Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)  

UK Release Date: May 30^th, 2014 (seen at a cinema on the same day I watched Godzilla)

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Doug Liman

Writer: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth (Screenplay), Hiroshi Sakurazaka (Original Novel)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Riley, Noah Taylor, Franz Drameh, Madeleine Mantock,

Warning Spoilers for some of Tom Cruise’s earlier films in the opening paragraph:

Tom Cruise dies in this one. Not that revealing his character’s death spoils the movie. Edge of Tomorrow is based on a novel where the main protagonist dies quite a bit. That’s what makes the film surprisingly fun. Of course, A-list Hollywood actors can die and even Tom kicks the bucket in a number of his own films like The Last Samurai and Collateral but few films take great delight showing Tom get crushed, shot, impaled, drowned, blown up, and more in all manners of inventive and grisly ways over and over again in a smart and surprisingly vicious sci-fi war movie.

Fair Game

During the fall-out over the Iraq conflict there was a small story involving the White House exposing a CIA agent because her husband spoke out against the war. I ignored it because it didn’t seem too important. Actually it was very important illustrating how politics can manipulate intelligence work to disastrous effect. Fair Game is based on this incident and is an extremely well-made film that tells a valuable story with two brilliant performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.