John Grisham, Tom Cruise Movie: ***^ The Firm (1993)

 The Firm is a movie with lots of tension.  A young couple is starting their life after he, Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) finishes law school.  He accepts a position with a law firm in Memphis, and he and his wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn) move to the new law office, making much more than he would have from his other offers.  However it soon becomes evident that things are not right.  Two employees in Chicago are killed.  Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) is assigned to groom him.  There is tight security at the firm.  William Devasher (Wilford Brimley) is director of security.  Wayne Tarrance (Ed Harris) of the FBI want him to gather information on his bosses.  He cooperates to a point.  He gathers information on the billing, as they all over bill.  He goers to Chicago as the work for the mob and he gets them to agree to releasing information on the billing.  He provides this to the FBI and gives them this with which they can put the FBI in jail, while leaving the mob (the client) alone and not violating client/lawyer confidentiality.  This movie is very intense.  His wife helps him, but he also gets help from Tammy Hemphill (Holly Hunter) who was the secretary for a private I murdered by the mob because McDeere approached him for help.  

Very tense but this movie is ratd R and has too much swearing and use of the F word.  

Tom Cruise Movie Review: **** Minority Report (2002)

 This is a science fiction that is a bit hard to understand.  It is a futuristic movie, taking place in 2054.  In Washington, D.C. pre cogs (peope with cognitive functions where they dream of future murders, and are used by the police to prevent future crimes.  Many people have been arrested as a result, and placed in a comma.  The murder rate has dropped to zero.  However one of our police, Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) shows up on a future crime report, killing someone he doesn't know.  He runs, and eventually gets to the bottom of a murder which was miss handled in the past.  A woman was murdered twice, once prevented by the precogs, but the second did happen, Ann Lively (Jessica Harper) was drowned.  One of the Precogs was her daughter (Samantha Morton).  Anderton steals this precog.  She is considered the strongest. 

Someone has been manipulating the system, and that person is very powerful.  A coworker (Colin Ferrell), rival of sorts, also started questioning and goes to the director (Max Von Sydow), and is murdered.  Anderton's (Kathryn Morris) wife is also involved, and is the person who discovers the true murderer.  

Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Even though this is hard material, with futuristic computers and such, I think is comes off well.  

Tom Cruise Movie Review: ***^Rain Man (1988)

 This is the story of a young man, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) whose father pases away.  He could really use an inheritance because his business is not doing well, but his father cuts him out of the will for a different beneficiary.  He and his girlfriend (Valeria Golino) go to an institution looking for the beneficiary.  And his autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) finds them because of the classic car he did inherit.  Raymond gets in the car saying he has driven it before.

Charlie concocts a plan to take Raymond to L.A., hoping he can manipulate a better inheritance.  Charlie did not know of his brother, and the trip helps him bond.  They go through hotels and Las Vegas, but they do not fly.  Raymond is afraid of airplanes based on his knowing all the statistics about air crashes.  By the time their trip is over, Charlie appeals for a reconsideration of guardianship, not because of greed, but because of his relationship.  

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in ***^Far and Away (1992)

 An Irish couple posing as brother and sister Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) immigrate to America; she from an aristocratic crowd and he from a poorer family, losing their farm.  They hope to start over in Oklahoma territory.  She loses her money--silver she took from her mother to a swindler.  So it turns out he is more apt to earn money in the new world.  He becomes a boxer and does well.  But they are both put out on the street when he loses a fight, mostly because is manager (Colm Meany) makes advances on his "sister."

They are cold and hungry, and eventually break into an empty house.  She is shot when the owner discovers them.  He takes her to her ex suitor (Thomas Gibson) who has followed them to America. 

Somehow they both end up ant the day the Oklahoma territory is opening.  Her parents (Robert Prosky and Barbara Babcock) are also there.

I enjoyed this movie.  I have a inkling that much of the history is off however.

Movie Review: ***^Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

This is the alien war that the aliens are winning.  Tom Cruise stars as Cage, a captain who has been Shanghaied to the front lines.  He kills a particular alien that givs him the power to relive that day over and over.  Sergeant Rita (Emily Blunt) had the same ability but lost it when she did not die one day.  They team together to figure how to kill the Omega, the life force that is at the center of the aliens, as they all use the same nervous system.  Being one body with many parts.  So we live one day after another with Rita making sure Cage is dead at the end of the day; and slowly they get closer and closer.  When they day finally comes to attack the Omega, Cage recruits his old unit to help. 

Great fun, especially the ending which I had to watch twice to make sur i understood it.

• 

  Tom Cruise

  Cage
• 

  Emily Blunt

  Rita
• 

  Brendan Gleeson

  General Brigham
• 

  Bill Paxton

  Master Sergeant Farell
• 

  Jonas Armstrong

  Skinner
• 

  Tony Way

  Kimmel
• 

  Kick Gurry

  Griff
• 

  Franz Drameh

  Ford
• 

  Dragomir Mrsic

  Kuntz
• 

  Charlotte Riley

  Nance
• 

  Masayoshi Haneda

  Takeda

Tom Cruise Movies: In Theaters: ****Mission Impossible Final Reckoning (2025)

 The entire movie I was waiting for the wing walking which I had heard about.  It came in the final 20 minutes.  

This movie has a formidable villain in Gabriel (Esai Morales) who seems unstoppable at the first of the show.  He has set up a trap in which he has Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) in a trap, either save yourself and many people die, or disarm the bomb and only you die.  He chooses to save the any people and is killed.  Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is again all over the place doing impossible things.  It seems Gabriel is always a step ahead.  They are battling over a key which would give control of the AI which is taking over the world.  

One mistake that Gabriel makes is to betray his side kick, Paris (Pom Klementieff) who then becomes an asset knowing inside doings of Gabriel's network.  Grace (Hayley Aywell) continues as Hunt's love interest and spy.  Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) is a more active part of the team and is in harm's way.  

The plane walking comes in when it appears that all is lost, and Hunt jumps from his plane to that of Gabriel, and has to walk the wing to continue the fight.  

Plenty of action and lots of fun.  I think this may be the final Mission Impossible.

Tom Cruise Movie Review: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

 This is a sequel to the original Jack Reacher.  Adding a possible daughter, Samantha, and a love interest, Turner, a fellow MP as well, made this movie very enjoyable.  You add a very very bad guy in The Hunter (Patrick Heusinger).  This guy makes most villains look like patsies as he kills one person after another in gruesome violent manners and Reacher is blamed.  They are investigating lost weapons, which got two of Captain Turner's team killed, execution style.  But things don't seem to add up, and the question is will they add up before The Hynter can get to Samantha, a young woman of about fifteen.  Esplin is a current officer on the inside who is willing to listen to reason, eventually.

• 

  Tom Cruise

  Jack Reacher
• 

  Cobie Smulders

  Turner
• 

  Aldis Hodge

  Espin
• 

  Danika Yarosh

  Samantha
• 

  Patrick Heusinger

  The Hunter

Tom Cruise Movie: ****Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One 2023

 In this movie the bad guy is an AI called The Entity.  It is unleashed when two keys are used.  Whoever controls the keys can control the world.  Efforts are made to buy one of the keys which is missing.  This movie includes some incredible motorcycle work and catching a train at full speed jumping off the bike and using a paraglider.and later the train going off a bridge.  Some incredible action.  

Fun movie with incredible action

• 

  Tom Cruise

  Ethan Hunt
• 

  Hayley Atwell

  Grace
• 

  Ving Rhames

  Luther Stickell
• 

  Simon Pegg

  Benji Dunn
• 

  Rebecca Ferguson

  Ilsa Faust