As Wichita Falls, So Falls Tom Cruise's Stardom

Yeah, another trailer post. Whatever, I write about what's available to me.



Anyway, above is the trailer for Knight & Day, which stars Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz as a secret agent and a civilian, respectively, who meet boarding a flight and end up in several action-y hijinks involving CG and Peter Sarsgaard. The film used to be called Wichita, but 20th Century Fox loves puns like "Squeakquel" and "All About Steve", so now it's got the current title, which, if I were guessing (since there are no knights in the trailer) probably refers respectively to the last names of Cruise and Diaz's characters.

It's weird to consider that Tom Cruise's status as a movie star is probably permanently unrecoverable. It feels like he was the last generation of movie star, when we really had movie stars and not celebrities. Yet, take Mel Gibson, who's making a similar comeback to movie theaters in January with Edge of Darkness without the sense that his ship has sailed.

Which is not to say that Knight & Day looks too terrible. Some of the jokes are a bit lame, but even if Cruise isn't going to be the Tom Cruise he once was, at least it looks like he's having a blast. All in all, I'd say it has the potential to be better than Mr & Mrs. Smith but short of True Lies. Still, I can't help but watch the trailer and wonder, would Tom Cruise have ever done this movie had he not had a meltdown? Then again, that's pretty much what's interesting about it; perhaps he can stop being a celebrity and start being kind of cool (although it's really hard to tell if he's aware that Knight & Day is playing on his glibness).

As for Cameron Diaz, I wish it was still 1994. I don't think she'll ever top The Mask.

In Defense of M:i:III

On June 23rd, 2005, Tom Cruise appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and proceeded to go completely nutso over his new girlfriend Katie Holmes, and the world changed forever. I'm serious: Scientology is a household name, and Tom Cruise lost almost all of his pull at the box office. There were other effects, but aside from those two main results, there was only one other that mattered to me: Mission: Impossible III opened on May 5th, 2006 to underwhelming box office.

Which sucks, because I felt then, and still do, that it's one of the best summer action movies of the decade. Aside from some minor quibbles (not enough of Hoffman as the villain and a few lame political touches during the movie's twist), it's a popcorn masterpiece that throws in plenty of grit under its PG-13 rating and packs a stellar cast (including Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, returning star Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Maggie Q, Michelle Monaghan, Keri Russell and Simon Pegg) while blasting away the terrible taste left behind by the excruciatingly poor Mission: Impossible 2. It had good trailers and the critics liked it (scoring a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes), and yet it didn't do as well as the others, just because Tom Cruise lost it. Now, I hate celebrity gossip magazines and tabloids, and I can't blame them for this -- Cruise did flip out -- but does it really make a difference? He's an actor. Who he is on screen is not who he is in real life. Frankly, if this influenced your opinion of him as an actor and not as a person, then I just think you're foolish.

There was a period following M:i:III where Cruise had a falling-out with Paramount and it looked like another Mission: Impossible would never happen, but here we are three years later and Tom's made good with the studio. Yesterday, it was announced that a fourth film is in the works with Paramount's newest box office king J.J. Abrams returning to produce.

All of you who skipped Mission: Impossible III in theaters, do yourself a favor and go see it now. Squirm at the thought of nasal-injected brain explosives. Hold your breath during the excellently tense bridge scene, which gives you that rare feeling that the characters might really be screwed. Watch Tom Cruise give what may be the last self-aware performace he'll ever give. Then be ashamed that you valued your opinions about what a celebrity does with their life over seeing a good movie. Jerks.