61: Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Favorite Tom Cruise

Alex (call sign: Knockout) and Nick (Superstar!) go mainstream with their spoiler-free review of “Top Gun: Maverick.” The guys discuss blockbusters that get it right, the legacy of “Top Gun,” scene-stealer Glen Powell, seeing Val Kilmer on screen again, and more.
The second half of the show is dedicated to the 40-year career of Tom Cruise; our favorite roles, his Oscar misfortunes, and predicting where his career will go from here.
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Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
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Transcript

0:09

Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex with there, and I'm joined by my best man, Nick Dostal. How are you doing there, Hangman? I I am good. I'm very good. Good bye. Quickly, what's your call? Sign your top gun. Call sign your. You just got into the academy. What's your call side? Give it to us, superstar baby. Sup? I'm like Jesus. How original? My B knockout. I thought a lot about this knockout. It's good we had some just got. We have some new ones in this movie that were so on point, but yeah, we're here. Top Gun, Maverick. Everyone's seeing it. Everyone's talking about it. We usually don't jump on the. Hey, the most popular movie in the world right now. Let's do a pot about it. But we really, really loved this movie. Just like seemingly everyone else. There's virtually nothing to not love about it. It came out a week ago. I've already seen it twice. You saw it opening weekend. We love this movie. Tell me about it. I mean, it's. Everything that you could possibly want in a movie. It has it all. You're right. We don't usually talk about these types of movies. We don't really kind of harp on the movies that are the current IT thing. But quite frankly, when you see something like this, it transcends all the stuff that we usually talk about. It's just it's the perfect blockbuster movie. It really is. And already after it's first weekend, Memorial Day weekend, it was the biggest opener of Cruise's career. That's Nuts. And his biggest movie of all time worldwide. Box office numbers wise is Mission Impossible. Fallout awesome movie with 792 million worldwide. This is going to be that it has to actually first it's kind of crazy that he's never had a movie grossed like over a billion worldwide that's really nuts to me I didn't realize that until like this weekend but all being said Maverick is going to pass that so this is going to be the biggest movie of his career. You privately last time we were in person, you called this. You said this has to be like this, this movie. It's so important that it like not only should it be does it have to be the biggest movie of his career? It has to be like one of the biggest ever. And it has to be good because it has to kind of save movies. And, you know, we say this stuff a lot. First of all, you were right. It did have to do that. And it looks like it is. But I have this buried in our little outline here. But I'll just bring it up now. Like we hear this notion a lot that this is the movie we need right now. And I hate to fall into the cliche, but I'm watching this movie twice now, especially the second time. And I'm like, people do need this right now. This shit is crazy. Out here. It's crazy outside. And here we have a pretty much apolitical movie. You don't really know who they're fighting against. It's never a big deal about what side they're fighting against. You have something that makes everyone feel good. It's really easy to watch. It's really fun. And there's no, you know, inherent drama surrounding it. And I've been in two screens, two different movie theaters, and people are going nuts in both the whole time. CHEERING And I don't know, it's just maybe don't put on the news for 3 hours and get the hell out there and watch this movie, right? Isn't that, like a better way to spend? It's more productive and positive way to spend 3 hours, I feel like. And we don't really I mean, especially coming off like gasp our podcasts, you know, we sometimes relish and cherish the movies that are difficult to watch. This is not one of those. There's a reason why everyone's liking it and seeing it, and it's making a ton of money. I think that's very funny that we are really kind of coming off of the gas spa with this one. The complete dichotomy. We're giving people a break. I mean, I actually wanted to well, this has nothing to do with anything. It's just kind of veers off course. But I actually wanted to talk to you about Ray because I did that Minnesota and OK. Yeah, attended City. Just real quick, real quick. Got a lot of really nice messages from people via text, via Twitter, and Instagram DM about that Minnesota I did on Ray Liotta because I recorded that like 30 minutes after I found out he died. And I mean, I sound like I'm about to cry in a few instances. Because I actually was. So I really appreciate the, you know, everyone giving some love for that. But that was just really tough. And, you know, I wanted to all by way of saying that it's hard out there. It's hard out there right now, folks. There's a lot going on that is just tough. And that's one of them. Yeah. I love that Minnesota you did for him. I felt that that was a true true really, really like personal and emotional, for lack of a better term, love letter to an actor that had meant something to you for his life. And yeah, I don't even know what to say. It's just so sad. And it's it's one of those actors who he had a presence that just no one else could really ever touch it. Like, there was a certain type of intensity that he brought to everything that he did. And it had humor, too. Like, he could do it all. Exactly. He could be menacing, he could be lovely. He could be the father he could be a son like he could he he really ran the gamut. And, you know, he never really kind of got outside of a few of those leading roles. But almost didn't matter because every movie he was in, he stole the damn show. Yeah. And that's not even something I mentioned. I was like texting you, I think about his lack of lead roles. And when you when you do add them all up, weather started it Goodfellas and then go through even all like the B-list movies he was in all those movies I love, like Turbulence. He really didn't get to play that leading man a lot, but he never seemed like angry or bent out of shape about it. He just took the role that was best for him. You know, the first right after I recorded that, I'm like, What movie do I watch? Because I actually just watch Goodfellas, like, rewatch it two weeks ago just for the hell of it. And I put on identity I think I said in the Mini, so like I might have to put that on. And he's great in that movie. Yeah, he's awesome. They're so good in it. Just every little part. He's playing everything he's doing in it. I'm watching it going. First of all, he's in it way more than I remembered and he's just so good. And I again, I cannot say enough how important of a movie Copland is. I was thrilled to see that the rewatch Rebels covered that because that's a really famous movie podcast and I hope people go see that. But he really he's in Copland a lot and just. Yeah, you know, way off course here. But yeah, Rick had let's talk about Top Gun Maverick. What's it about? What is. My brother? So stay on course because this is a cruise pod cruise though did executive produced Narc, which features one of Reilly Otto's best roles. So I made the connection. There we go because we're going to talk about his career later back to Maverick plot description. No spoilers here. Do I really even need to talk about what the hell this movie's about? I'll say you don't need to talk about it because. I don't really. You honestly don't even need to have seen the original in order to get this movie. That is how accessible this fucker is. We could start there honestly, that you really don't need to have seen the original. I've I'm seeing a lot online of people who just weren't interested in watching it, and they're still having a blast with Maverick and they do, you know, quick flashbacks. They're a little cheesy, but you get everything that you need to get you. They give you and they make it clear through really fun delivered expository dialog never got stale to me because it's like Ed Harris just grew up, sent it out, and you're like, Yeah, man, I love you. Ed, come in for this seed God, I love it. But no, you really I don't even need to explain what this new one is about. But, you know, Maverick is still running solo. He's still a real maverick. He has purposefully not advance through the Navy rankings. He's still a captain so that he can fly early in the film. Definitely not going to say hell, but he pisses off his bosses in spectacular fashion. Oh, my God. It was such a good way to open a movie. I was like, I any hesitation or reservation I had about this movie. I'm so sold now within your first 15 minutes, like, thank you. Movie star Tom Cruise. Yeah, God. Maverick is then called back to Top Gun. After this crazy stunt. And he is called back to train the best of the best for a potentially fatal mission. That's all you need. You didn't even need that much and you know, like I mentioned, it's not really clear who they're training to fight what's going on. And it's just crazy to see this big of a movie that had no interest in politics. At all, which is, again, it's just really wild. You know, that's one of the reasons I really liked it. It allows anyone and everyone watching it to have a good time. It's great. It is it follows so much of the formulaic structure that we often times on this podcast tend to persuade audiences to leave behind. Not like permanently. We're more encouraging audiences to give movies that aren't like this. A Yes, yes. But sometimes a movie this big is just this damn fun and this damn good. But yeah, it it's. Not just the formula. I mean, they did it right? They I mean, they, they, they nailed every single beat of this movie. So this is an example of that structure working at a top a top gun level. Oh, yeah. Nice knock. Out. Exactly. Knock out them. Right. What? Superstar cheeses. Talk to me about your relationship with the original. Were you a fan? Was it like a big part of your life? Because I was born the year before this. The original came out. You were born the year the original came out. I mean, I'll just go first. Like, this thing was everywhere growing up. It was in everyone's house on VHS. It was on TV constantly. I mean, virtually all the time. But it was never one of my movies. I appreciated the odd cultural cachet that it achieved quickly and has even gotten bigger and bigger over the decades. But I've I've honestly never thought it was a particularly good movie. I thought it was more iconic than anything. But if you are like me and you watch or rewatch the original the night before, you see Maverick, it is like watching two completely different films. I mean, based on technical treatment alone, which we are going to get to Maverick just breezes by the original. It's such a much, much better movie. But what is your relationship to Tony Scott's 1986 cult classic Top Gun. I kind of had the same as you. Yeah, I didn't. I mean, you're right. I mean the time that we were growing up, that was one of the movies that people our age or older just worshiped. Like this. Was like, Oh yeah, the. Movie, everybody loved Top Gun, so I think I saw it. I don't know, I must have been eight maybe the first time I saw it and I knew like the reputation the movie had and I just didn't fall into it. I liked it. I don't, I didn't dislike it by any stretch, but like there I had I have much deeper connections to other movies of that time period other than Top Gun, but that being said, I got what I needed to get out of it. I mean, you can't you can't deny Take My Breath Away. Oh, that is just like one of the most iconic manic song to movie relationships that there is. It won the Oscar for best original song, though. I mean. It's it's great. And I don't even know how you do it because of the cheesiness of that movie. You really do fall for the Tom Cruise storyline in it. Oh, yeah. And the whole thing with Goose. I mean, that's the movie. That's really the. Movie that is the most important aspect of the movie, especially upon rewatching it. I think for me, seeing it when I did, you know, in 1986, that was a landmark action film. My friend Taylor, it's still one of his favorite movies he's a little older than me. Yeah, sorry. And when he saw it, like an action movie like that wasn't really that's like that was a bar, a new bar for action film. But by the time you and I are seeing action films, we're seeing Lethal Weapon Die Hard. You know, that was a genre that kept graduating at a very, very fast pace, and it kept one upping each other. So, like, I was really into, like, cliffhanger, honestly, I know I bring that movie up a lot by, like, point break and Cliffhanger were my bars. And by that Top Gun didn't really have as exciting of action to me. And as digital effects got better and with things like Jurassic Park or even other movies in the air, the visual effects and Top Gun began to look more and more dated to me. And by now they look very, very dated. But in 1986 they wouldn't have and you know, no one can predict that stuff and that is wow that's all going to go by way of saying how honestly startling it is to see Maverick on a big screen and see that they actually have cameras on those planes and all those actors are in the fucking air like it's nuts and you bob and you weave. Yeah. And you're you're really in when they accomplish something like I was like I wasn't screaming out loud but I was definitely like doing that, you know, the slow the small like fist pump in my chair but absolutely bobbing and weaving. And the second time I saw it, the first time was in the AMC Dolby, which has like perfect sound. The second time was on an IMAX screen. I cannot recommend that highly enough. It I mean, it really, really blew me away. It was like shaking the seats, but I purposely sat all the way in the back to watch. I wanted to watch the audience. And I mean, half the crowd is bobbing and weaving duck and stuff. Oh, it was great all ages. It was great. The movie does a great job of explaining to you what their mission is. There isn't a spoiler at all. No, not. When the big thing that this team has to do. They really run you through what that mission is in the air. So when all of a sudden you start seeing the flying being applied to what you know in your head, the aerial dynamics makes so much sense, even though you would have no idea what that actually means, right? So the bobbing and weaving, I think, is also not just because of the great camera work, but it's because you actually know. So like when they're dipping down, you know that they're dipping down because they have to go through here so you understand it on I don't know what the word is. Well, it's very organic. Like, yeah, they have a way of explaining things and they go through things, you know, multiple times, but it's never stale. So it's a really tricky balance of a movie this big where you don't want to treat your audience like an idiot by like over explaining, over explaining. But you still it's a movie of this size. It's a big studio movie. So you still have to carry people along a little bit. But they do that in such a fresh way that, you know, in most every action movie, we know what the stakes are before going into the third act. We know what the stakes are. You know, in most superhero movies, it's like the world's going to end or someone's going to take over, whatever it is. This movie does a good job of letting you know the stakes are, but we don't always know about that journey of how they are going to pull it off. You may get a cursory knowledge of it, but you're right, like you're invested right there with the pilots, and of course, you want them to succeed. But you get they have they explain so well why they need to do what they do, how they need to do it, and why that benefits the overall mission. And then you have I mean, just cruise at the helm doing his thing. It's just so impressive throughout throughout. Like I want to explain a little bit about the process of this, because a lot of people may not know that they filmed this in from May to 18 to April 2019. This is a long time ago when they shot this. Yeah. The big publicized release date was always May 2020 this was obviously publicized pre-COVID Cove it happens and he holds it and he holds it. A lot of movies are doing this most all of them came out on streaming or they had like a short theatrical run and then went to streaming. And Cruz, who's a producer on Maverick, has said, I'm not doing that. And I really cannot credit him enough for really sticking to that because the amount of pressure with we're talking years literally year after year, he's delaying, he's delaying, he's holding because he does not want to release it on streaming first. It's it's amazing that he was able I mean, it's Tom Cruise. He can do whatever he wants. Right. But you. Basically hold Hostage a movie for over a year. Over to like. Yes, you're right. Hold it hostage. Yeah. I mean, essentially yeah. Because he he knew that this is a movie that has to be seen in the theaters. And it does it's almost kind of like a a Nolan movie in that way where it will not I think it will. It'll still hold up when you watch it on TV, but it's not going to be the same experience. We say that. But I don't know because that that's surround sound is doing like so much. You don't see it in the theater. It'll still be a good movie at home. It will. But if you cannot hear those planes sound like they are literally flying past you and I know sound is gotten really good at home. You can fork out some dough and do really well with it. Just ain't going to be the same no, that's all I'm saying. I mean, I, I'm really encouraging people go see this. You have to like it's it's a it's a god damn must you got to go see it hit theaters and and Tom Cruise is right. He was right to hold it hostage. He was right to wait until the right time where audiences go and then look would say, this is how I knew this was going to happen. I was like, there's no way that Tom Cruise is going to bet the farm. You know, he knows that a $170 million movie is going to make that money back. And if it doesn't, then he might be done. You know, that might have been it like the first flop or the first bomb of Tom Cruise's career. No, but I just well, he's had many, many bombs, but he's been able to and we're going to get to his career, like most recently The Mummy in 2017, which was supposed to be this huge franchise starter. That thing tanked and tanked hard he but but however to your point I do not think maverick could have it couldn't have been that it could have really really harmed him if Maverick sucked like it could have really, really hurt his career. Yeah. And and one thing else to say too before we go on is that I also thought that when I heard this was coming out, like sometimes we kind of get, you know, we pooh pooh sequels in this day and age. This was actually one that I was like, I think that's actually a good idea. Like when I heard. They were doing close to it. I mean, they're doing it with so many things now. Like that's, that's where we're at. We are recycling IP where most of the things I see, it's just I'm like, oh, well, now we're going to it's it is coming. And there they are remaking movies that we grew up with and they're just remaking it. It's like, holy shit, this. No, I didn't mind when I saw the news, I went well, I guess that just makes sense with where pop culture is heading. But when I saw how much he was putting into it, I was like, Yeah, OK, he's treating this. This is different. This is there are way more stakes involved on a lot of levels. I want to talk about some of the people who, in addition to Cruise, made this film possible, the director, Joseph Kosinski, I mean, we already talked about his insistence on using practical effects, mounting the cameras to the planes, real flying. Incredible. It would have been so challenging to cut all of this together because they didn't have one camera on each plane. I listen to some interviews with him, have like six to eight cameras on each plane. You have to cut all that together. Just the amount of time and work that would have gone into this is but all that work really paid off, not relying on digital effects like, oh, and this is a guy his previous movies include Tron, Legacy, Oblivion. That was his first time working with Crews Only The Brave and Spider Head, which is a Netflix movie with Miles Teller that comes out in a few weeks, actually, oh, wow. This is a guy who knows how to use digital effects. And Tron Legacy is a cool looking movie. Like, it has some really cool stuff in it. The forest fires he creates and only the brave are astounding to watch. They're really that's a really good movie, honestly. But I liked it. He went the other way here and he's like, No, we're going to do it practical. That's Tom Cruise likes to do that, too. So I just want to get some shout out to him because he did a wonderful job here. He really, truly did. When you've got a movie star producer like Tom Cruise, who's basically what he says goes. Right and then. Having a director wreck the movie, that collaboration, I always find those dynamics to be the most interesting. Like whenever an actor kind of like kind of clouds the director in a way, it can be a very symbiotic relationship, but it's not the norm of what that that process is used to. Yeah, that is I mean, we're going to talk about this in our second half of the show when we focus just on cruise. But if you look at directors like in order, the ones that he works with now are largely, not to put it crudely, but people that he can control to one degree or another you do not see Oliver Stone anymore. You don't see Steven Spielberg anymore. You don't see Michael Mann. That's a I still can't believe that happened. It it's very interesting that he doesn't work with these type of directors anymore. But but a huge caveat here is I have always wondered if he is going to go back to that and go back to taking more character based work, not more Tom Cruise work. I don't know how much more Tom Cruise work he has left in him in terms of action. Star Cruise duty. 60. So I don't know. But a lot of times when he has handpicked directors like this and maybe he's producing the film, maybe not, it has not worked out very well. And you know, there are some in the past decade, some of the movies that just don't hit as well as movies earlier in his career or, you know, the nineties and early 2000s. This is one, if not the best example of it, working very, very well. So good. It is just a great pairing. It's awesome. Well, let's talk about Tom Cruise in this movie. What did you think of his actual like? So now we're we're stepping away from the magnitude of the movie itself and talking about Cruise's performance in this. Well, again, what was so interesting about watching the original the night before, he's so much better in this movie just as an actor. I mean, the decades and decades of work, he has gotten better as a performer. We don't really get to see him flexing his full acting muscle in a lot of the action roles he picks now. And we've talked about this like, I get it. I get what he's doing. This man can act and he can act damn well. We are going to get to it. I grew up seeing him give stellar performances, but whether it's a notion of getting his money up while he is perhaps our last great living movie star, whether it's, you know, just not even fighting against age, just understanding like I'm not going to be able to jump off of buildings and fly out of airplanes in ten years because I'm going to be 70 years old. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the dude is just. Going to know he's good. Yeah. He's just but at some point, things will have to slow down and there isn't too many leading roles for like 70 year old men right now. There just aren't. But there are a lot of really, truly great supporting roles for 70 year old men. So that's what I'm wondering all by way of saying he's so good in this. You know, Maverick is the original is the movie that kind of made him a movie star. He was he was going he was on track Risky Business all the right moves. But Top Gun really, really sealed it. But he's like, you know, I want this I hope this movie makes me a star. Now we're in a situation where he's our last great movie star. And this is this could be one of his last truly great movie star performances. I mean, it was just a joy to watch, basically. What did you think of him? I thought that he was just amazing. I loved the I loved the idea just in stories in general of this solo guy yeah. And and I wasn't expecting what I got. I wasn't expecting anything, but I was not expecting to see this character and this isn't spoiling anything because it's from the start of the movie. But he's really on his own. Yeah. He's got he's got nobody he's not upset about it. But there is a longing that's there. And I actually thought that more than anything, that that longing from his performance is what anchored the movie from all of its spectacle. At the end of the day, we're actually following Maverick's story in his story is really what you're hanging onto the whole entire time. I thought it worked very well, and I thought he, as he always does, nails it. We'll talk about this more about the movie star actor of Tom Cruise, because I think he's both this is one where when you look at a movie like this, it has to work. You have to rely on your actor to be believable and to anchor it with heart. That's basically the job. You can act all you want. But as a movie star, your job is to make that work. You got to make this work. Right? And he does. Oh, he really, really does. And you know, when you watch the original, that's just a guy with nothing to lose. He's out there on his own. He's doing it. Yeah. And this is 40 years later. Now you're kind of feeling the effects and the isolation of that. Like that's how you've lived your whole life. But yeah, he's not some curmudgeon. Like, he's still. Know an. Upbeat guy. He has a sense of humor to him. And throughout the film, it was a joy to watch him with everyone. You know, Miles Teller, we're going to get to his role, but he plays this. He plays Goose's Son. That's not giving anything away. They're dynamic, which when I heard, Oh, Goose, his son is going to be in this I was like, OK, so he's going to be mad at him because he's going to think he's responsible for killing my dad. That's what I assume. That's what I took into it. And when I saw that, that was not where they were going with it, I was just so proud. I went, OK, smart ass talking to myself like, OK, don't don't try to. Yeah. Like, call this movie out before you've seen it. And they kept doing nice little deviations like that. And it was, you know, Jennifer Connelly shows up as she's like this bar owner near the Top Gun Academy. She is. I mean, Jennifer Connelly just my God, my God, I love her. You can't. Stunning. She's stunning. Absolutely stunning. Woman, great actor as well. I've loved her. I mean, from way back once upon a time in America, I've loved her forever. They're dynamic is so interesting and just so gentle. And I loved watching them together. He's just great bouncing off everyone from the young, cocky kids to a love interest who's actually close to his age, which I really appreciated, too. Just great is a great, great performance from him. The other people rounding out this cast, we have Jon Hamm, who, you know, I love him so much. It is a little hard sometimes to not see him as Don Draper. And I'm like, what do you all by way of saying? Like, I thought he got much better as the movie went on. And, you know, he's playing like a poser villain character who has to fight against Maverick. And that character that, like, stock character has to exist. But I was kind of like, OK, he's he's getting it. But then by the end, I was really on board with him. Really on board. I feel like everyone who watched Mad Men. Yeah. And really enjoyed that show. I feel like we communally agree that we want Jon Hamm to succeed. Like we do want to see him in a role that is befitting of what Don Draper was. Maybe that is a insurmountable task to ask of anyone. Jon Hamm has worked quite a bit. Oh yeah. And I've honestly loved him in everything, even movies that I wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of. He's the one that's always like he's my favorite part about Baby Driver is just watching Jon Hamm do Jon Hamm stuff. And I'm so glad that he was in this but I think we're yearning for Jon Hamm to get something to where he can just take off, strap that rocket ship to him, make him a superstar. Baby. Yeah, there you go. Nice knockout. Yeah. OK, we got a I kind of breezed over Miles Teller, but let's give him his due. He's had a fucking career set, a career where he's been in films that I like him a lot. Things like Rabbit Hole, Whiplash, of course, only the Brave, which I mentioned I think he's had a harder career off screen. That makes some of his it makes him easy to judge on screen for people who pay attention to these sort of sorts of things. I'm not really bothered by him in any capacity, but I thought he was really great in this, and it's really nice to see him play a slightly, you know, nervous he has character in this movie. Definitely had confidence, but he wasn't the cocky Iceman character, and that's who I thought he was going to be. Again, me bringing false assumptions into it. I think, you know, he reminds me of these days of what the old school like Nineties Bad Boy was like when you looked at guys like Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt from back in the nineties, people had problems with them in their off screen personalities, but that was actually part of their their lure. But Miles Teller certainly seems to be that guy that has this reputation, but his performances always fucking deliver. So I'm kind of I kind of almost in a way am now intrigued by him in terms of what ever comes next. Well, he's in the CIA he's in this new Spider Head movie where the same director for Kazinski that comes out on the 17th of June. So, yeah, we're going to see. And it's like, all right. Yeah, give me all the bad press. Give me all of this. I'm just going to go in here and I'm going to kill it. That's I guess basically the way I put it is you cannot deny Miles Teller. He definitely has a career that I'm very interested to see where it goes, because young actors nowadays, I don't believe that there are young movie stars anymore. But young actors of his generation who don't play the corporate game yet by having the perfect social media platform where you're, you know, doing all that, you're supporting everything that your publicist tells you to support, where, you know, not getting in trouble at all outside basically anyone in like Marvel in those in that world. Yeah. They are playing the game and I'm not hating on them at all. That's just the game they're playing. People like Miles Teller, I think to a more severe degree, Shia LaBeouf, who has I would say a host of problems. But the talent, when it's on screen, you're like, damn, there's something. It's just interesting to see actors from that generation behave that way but still give good performances. That's all you were naming actors of like the nineties. A counterparts of this would be Val Kilmer in the eighties and nineties, always referencing this bad boy, but gave really good performance. Does not all the time, but sometimes it gave all timers, like in Tombstone, genuinely like it's an all time, all the time. It's never had the best reputation. But how do you feel about seeing Iceman return for his one scene? It was just so, just so lovely. It was I was nervous about it because I knew I knew where he's at in his life. And I knew like, you know, like Val Kilmer is going through some health issues. He he can't speak very well these days. Still looks pretty good, but is seeing him on screen. I was like, how is this going to go? And I thought they built him up so well. Like, oh, they won't give away how they did it. But it made the intrigue there. And and then when we actually saw the performance, it was lovely. And I like the way they did it. I didn't think it was going to work as well as it did. Yeah, well said. Well said. And the whole time I was watching it, you know, they they got a little I'm not going to reveal what it was, but they get a little joke in there at the end. And yeah, I really need that. It really just oh, wow. This really meant a lot to both of them. Like, you can just tell it did and what that what it means for Val to even show up in a scene like it. It means a lot. And I it was just great. So if you are particularly if you are a fan of the original, wow. It just would have hit really hard. Final note on the acting My favorite line delivery in the whole movie, I will not say the context it's in, but it is when Hangman proudly says the word Dan in his seat. And that is all it was just so great to see Glen Pal, who we loved as Finnigan, and everybody wants him. And this is Tom Cruise's movie. Maverick is Tom Cruise's movie. But every single scene this guy was in, he stole the shit out of it. And I loved him in this movie. He he has just this innate charisma that is just off the charts. I've seen him because obviously everybody wants him. I mean, I mean, that movie is chock full of so many great performances. Has I always like to talk about, but I think he is basically the best part of that movie. Yeah. And so I've taken an active interest in all of the work he's done since then. And there's some romantic comedies that he's done where he just makes it work yeah. He just like completely understands the assignment as the new expression goes. And this is just, I think the first movie since everybody wants him where he got to truly shine. And man, he shines. He shines. Against crews. He really does. He's really playing The Iceman role here as Hangman I. Extremely arrogant, extremely cocky, you know, million dollar smile. He just. Oh, yes. So, so great. And I cannot I can't wait to see where his career goes. I hope it's I hope good directors are reaching out to him saying, you know, come on over. I want to work with you because this career deserves more than anyone else's in the movie. I think to really take off from this seriously. Strap a rocket to his back, make him a superstar baby Jesus. 12, three, knock out. Bitch, knock out Top Gun, Maverick. Should people go see this in the movie theater right now? Now. Yes, they should. Please go and if you need other reasons to go see it, we're going to give you a whole bunch because we've never really had a proper way to talk about Tom Cruise on the podcast. He's someone who comes up, you know, on PTA. We're talking about Magnolia. He comes up here and there, and we always talk about him with fond appreciation because we love him. But we're going to go into the second part of this podcast and just quickly go through this 40 year career, 40 years of being a genuine American movie star. And that's one of the reasons why I love him. He's a reliable movie star. Not all of his movies are masterpieces, but I, for the most part, almost always enjoy watching him you have guys like Paul Newman, Robert Redford, iconic movie stars, not always in perfect films, but I always wanted to watch them. And I've always liked Cruise when did you get into Cruise, what was like your first experience with him? Not only like what was the first movie you saw that he was in, but what was the first one where you were like, That's my cruise movie. That's my cruise performance. I started noticing because like, my mom was so into the movies of like the early nineties. And so I think my first experience is watching him were from Far and Away and Days of Thunder, I think. Interview with the Vampire, though that was the first time I saw him where I really noticed because with the other two I was like, OK, that's Tom Cruise. That was kind of it, right? But then interview with the vampire go, wait, that's Tom Cruise. Oh, wow. He's really relishing. Well, I didn't speak like that when I was a kid, but I was like, Wow, he's really good in this. Well, interesting that you bring that one up. I think for a lot of people our age, that was the first movie they really noticed him in because a very rare Tom Cruise performance in which he changes his appearance. He still looks beautiful, of course, but those later all that stuff. But that was I think that was the first time I saw him really, really change his the way that he looked. And there's like one credit that I want to give to Tom Cruise that I think he's done that speaks to that era of his whole entire career is that he's gotten the opportunities to play the career. Like when he was young, he was the guy playing the leading man roles of that young guy that you want to see. Yeah. The Naval Fighter Pilot Yard tender, the hustler pool player. Yeah. Yeah. The veteran soldier. Yeah. All the great young man roles he got to play. And then he aged out of in the best possible way because then he started becoming the man with the action roles. Yep. And now as we're seeing him especially, I think this is his first movie where it really seems like not that it really Top Gun Maverick addresses age in that way, but there is an aspect of it where I think Cruise is leaning into I am not that young guy anymore. I am who I am right now. Well, I mean, there's a really key scene. Again, no spoilers. It's a very funny scene in Maverick when he is being ridiculed over and over of his age. Yeah. And as a movie star who's also producing the movie, that's his choice to allow that. So even by doing that, he is embracing his age a little bit and calling it out. Something else I really appreciated about the movie and his performance. Yeah. Yeah. So that's one of the things I love about his career is that he really has cornered the market on all the roles that you'd want to have as an actor. Lifelong longevity career. Yeah. So I had an older brother growing up and three years older, and whatever movies he wanted to watch, whatever was on was I had no choice but to watch it. For whatever reason, that boy took hold of Cocktail. And when I tell you Cocktail was on and on and on so much when I was a kid. So, God, I've seen that movie. I can't even tell you so that was my first big cruise movie, like cocktails, just watching it over and over this not particularly good bartender movie, but what a gem it is. And then A Few Good Men is probably the first one that I started to own because that was I mean, Owen is like, this is Tom Cruise a good actor? Like, I got I love that movie so, so much, but. So good. Following your track. Every single year that we've been alive as fans of movies, he has given us something to watch. It may not have always been the best, but just looking at his career, he's never let you forget that he's there and that that's something a movie star has to do. But more often than not, I find myself really appreciating watching his performances. And I think I don't know when people hate on him. I honestly think that has something to do with other than the work I do not think it's about them. Oh yeah. And if you've seen every single one of his movies, you know that he is able to take on different characters and he's able to give us just a very, very good range. And I cannot wait to see. Well, I mean, we're going to keep talking about this, but I cannot wait to see where this post Ethan Hunt career goes because I don't know if these two coming up are his end of his reign. Is Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible movies? That's what I'm hearing. That'll be a huge, huge turning point for his career. Because he, you know, will he still be making action movies as a 65 year old? This is I don't know, but it's fascinating to think about. And my final thing I'll say about that is like the best comparison I can give is that will Tom Cruise do a verdict type role like what Paul Newman did? Will Tom Cruise do a Paul Newman type role in the Color of Money? We're like, Tom Cruise is playing the aged older guy who has this mentor that sort of, you know, put cruise and PTA back together and it's going to be bliss like old cruise together. It's going to be bliss. I've been saying that for years. But anyway, we're going to move on here. Do you have any cruise gaps? I will start because I don't want to seem like I've had seen them all. I had not seen Taps Far and Away, which was crazy or Valkyrie at ever. So I actually watched all of those in the last, you know, day and a half. And that was fun to finally fill in those spaces. But how about you? Any big. Gaps? I have a lot. I have really. Not. Oh, I am pretty much a up until Top Gun, all of the movies that made him a star. I haven't seen I've never seen Risky Business. I've never seen Cocktail. You would love Risky Business out. Of nursing, Valkyrie. Oh, Color of Money. I love. Valkyrie. You can skip. And outside of one in three, I haven't seen any of the Mission Impossible movies. Yeah, that's interesting. I wondered if that was going to be the case because they are. They're just really something else. Like one, two and three are their own thing. And then he clearly makes a decision of like, OK, I gave one of each of these to a different director, but now I'm becoming more of a movie star. You know, it took some took a long time off because number three was in 2006 and then ghost protocols in 2011. And it honestly seemed like ghost protocol he was going to pass it off to Jeremy Renner and Jeremy Renner was going to become the new Ethan Hunt type. But that movie had so many awesome sequences that they just kept doing that. And now they keep upping it, upping it, and they're actually surprisingly really good movies. And it's exactly it's just an American James Bond. That's all it is. But but I would really love to get your opinion on those if you checked them out. I have nothing against them. I just for whatever reason, once they started, I think I missed the very first one that that it seemed like that departure happened. Yeah. Is it Rogue Nation? Ghost Protocol would be the first one. Oh, like the departure took place yeah. And so I missed that one. And then I was like, all right, I missed out on this one. It's going to be I can't imagine where I'm going to watch this one to catch up for the new one that just became a thing. But I have a feeling I'm going to have to watch them because these new ones that are coming out, parts one and two of dead reckoning seem to be what a name I know and what a name they seem like they're probably going to up the ante in terms of like these action movies for today. Well, what's really I mean, also, what a flex like before Top Gun Maverick starts, you get the trailer for Dead Reckoning part one, and it says Next year because that movie is not coming out till summer. 20, 23 like that. That is a movie star flex. And then part two is summer 2024. So he's just good like he's got yeah he got his next movie star roles planned out. I would love to hear your take. I'm actually showing Ali every Mission Impossible movie because she's never seen them and we've only gotten through the first one, which she loved. But I went part two is I'd love to get your take on that. And part three is its own thing. But then they get he gets funnier, he's dead serious. And part one like he's so serious. Yeah, but that he it starts to like take the piss out of things a little more. I bring this up because in that preview for Dead Reckoning part one, he has the same type of haircut that he had in the first movie. And you know, they're bringing that guy back. You know Kendrick, I can't oh, that's so cool. So I wonder if it's going to be like a more serious tone, but they're really good movies. I mean, we could do we honestly you could watch all those and then we could do an entire podcast just on those movies. And it would be a lot of fun. Like a ton of fun. I'm down for that. All right. Well, let me go let me go back. Risky Business. You would like a lot. All the Right Moves was never one of mine. It wasn't really a huge one for me. Legend is a Ridley Scott, a bit of a misfire. I'm not I'm not the biggest fan. Top Gun, I think we talked about enough. The Color of Money to me is his first, like, honestly, truly great character performance. Started even with that damn shirt it just says Vince and all the stuff that he's doing in it. I remember taking note of that movie in that performance. Really young and understanding, like the hustling aspect because hustling is a big part of a lot of fun movies. I mean, even things like Rounders, just like, you know, the bob and weave you shake in your grifting in the streets and really taking the like, Oh, there's a hustle way beyond just what's on the surface. And I just thought it was so cool. I love him in that movie. I love this movie, by the way. I do too. I think it's one of those movies that just it goes under the radar of Scorsese. He's filmography. Yeah, all like most of his eighties. Yeah. I mean. Everything really goes under the radar of Newman's career, of Cruise's career. Scorsese. But that movie is an absolute gem. And speaking to the my point of him earlier, I think that is the ultimate, like, young man role, like that cocky oh, yeah. Like that scene where he's. Where he's shooting you. Oh, yeah. And and he's singing to the song is like, ooh, his hair was perfect. Yeah. Like, that is a one of a kind role that not a lot of people can play. And he is just absolutely perfect for it. Oh, I couldn't agree. More cocktail. I mentioned cocktails, fun because a lot has been made about this, but I'm not certain if Tom Cruise is like, ever actually had an alcoholic beverage in his life. So it's always fun to watch him pretend like he has to drink on film and playing a bartender. Cocktails just out of that was just a lot of fun. It's good acting on his part. Put it that way. Rain Man, this is the only movie he's been in that has won best picture. That's a pretty interesting fact for a movie star of his size. Just going off Dustin Hoffman like this is this is when he wasn't just doing movie star roles. He knew the value of going and playing the second. And I mean, this is such a good example of it. This is actually a really good movie that it has moments of like really shocking emotional horror. But also him and Hoffman are really funny together sometimes. Yes, they are. Fucking fart. Yeah. What's the last time you saw Bourne in the 4th of July? Oh, it's been a long time, has it? It was a really long time for me as well. I went on a little Oliver Stone kick a few months ago and added that one to it. He's very, very good in it. This was definitely campaigned and it was positioned for him to win the Oscar. We've talked about this Oscar a lot, but here he's playing real life Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic. It is a it's a flawless performance. It's just by way of the Oscars. Not quite as good as Daniel Day-Lewis and My Left Foot. And that's that's the only time, in my opinion, it shook out against Cruz in a way that was fair because we'll talk about its other Oscar nominations. But I and I already mentioned this. I would love to see Cruz work with a director as challenging as Oliver Stone. Again, with like in our tour, it would just I don't know, it you know, will we get an Oliver Stone perform at a PTA? Perform? It's a Barry Levinson. I don't know. Cameron Crowe, you know, will we get one of those? I'm sure we will. I'm sure we will. Days of Thunder, you fan of this one. I remember it being like just a fun movie to watch when I was a kid. But I did try to put this on a couple of years ago, and I was like, yeah, I guess I don't know. It's just it's always funny to watch a Star Cruise and a director, Tony Scott, try to recapture that lightning in the bottle from their first movie. In this case, top Gun. And it doesn't really work the same way. But I don't know. I always remember this as being, like, kind of a fun, silly movie. Well, I mean, it is, but it's funny that you mention it because like one of my really good friends, this is like his favorite movie of all time. Oh, I know. And so but because of that, like like we always talk about like you like someone who you hold dear. You find out what their favorite movie is, right? And your relationship to it changes. And plus also, I remember growing up, my uncle was a giant NASCAR fan so but he took it kind of seriously. And the movie is not as serious. So that's what I mean. Not at all. Not at all. Super in a way, which again, I just far and away which I just watched for the first time. Not my favorite Ron Howard movie, not my favorite cruise performance. That's OK. A Few Good Men is also that year 1992 that's just an all timer you cannot say enough good things about lieutenant Daniel Cathy just by simply being able to literally go toe to toe with Nicholson like that. What a. Feat yeah. The whole movie is just goddamn great. The firm was a movie that was so slow when I was a kid but that I really, really like now I appreciate its patience Sydney Pollack directing cruises against Gene Hackman. David Stratton. I mean, I really like this movie. I don't know if you've seen it recently, but I watched it recently and it really holds up. I like to go and rewatch this one because it has been a bit and I always see it on Netflix and I would watch it as a kid, and I think I had the same feeling as you where I was like, Oh, I like it, but it is kind of slow. But yeah, so I'd like to go back and give this one an early nineties cruise shot. Oh man, it's so fun. I really liked where he was at at this point of his career too. What kind of go? We gave some love to all the Mission Impossible movies, so I kind of skip over those, but that has been the flagship franchise of his career. He has tried to get other franchises off the ground. I mentioned The Mummy Way earlier, Jack Reacher even like he was trying, I don't know if he wanted that to go for seven movies, but he's tried these other franchise roles and this one really took off and he's perfect in it. He has adapted the character has adapted with the times. So I'm frankly just really excited for these next two, one of my all time favorites. I can't believe this came out the same year, Mission Impossible one, Jerry Maguire. I absolutely love this movie. So once a year for me, I've watched this once, literally every single year, at least once it's come out, just never gets old. As a movie star, you may think that Tom Cruise is like this big leading romantic man. He's actually not in his movies. Not really. This is one where he is and it works really, really well. I think this is his best romantic performance. Oh, yeah, I agree. And it's it's just got everything you want from a movie like this. And it's got substance. It's got a lot more going on in it than I think people might think of it when they hear the name Jerry Maguire. They I think they associate it. It was like, oh, that's just I don't know if that I may that's presumptuous on my part, but I feel like that's kind of like a reputation movie always had. Yeah. Is that there's a part of it that never gets taken quite seriously. And I think that that's not fair. I don't either. I think it holds up incredibly well. And I think if you haven't seen it and it's just kind of a you complete me mean to you go watch it. It's actually a really, really good movie. I can't believe I have to defend Jerry Maguire. It's like one of my favorite movies of all time. He did get nominated for this performance, thank God. And I actually think he should have won. You have Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire, Ralph Fiennes, the English Patient, Woody Harrelson, The People versus Larry Flynt, Billy Bob Thornton, Sling Blade to close number two for me. Geoffrey Rush wins for Shine, a movie like no one has seen. Now I don't. Have you ever seen Shine? No. OK, there you go. So Tom Cruise, this should to me, I would have loved that this was his movie star win like I really thought. Not really. At the time. I was too young but looking back now, I'm like, no one was talking about Shine then. No one's talking about it now. Like, this really could have happened. I would have loved if he won that. Yeah. Yeah. And looking back at it, yeah. Here's a thing movie stars do not do. I said he's never let us forget that he's out there. He movie stars do not take three years off to go make one movie. In this case, eyes wide shut. He plays. He's a perfect puppet for Kubrick's dream world. I cannot say that this is quote unquote, good traditional acting, but it is flawless Kubrick acting. We know deep into this on our Kubrick episode, but I just I love Dr. Bill. I love this movie. At one of the best movies he's certainly ever been featured in. Yeah. And and I'll still give it like, you know, this is that conversation of a movie star and an actor. I think Tom Cruise is both I think I think things just call for different things. I think a movie when you're called upon to be a movie star, you have to be a movie star. And then when the movie calls on you to be an actor, that's when you get a chance to shine. And I think eyes, which is very subtle, subdued, abstract, but it's I think it's fantastic acting. I do, too. One of the better Kubrick performances, I think. Yeah, absolutely. And then shortly after he wraps eyes wide shut, he delivers what many consider his best performance as Frank TJ Mackie in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia. Another movie and performance we talked about a lot in our pod. And this is as good as it gets from Tom Cruise. There's some aspects of it that I could not believe at the time that he did this and the words that come out of this character's mouth, I couldn't believe it at the time. I still can't believe it now. And if he had this in him, he's got other stuff in him like this. Let me see it. Give it to his cruise. I love this character. I love this performance. I feel like there's like going to be like one performance from him where he'll get to go all out because he's given us, like, these little slivers of of behavior we've never seen from him. And we don't really expect and like, he's done it with Magnolia. He's done it with one movie that we'll talk about Tropic Thunder. Like, I feel like there's a part of him that is like if he gets one character where he gets to completely let loose, that might be the Oscar. Tom Cruise needs an Oscar, a movie star needs an Oscar. Paul Newman never got one. And then he got old and they gave him a lifetime achievement award. And then the next year they gave him best actor. It's not the way this is supposed to work. Like he won Best Man for the Color of Money. Brad Pitt got a producing Oscar for 12 years. A slave still needed that movie star. Oscar got it. For Once Upon a time in Hollywood, Tom Cruise knows damn well he can not win an Oscar for an action movie. He's going to want that Oscar. I really, really think so. And I think he's that means he's going to have to, you know, be in movies by perhaps more challenging directors. It's in him. It's in him. We're going to we're going to see. I just I really can't wait. And we've talked about this race a lot before. I'll go through it quickly. 1999 best supporting actor Tom Cruise from Magnolia Michael Clarke Duncan for The Green Mile, Jude Law, Talented Mr. Ripley, Haley Joel Osment, The Sixth Sense, Michael Caine wins for The Cider House Rules. The first four names I mentioned, those are just four incredible performances. This one never ends well in terms of who won. I get it. But again, I would have given this to Cruz. So in my perfect world, he has at least two Oscars. Yeah. There's no way that I wouldn't have given that to him for Magnolia. Next up, though, that knocked me away. Vanilla Sky, David Ames, I've always appreciated this movie. This is a weird ass movie unlike anything else Cameron Crowe did. I frankly wish he made a bunch more movies like this. This performance is really all to the bone for Cruz and I. I've never not like this. I grew up loving this movie, and I still love it. This same here. Well, yeah, I cannot say enough good things about this one. This is just I think he is the perfect person to play it for the time for the age that he was at, for the character that he's playing. There's no one. I don't think that that could do. It is good. Yeah. Yeah. And I really believe when, like, he falls into such despair it's it's a very I've just always believed the conviction of it. The Minority Report, I think the best movie and performance he did with Spielberg. I love that movie. That thing really, really holds up The Last Samurai, a fun one. I actually haven't seen that in several years. But then we get to an all timer, something that I genuinely did not know he had in him. The villainous hitman Vincent from Michael Mann's Collateral. Great movie, great villainous performance. I just don't know how Michael Mann talked Cruz into this. I don't yeah, it's I remember the first time I saw it, I actually didn't like him in it, which is really funny. I don't know, I was an idiot, and I just was thinking Oh, he's trying to be a bad guy. He's trying. He's trying. And then I rewatched it later and I go, He's so good. I don't know what I was. That was all pre preconceived notion. And like, funny, he's able to inject humor when you don't really like, you know, just the way he walks into that alley like you. I mean, like, there are moments when he's really genuinely funny in this. Were the worlds you were the world's fan? I'm a really big fan of the first act if not the first half. Yeah. OK, so then it falls apart for you. Well, I got a thing with invasion movies. There are things that I really love. I love the idea of all invasion movies where aliens come down. I think it's a genuinely interesting and terrifying topic for anyone to think of, but I've never seen one work. It's fully I don't know what I want. I don't know what I want from one of these movies. All I know is that everyone I've seen has never given me from start to finish a satisfying invasion movie feeling to me because the. Aliens never win. I guess that's true. Yeah. Like the aliens. It. Yeah, it's true. It's actually very. True. I could throw a few your way that you may like. I can't reveal what they are because it would be, like, spoiler territory. But Spielberg had never been mean like this. We had seen alien movies eat nice aliens, close encounters, nice aliens. He never done it like this. And, yeah, that the first half of this movie just, you know, I have here, this is like a genuine old school disaster thriller. It's imperfect, but it is made by masters and it was a hell of a lot of fun to see this in the movie theater. I still remember that. Yeah, I saw that with here, too. Let's do Tropic Thunder, where he's playing Les Grossman, kind of a mash up of Joel Silver Weinstein. Scott Rudin. I mean, God bless him for doing this. I still think I think he says more F-bombs in this performance than combined throughout his entire career. Like, what a nut job. This movie is insane. I they made this right on the edge of being allowed to make something like this. And I don't even know if they were ever, like, allowed to make it, but holy shit, this thing is this thing still zings. And his work in it is still probably the highlight of the film for me. Honestly, one of my favorite cuts of that movie is when Tom Cruise is like really like he's screaming into the phones like, I will fuck you up and it cuts to McConaughey, and he just gives like that upper lip. Like, he's like, yeah, yeah. You know. It just, just that little. Moment is a great cut that makes that whole entire because that's what we're feeling is the audience that we see them look on his face. Good cut. I agree. And then his career takes he's done this thing basically since like 2010 where he will do a few movies that maybe aren't that well received, don't make a lot of money. Things like night and day, Rock of Ages, even Jack Reacher. Jack Reacher is kind of a hit Oblivion The Mummy, the sequel to Jack Reacher American made some of those. I like some of those. I didn't, but he always has these Mission Impossible to fall off on. So it's night and day one year than the next year. It's ghost protocol, it's oblivion. But then the next year it's Rogue Nation. That's a really, really smart way for a movie. Star to set up his career. I think the one really highlight in that that isn't a Mission Impossible movie is The Edge of Tomorrow, which took on such a cult status like Immediately. I am ashamed to admit I've only seen this once in the theater, and this sounds like something that gets better and better and better. So I actually might put this one on right as we're done. You know, parting, it was either going to be this or the firm because I haven't seen it for so long. I didn't know you were a fan of this. Do you like it? Edge of Tomorrow. I love it. It's bad. I've seen this movie like four times yet. It's it's not on streaming anywhere right now. Let us see your movies, assholes. I mean, that's a I'll rent it. This one, I think, actually stands the test of time in terms of an action movie. I think this movie is doing a lot of really interesting things. It's a it's a whole entire thing that we've seen a million times. In terms of the device that it uses for its storytelling. But I think it does it better than than a lot of the other ones. And I thought we were supposed to get a sequel to this. I thought they were going to continue it. I don't know. They even tried to like change the title to like Live, Die Repeat or something that. Was supposed to be the title of the. Exactly. Originally that was the title. And then they, like, made them change it. And then they went back with that one. But I don't know what an interesting, you know, kind of history that one's had. Yeah, I got to watch it again for sure. We didn't deep dove on all of his movies, but we just wanted to give kind of an overview of his career and why we like him. This is one of the last truly great movie stars. I mean, it's him, it's Brad, it's Leo. I'm talking people who can actually sell a movie like The Revenant made like $500 million that movie doesn't make $500 million unless Leo is in it. It's the only reason that movie made that amount of money. That's right. Tom Cruise can sell a movie and he can sell it out, and we do not have much of that anymore. So noting all of that and all these performances we touched on and all of these gaps you have, which are fine, we're going to do top five cruise each. Five, four, three, two, one. You go first. There are no wrong answers. Let's do it. All right. So I'm going with the one that was May about face is number five. And that's collateral. Oh, very good. Very good. That's my number four. So we knocked out my four. So that's OK. I'm I always wonder how many we're going to have in common. Here. I love Vincent and Collateral. My number five, though, is Lieutenant Daniel Caffey, A Few Good Men. I love that movie, and I love him in it. Oh, my God. So that's one that didn't make my. That's OK. Nice. It's it's it's the one that I was like, God damn it, I did it. But my number four would be the color of money. Oh, very good. That's one that didn't make my list, so that's good. That is probably like going into the eighties. That would be my favorite performance of the eighties. Him. I love Vince. My number four was collateral, as mentioned so let's go right up to your number three. Number three, eyes wide shut. So it's mine. That's awesome. Dr. Bell coming in at number three. It's a good place for it, you know, because I don't think it is his objective best, but I still think it's really, really good and very, very odd. I love. It. Yup. Well, I think we may have the same number two here now. Number two, my number two is Magnolia. OK, OK, interesting. Well, then my number two is actually Jerry Maguire because I love him and I love him in that man. I love that movie. So you can guess who my number one is. What's your number one? All right, so my number. Well, you go. You're number one. Say it because I see Magnolia yes. My so I'll say let me round mine out. I have five. A Few Good Men for collateral. Three Eyes Wide Shut to Jerry Maguire, one Magnolia I can only imagine your number one Lions for lambs. My I actually like that he did that. I didn't do. I did because he breezed right over it. But I did appreciate that he did it. It's not a very good movie, but it's I liked it. He did it, but. He wanted to work with Redford in the street. Yes. What it was exactly. He took a supporting role and he's like, fuck it, let's go. But my number one, without a doubt, Vanilla Sky. Oh, God. So good. So good. So I have to preface it with this story is because I saw this movie maybe like within the year it came out on video. No, idea of what it was about. None. Oh, interesting. It's so what I got was like, I don't even want to spoil it in case no one's ever seen it. But something happens to him in this movie that I'm like, am I really watching Tom Cruise? Am I watching a guy go through this level of despair and it's like torture? I and for vanity sake, like, I just thought there was so much about this movie that that he just blew me away. I did not think that he could be as good as he was. And so I have a very strong relationship to this movie and for him because again, like I was saying, like he is a perfect character for this type of guy. This beautiful, playboy, rich, arrogant guy. And then something's the worst thing that could happen to somebody like him. This right. He had great he does things in this movie that he has never he has not done in a movie sense. I mean, in terms of the intensity, in terms of scenes and situations, his character finds himself in it. It kind of feels like he, you know, left a lot on the field with it. And again, not to keep harping back to this, but I do think we're going to get other stuff like this in the years to come. Yeah, maybe not exactly like this, but just pushing himself to new levels of desperation. He goes to places in here that he doesn't even go to in Magnolia because that's just not the character in Magnolia. Right? He he goes to these very, very weird, dark places of humanity that you just don't expect him to do. And he does it flawlessly. Oh, God. Does he ever so fun to talk about Cruise? You know, I mean, I hope we this is not the end of us talking about Tom Cruise going to he's going to keep making movies as noted. So we're going to have more and more reasons to talk about him. But wow, ten years from now, I cannot wait to see what new performances there are. You know what else he comes up with that extend beyond to action. But let's move on to what are you watching here can be anything you want. Dealer's choice you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? I think I should go first because I'm doubling down. All right. Go for. It. And I don't know if that'll be a letdown because maybe like so what? I was I was going to double down with is the color of money. Oh, very good. Very good. Why should people watch it. For what I said earlier is that it's a gem that goes unnoticed by all three major components of that movie. It's a Scorsese movie, a Paul Newman movie, a Tom Cruise movie that nobody talks about. And it is so good from start to finish. It is sad. I was going to say it's one of my favorites, Scorsese. I feel like every movie. That I know. Scorsese, we start talking about it, but certainly my favorite of the eight. It really, really moves. It moves. So, so sorry I cut you off. You said outside of Raging Bull. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, of course that's fair. But it just moves so well. So people go check that one out. If you want a really fun double feature, watch that. And after hours, because they were made very closely in the same type of really, really manic energy. Mine is not a double down, though. I do appreciate you doing that. That's a great movie. What are you watching? We own this city. 20, 20 to six episode long mini series. The final episode just aired on HBO, created by David Simon and George Pelecanos. Oh, this. You could look at this as a semi semi sequel to The Wire. However, the difference is that every single person in we own this city is based on a real person. And wow, this is intense. Every episode's directed by Rinaldo Marcus Green. He directed a great indie called Monsters and Men. Most notably, he directed King Richard. This is based on a book of the same name by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton. I'm actually reading that book now what is this about? This miniseries is about the vast real life corruption within the Baltimore Police Department, corruption that has gone on very recently. It's such deep corruption, but it goes so high within the local government. This is not a show or mini series meant to make you feel good. This is meant to call attention to something very fucking bad. David Simon is a lifelong resident of Baltimore. He still lives there. He has seen America give up on this city in his lifetime. If you've seen The Wire and you're like, wow, I hope you know it came up out of it. Well, it hasn't. It hasn't. It's only gotten worse. Freddie Gray made it so much worse. The characters that are in the show, the cops in the show made it so much worse. Jon Bernthal this contains his best performance to date, playing an absolute fucking monster. Jamie, Hector. Oh, man. Jamie Hector. Who's Marlo Stanfield in the wire. You going to see a very different gear from him? Josh Charles, who I've loved literally since. Don't tell mom the babysitter's dead. I absolutely love that guy. He's a total shithead here. Perfect cast. You know, Pelecanos is a great author. Drama City, The Night Gardener to my favorite books from him. He's born in DC, so he lives there. They know this area very well. He also worked on The Wire. As mentioned, Baltimore is one of the great cities that America gave up on. I went there as a kid. I went to Orioles games, I went to the harbor. I went downtown for dinners when I got older and could drive. It's not safe anymore. The crime is bad. A lot of things are bad and just because the crime is bad, you and that is being done by people, quote unquote, by criminals. It is the institutions that have let them down. This show captures that so fucking well. This is really important to watch for everyone to watch. We own this city, HBO. Damn, that was a good recommendation. Thank you. I would love if you check this out, we could talk about it, but, yeah, I deviated. I just. I've been wanting to talk about that so long, but thank you, everyone, so much for listening to our Tom Cruise. Deep Dove. Go see Top Gun, Maverick. Amen. OK, superstar, this is knockout signing off. Thanks, everyone, for listening and happy watching You're a lousy fucking softball player, Jack. I had to get one in there, so hey, everyone, thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex Withrow Dot com. Nicholas Dotcom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What are you watching podcast at Gmail. Dot com or find us on Twitter at WFYI W Underscore Podcast. In honor of David Cronenberg's supremely weird new film, Crimes of the Future, next time I'm going to review that movie and look at Cronenberg's overall career. One of my favorite directors. Stay tuned.