War of the Worlds is a sci-fi / horror movie with almost no plot. We learn enough to know that the world is being invaded by aliens who buried their massive tripod-ships underground millions of years ago and have now returned to earth. We don’t know why they are attacking humanity but they are – fueling their enormous machines with their blood. And as suddenly as they arrive, they die, killed by pollution, I guess.

If you try to decrypt War of the Worlds with an analysis of plot you won’t get very far. Why did human archaeologists never discover the buried ships? Why do the aliens want to take over earth to begin with and why didn’t they just take it over the first time they stopped by?

I think the lack of explanation for reason behind the aliens desire to kill humans is why I would classify War of the Worlds as a horror movie rather than a sci-fi thriller or action movie. There’s no reason behind it at all, it’s just a scary situation, like Jaws, and like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

It’s a simple movie that is decidedly un-Spielberg in this way – no twists or turns in plot, no Jurassic-Park-esque child heroism, no sentiment. It is dark and bloody and not much is brought to light or resolved.

Which is why I think it’s such a good movie – we’re thrust into a situation with a few, clearly-defined characters and we see how they react to an incredible situation and how they are changed by it.

Tom Cruise’s character is a deadbeat dad. This alone is a fascinating variant of the deadbeat teenager role he played in the 80s and deadbeat 20-something role he played in the 90s. This is the first movie in which he is parental (in Eyes Wide Shut he did have a kid but the kid wasn’t central to the character or the plot in any way). In Mission: Impossible III (next) he is a version of Ethan Hunt who cares about his committed relationship to his wife. In Lions for Lambs he is a senator with presidential aspirations. This marks an admission of paternal age and responsibility that was mirrored in the Oprah interview. At this stage in his career Tom Cruise is trying to convince moviegoers that he is responsible, kind, and mature. This is what Maverick would be like 20 years after he was Maverick.

It’s a muted performance in which he takes his Tom Cruise tendencies (running really fast, grinning to show all of his teeth, gesticulating) and tones them down the way a tired construction worker with children would. He covers his luxurious hair with a Yankees cap. He uses combat as a last resort.

He changes, from a man who ignores his responsibilities to a man who embraces them. At the same time, he doesn’t change. He doesn’t get back together with his estranged wife. He doesn’t cease to be headstrong or arrogant. He sees his flaws reflected in his children and realizes he can’t change either.

It’s a great character study and I’m glad the movie didn’t try to focus on much more than that. It’s stylish, beautifully filmed, and legitimately scary.

Next: Mission: Impossible III

I know this isn’t an actual movie. Or is it?

Was this a genuine human moment from a complicated and difficult to understand actor, twisted by the limelight and his years being manipulated by a strange religion? Or was it a calculated, ill-conceived P.R. stunt by a man clearly obsessed with his image and public perception?

Here’s a brief rundown:

minute 1: Oprah yells, “Please welcome, Tom CRUUUUUUUUISE!” The crowd screams. Oprah screams. Tom walks out with a huge smile. Oprah and Tom embrace. He seems truly overwhelmed by the crowd reaction. “Ok. Ok. sit down, sit down,” Oprah implores the crowd. “You’ve got to calm yourselves.” She plays with his hair.

minute 2: “I’m overwhelmed,” says Tom. He sits, then stands again to more applause, then gets down on one knee, then stands, then sits again. “Y’all have overwhelmed me.” He grabs Oprah’s arm and laughs. She grabs his arm in a comforting gesture.

minute 3: “Thanks for coming to my legends ball with Katie.” He grabs both of her hands and shakes them. “It was more than fun, it was more than great, it was historic,” he says. It is a reference to an annual gala Oprah throws to honor African American women in art, entertainment and Civil Rights. Tom seems to be struggling to find the correct words to convey the importance of the event. He is aware that he must be humble, but also appear progressive and adequately respectful of women and African Americans.

minute 4: “You sent me the most beautiful flowers,” says Oprah. Cut to a picture of the flowers. That’s a lot of flowers.

minute 5: Oprah is friends with Tina Turner, and Tina Turner was really excited to meet Tom Cruise because he’s handsome.

minute 7: Tom stands, raises his arms in the air, pumps his fist, kneels, pumps his fist some more. “I’m in LOVE. And it’s one of those things where you just wanna be like, ‘yeah, I like her,’ that’s not how it feels.”

minute 8: Prompted to describe how they met, Tom pauses, giggles, then pauses again, then starts cackling, then stands up and sits down again. He claps his hands together and them buries his face in his hands. “Oh, ladies, please.”

minute 10: Someone in the audience yells out “Was she anxious to meet you, as well?” “Of course!”

Oprah starts repeating stories she has heard about Tom and Kate’s relationship:

“Did you surprise her in Rome?”
“Did you go for a Motorcycle ride on the beach?”
“Did you fly on your plane together?”

He holds her hand and blushes and smiles and nods.

minute 13: I think this is the best moment: Oprah says “Katie said in Seventeen magazine that her dream is to marry Tom Cruise. Are you in the dream making business?” and he responds, “I don’t want to disappoint her.”

The interview repeats itself over and over for another 25 minutes. Tom seems overwhelmed. Oprah says “What happened to you, boy?” Tom says “I just want to treat her right.” He jumps up and down and grabs her hands and shakes them and he seems frustrated and happy and a little freaked out.

Imagine you are the most famous person in the world and you start dating someone and EVERYONE wants to know about it. How did you meet? What did you do on your first date? Are you going to marry her? Are you treating her right?

I don’t think the problem is that Tom Cruise didn’t want to disappoint Katie Holmes. I think the problem is that he didn’t want to disappoint anybody. He went on TV and said everything that he thought people would want to hear. He acted in the way that he thinks people act when they are in love. Like Jerry Maguire. Like David Aames. Like Brian Flanagan.

Oprah’s questions were so personal and so prying that I think it got to him a little. He was angry and excited and taken aback by the attention. I don’t think there is a human on the planet who could have seemed normal in that moment.

So I don’t know how to react to this interview. He does seem a little crazy. It simultaneously looks like a glimpse into the psyche of Tom Cruise the human being, and a mask constructed to deflect the intensely personal questions he knew he would get. I felt sad, and I smiled, and I winced every time the audience almost entirely made up of white, blonde, shoulder-padded women stood up and screamed and applauded.

Later in the interview they show a recorded message from Stephen Spielberg who isn’t in studio because, as Oprah says “He is literally racing against the clock to finish this movie on time.”

Spielberg says, “what you see on your show Oprah, what your audience sees of Tom, is how I know Tom, there are no secrets, he doesn’t have an agenda, this is what I love about you, Tom.”

Cruise stares intensely at the video, as if he’s taking it in and all he ever wanted was to be told by someone like Spielberg that they love him.

Next: War of the Worlds

When I watched Interview with the Vampire I noted that it was the only Tom Cruise movie in which he played a villain. I hereby retract that statement after watching Collateral. Cruise plays a highly-trained assassin named Vincent who uses his pistol and his sophisticated grey-tinged beard to take down informants in a drug-related prosecution.

Jaimie Foxx plays opposite Cruise and severely out-acts him as cab driver Max Durocher. I wonder if you could call Foxx the black Tom Cruise – he too is an extremely charismatic, small-framed actor who leveraged his natural charm to become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. I guess the difference is that Foxx is a little more talented than Cruise but maybe a little less willing to look like a nincompoop. Perhaps it’s because he’s more self-aware.

I like that Tom decided to play an antagonist because one of the criticisms you could have against him is that he is always trying to be likable. On the other hand his character in Collateral is clearly written to be likable – Sure, he’s a sociopath, charming, manipulative, and uncaring, but his wisdom and practicality also motivates the major character change that drives the movie – inspired and disgusted by Vincent’s expertise and motives, Max slowly transforms from a passive to an active participant in his own life and becomes the hero in his own story.

Structurally, Collateral is kind of odd because it is really two movies – the first half is a Midnight-Run-esque travel movie where two characters ride around in a car and talk to each other. The second half is an action movie where various participants try to stop Vincent from committing more murders. I really enjoyed the first half; it plays on the conversations that everyone has with their cab driver – some people find them interesting, some people find them annoying – to what extent they mean anything varies based on situation and context. The movie opens with Jamie Foxx arguing with Jada Pinkett Smith about optimal car routes through L.A. I liked that movie, I wanted to spend more time watching that movie.

The action thriller that covers shootouts traversing various dance clubs and parking garages for the second hour of the movie is pretty dumb. The good news is that Director Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider, etc.) and Writer Stuart Beattie (nothing, literally nothing interesting) spend so much time establishing the characters at the beginning of the movie that I cared what happens to them. But it doesn’t really make sense. Vincent is basically a superhero – he shoots with pinpoint accuracy, dodges bullets, and always appears in the perfect location to cause a ruckus – but by the end of the movie he’s beaten by a cab driver who about an hour ago couldn’t even talk on the phone to his mother.

Also notable, the cameos: Mark Ruffalo, Jason Statham, the aforementioned Ms. Pinkett-Smith, and Peter Berg (the creator of Friday Night Lights!) also pop up as do numerous other actors who will make you say “Hey it’s that guy!”

I think it’s appropriate at this time for us to revisit the stages of Tom Cruise’s career:

-1. The Pre-Maverick Years (1981-1985) – mostly co-starring roles in teen-oriented comedies and dramas
-2. The Apprenticeship Years (1986-1990) – a combination of blockbuster hits and co-star performances with big name actors and directors
-3. The Kidman Years (1991-1999 eyes wide shut) – a lot of romances, a lot of experimentation
-4. The Movie Star Annuity Years (1999 Magnolia – ??) – WHERE THE FUCK IS MY OSCAR

Another career transition comes soon. Stay tuned.

Next: Tom Cruise Jumps on Oprah’s Couch