Cruise’s movies have been much better over that same amount of time, to be sure, but he seems to have shared a similar mentality with Johnson in terms of the types of decisions he was making. In the past ten years, Cruise has worked with familiar faces — Joseph Kosinski, Doug Liman, Christopher McQuarrie — and churned out some highly entertaining but creatively limited movies. “Edge of Tomorrow” is a big exception, but “The Mummy,” “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” and several “Mission: Impossible” sequels all feel like Cruise’s version of staying in one specific lane.
Will we ever see Tom Cruise return to being an actor over “just” an action star? That remains to be seen, but if Dwayne Johnson, a guy who seemed perfectly content to spend the rest of his career managing his tequila empire and churning out forgettable action dreck, is preparing to roll the dice and work with one of the Safdie brothers on an A24 movie, then anything is possible. Your move, Mr. Cruise.
I spoke more about this with /Film editor BJ Colangelo on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast, which you can listen to below:
We also touched on the new trailers for “Dune: Part Two” and “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,” as well as the news that Ryan Gosling has been replaced in Universal’s upcoming “Wolf Man” movie, and more.
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