As you might have noticed from one of my recent asides, I went to see Tropic Thunder over the weekend. Not much point doing a full review – the film’s not one of Ben Stiller’s best, most of the cast are either underused or indifferent (Jack Black I’m thinking of you, but Danny McBride is excellent) but it does have some great moments as well as Robert Downey Jr mumbling as per usual.
Yet it does have a simply fantastic performance by Tom Cruise as well. It really is worth going to see Tropic Thunder just to see Tom Cruise acting his socks off. And dancing.
Which had me thinking. Is there any other movie in history in which the main reason to see it has been Tom Cruise? There have been plenty of good or at least enjoyable films that have starred Tom Cruise, including Top Gun, Rain Man, A Few Good Men, Mission Impossible and The Last Samurai. But most of them were good despite his presence.
So has there ever been a movie that you would go to see purely because of Tom Cruise? Enquiring minds wish to know.
Incidentally, if you’d like to see a camcorder clip of Tom Cruise in action and shaking his booty from them end credits, here you go.
PS I confess I haven’t seen Magnolia, which might be the other standout Cruise job.
