Top 21 Tom Cruise films
21 Valkyrie - TC plays a Nazi and works with Bryan Singer
20 Eyes Wide Shut - it doesn't quite work but he gets to be in the last Stanley Kubrick film. Ballsy script too - Cruise doesn't play safe.
19 Far and Away - well, I liked it. Future Oscar winner Ron Howard directs.
18 Top Gun - the film that made his career with high octane super-director Tony Scott in charge.
17 The Firm - before Grisham became a genre then a cliche, Cruise nailed it. This time, Sydney Pollack is in charge.
16 Jerry Maguire - looked like an annoying romcom with a silly catchphrase, but while you're watching it, it works.
15 Legend - hard to believe Cruise did this now but Ridley Scott makes this a memorable fantasy romp.
14 Interview with the Vampire - seen as a brave choice at the time and I'm not 100% convinced by it, but it's a memorable film and something of a turning point for TC.
13 12 11 10 Mission Impossible franchise - of all his films, this is his only franchise and he chose it well. Incredible to think he'll have spent 20 years playing Ethan Hunt and can still cut the mustard as an action hero. Oh, and look at his chosen directors: De Palma, Woo, Abrams...Bird.
9 The Color of Money - Genius plan: get Paul Newman to revive a 25 year old character, put Cruise opposite him and let everyone make their own connection. Scorsese directs!
8 Magnolia - Those who hadn't been paying attention thought this marked Cruise diversifying. Admittedly, his character here is unusually unlikable.
7 War of the Worlds - Spielberg and Cruise, what an unstoppable combination. Neither brings the very best out of each other, but this is about as good as HG Wells could reasonably expect from modern Hollywood.
6 Rain Man - In hindsight, Dustin Hoffman's Raymond is a little embarrassing, full of tics and caricatures which still serve to pigeonhole autism for some people, so at this remove we can appreciate Cruise's performance all the more. This saw him properly trouble the Academy for the first time.
5 Vanilla Sky - probably you haven't seen it or disliked it. I really liked it and him in it. He spotted a great foreign language film and saw a perfect opportunity once again to subvert his pretty boy rep. Although even better was :
4 Tropic Thunder - proving that Cruise should do more comedies. Unrecognisably facially and performatively, his supporting role steals the whole film even from Oscar nominated Robert Downey Jr.
3 Minority Report - The first Spielberg team-up was a memorable future noir where Cruise does some great running. First and foremost, he's the most consistently good action star of the past 3 decades.
2 A Few Good Men - probably my favourite of his films, directed by Rob Reiner when he could do no wrong and starring Jack Nicholson at the height of his post-Batman fame and powers plus Demi Moore before she got too big for her talent. But without Cruise, it's nothing.
1 Born on the Fourth of July
Seriously. Oliver Stone. Vietnam. The film begins with clean-cut all-American perfectly-cast Cruise off to become a war hero, then sticks him in a wheelchair and makes him wrestle in the desert with Willem Dafoe. A powerful movie and a brave choice for Cruise a year after Cocktail and before Days of Thunder.
Now, here are the only films he's made which I've seen and disliked:
Risky Business (which isn't that bad really)
Cocktail
Days of Thunder
Collateral (which most people liked and sees him work with Michael Mann)
For the record, which of these should I see?
Edge of Tomorrow
Oblivion
Jack Reacher
Rock of Ages
Knight and Day
Lions for Lambs
Last Samurai
All the Right Moves
Losin' It
The Outsiders
Taps
Endless Love
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