Upstream: Five Tom Cruise movies to stream this week
AS the new Mission Impossible release gives Tom Cruise some of his best reviews, now’s the time to stream some of his best big-screen outings.
Leigh Paatsch
Don't miss out on the headlines from Leigh Paatsch. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WITH the new Mission: Impossible release Fallout giving Tom Cruise some of the best reviews of his career, now is as good a time as any to stream some of his better big-screen outings.
OBLIVION (2013) ***
Google, iTunes
An ambitious slab of event-movie sci-fi in which Cruise plays a soldier who is literally the last man left on Earth after some kind of mysterious incident has vanquished our planet. The film starts out very strong, with an imposing vision of a world running on empty. Despite uneven scripting, the whole thing works thanks to some astonishing set-piece sequences. Co-stars Olga Kurylenko.
NEW MISSION IMPOSSIBLE BEST ACTION FLICK IN YEARS
WHITNEY IS A COMPELLING NEW DOCO
DENZEL SAVES THE DAY, BUT NOT EQUALIZER 2
THE LAST SAMURAI (2003) ****
Foxtel Now
The breathtaking showpiece skirmishes might well suggest a Braveheart set in Japan, but there is something more going on here than merely rolling out the battles. Cruise stars as Captain Nathan Algren, a haunted former Civil War hero plucked from hawking guns on the US sideshow circuit to train and supervise a modernised army in 19th century Japan.
A FEW GOOD MEN (1992) ****
Foxtel Now, Netflix
As speechy and preachy a courtroom drama as you’ll ever find, detailing the secret manoeuvring that shadows a naval court-martial. The key here is the constant butting
of heads between the three leads — Cruise’s cocky maritime defence lawyer, Demi Moore’s determined career-woman, and Jack Nicholson’s charismatically psychotic renegade colonel.
EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014) *** 1/2
Netflix
In a plot that blends Groundhog Day with Predator, Cruise stars as an under-skilled soldier who keeps dying on the battlefield as an alien invasion begins. For reasons best not revealed here, our hero repeatedly gets the opportunity to learn from his mistakes. Quality futuristic action-adventure fare, compelling from start to finish. Co-stars Emily Blunt.
VALKYRIE (2008) ***
Foxtel Now, Stan
Cruise goes from A Few Good Men to A Few Good Nazis in this perfectly acceptable WWII thriller. Tommy plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a maimed SS officer who becomes both an enlightened architect and reluctant linchpin of a plan to bomb Hitler’s provincial compound. Based on a true story. Unlike Inglourious Basterds.
Originally published as Upstream: Five Tom Cruise movies to stream this week
Timely take on Munich Olympics terrorist crisis
The edge-of-your-seat factual drama September 5 takes viewers behind the scenes in one of the Olympic Games’ darkest hours with a message that still resonates today.
Companion’s a terrifically twisting thriller best seen spoiler-free
Companion is the kind of original and inventive thriller that comes around all too rarely – but the top-level twists hit hardest by going in spoiler-free, writes Leigh Paatsch.