film is a meticulously plotted retelling of a fascinating chapter in the history of World War II. Cruise, attempting a measured twist on his all-American persona by playing a Nazi who nevertheless wants to kill Hitler, doesn’t always look comfortable in his eyepatch and questionable German accent. Cruise plays real-life German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who led an assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler in 1944. The worst of the four was 2007’s boring PoliSci lecture Lions For Lambs and if you remove the failed franchise starter Knight And Day, and his glorified cameo in the hilarious Tropic Thunder, you’re really left with 2008’s Valkyrie as the best of the bunch. One of the defining movies of the 1980s, Risky Business remains a touching coming-of-age story and a trenchant satire of Reagan-era values.Cruise released four movies between Mission: Impossible 3 and Ghost Protocol and they show his career listing a bit while he attempts escape velocity on the rocket ship of M:I sequels. Written and directed by Paul Brickman, Risky Business is a thoughtful movie about the treacherous transition into adulthood and a scathing critique of the amorality of capitalism. His solution? Turn the house into a brothel with the help of a sex worker (Rebecca De Mornay)!īeyond it’s setup, Risky Business has little in common with the the cheap party flicks and shallow teen sex comedies that deluged 1980s cinema. Make no mistake, shenanigans will ensue as Joel has to figure out how to earn enough money to pay for the damage he causes (he drives his father’s Porsche into Lake Michigan, among other things), while also getting himself through a Princeton entrance interview. ![]() It’s not always easy to pinpoint the exact moment an actor becomes a star, but with Cruise it was obviously the moment he slid across the floor in his skivvies and a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers while lip synching to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” in Risky Business.Ĭruise plays Joel, a high school senior who is thrilled to have the house to himself while his parents are away.
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