American Made: How much Tom Cruise is too much Tom Cruise?
Universal just released the first trailer for American Made, Tom Cruise’s next film after The Mummy comes out this weekend. American Made reunites Cruise and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman for what looks like a decent period set, drugs-to-riches romp. Let’s hope it does better then Gold, the last period-piece/crime comedy with a major star at the center. That film bombed due to it’s tepid reviews and bad January release date where it collided with a ton of other Oscar-hopeful expansions like Live by Night, Patriot’s Day and Silence. American Made has a September release, which does put it in contact with other adult-skewing fare such as Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Blade Runner 2049. Still, release date might not be the most important to consider for the potential success of the film. The real question is: will audiences be willing to go another with the world’s most famous Scientologist so soon after the last one?
As unusual as it may seem, Tom Cruise has not starred in two major films released in the same year since 1996 (The first Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire). Yes, a few times in the 20-year span from ‘96 until now he has appeared in more than one film at a time. But I don’t count funny cameos in Tropic Thunder or his ensemble turn in Rock of Ages as a starring performance. Even if you do choose to count these roles, the instances of double-Cruise are few and far between. Tom Cruise has maintained his fame over the years without an enormous output, and I wonder if his pacing was a bit of strategy. In his heyday, it ensured that a Tom Cruise film was a true event: Eyes Wide Shut (1999)! Vanilla Sky (2001)! War of the Worlds (2005)! Only Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks could entertain the whole family from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. Now that Cruise’s star has fallen (and his eccentricities have become more apparent), the relaxed pacing keeps audiences from getting sick of him. There are many famous actors who only star in one movie a year, but Cruise is one of the few who might hurt his career if he increased his output.
Or maybe I’ve got it all wrong. It helps Universal’s chances that Tom Cruise usually makes good movies. The Mummy looks pretty tepid and I won’t call, say, Oblivion a classic, but even outside of the critically lauded Mission: Impossible franchise, his work trends positive. Say what you will about the man, but his movies are fine. Now that he’s fallen into a comfortable action-hero groove, his career is looking a lot like that of Denzel Washington or a touch more prestigious than Liam Neeson. Is he Leonardo DiCaprio? No. But nobody cringes when his elder-action star contemporaries grace the screen.
2017 — over a decade since the infamous couch jump — will be the biggest test in many years for Tom Cruise. He’s trying to jump start a mega-franchise and release a mid-level dramedy. Will we get Peak Cruise or will he oversaturate his audiences?
On a somewhat related note, Cruise has been hard at work filming Mission: Impossible 6 in time for a summer 2018 release. The film will debut 3 years after the last entry, which is pretty standard for a sequel entry. But it’s not standard for the Mission: Impossible franchise.
There have been a few articles written about a different M:I ‘rule change’ regarding the sixth film, highlighting that Christopher McQuarrie will be back in the director’s chair. Each of the five prior films in the spy franchise have been directed by a different director. McQuarrie’s return is a potential disappointment in that it suggests we won’t sit down and receive an entirely new vision. That’s not to say that M:I 4 and M:I 5 don’t share connective tissue — even M:I 3 is in the same ballpark as those gonzo action flicks. We haven’t experienced true artistic whiplash since the franchise jumped from DePalma’s sweaty-palms classic in 1996 to a John Woo slo-mo fest in 2000 and then JJ Abrams kinetic/emotional mix in 2006. In addition to the directorial mix-up, the four and six year gaps between installments feel crucial as the requisite time to gestate the new visions. JJ Abrams remained on the producing team to transition from M:I 3 to M:I 4 (hence the vague similarities) but it still took 5 years to make. That was enough time for a different type of spy mayhem to emerge.
As with American Made, my fears may all be for naught. Christopher McQuarrie has promised that Mission: Impossible 6 will take a new approach to Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt. We’ll get plenty of returning cast (most notably the badass Rebecca Ferguson), which will tether 5 and 6, but the film is supposed to be different. If all goes well and we get a Mission: Impossible 7, hopefully Cruise will tap a new filmmaker to take the reigns on the vision. It may well be his new buddy Doug Liman, who’s done the spy game before with the Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Personally, I’d say let Kathryn Bigelow or George Miller give it a try. As long as Cruise is there to run a ton, I’ll probably be there. It’s hard to bet against the man.
