My cousin Peter made this comment on my earlier post on the Conan movies. My comment on Tom Cruise’s acting recalled this quote from a review of Minority Report:
While there are action elements, this is not an action film, per se, but rather a film about Tom Cruise in the future.
I paraphrased this to apply to The Last Samurai:
While The Last Samurai does have historical elements, it is not a historical epic per se. It’s a movie about Tom Cruise in Meiji-era Japan.
That’s when it hit me: This can be applied to practically any Tom Cruise movie! The formula is this:
“While [movie starring Tom Cruise] does have [supposed genre of film] elements, this is not a [supposed genre] film per se. It’s a movie about Tom Cruise in [place setting for movie].”
Footnote: The original review here is actually just a review for the trailer! It somehow makes it even more hilarious.
I happened to see several Tom Cruise movies recently, including A Few Good Men, The Last Samurai, and Mission: Impossible III. They were all decent movies because Tom Cruise has star power enough to land roles in good productions. But his character was identical. Tom Cruise hasn’t acted since Risky Business. He’s just himself.