Gingerbread House of Cards

And yeah, that's a big part of why I'm hoping this Digger movie is successful despite my misgivings about Iñárritu. I want more of this! Cruise's brand of intensity is more layered than it's given credit for, it can be a hell of a tool in the right hands!

Yeah, I thought about putting Edge of Tomorrow alongside Fallout and Maverick as the best examples of what "Tom Cruise vehicle" looks like, but the way Liman treats him like a rag doll for a lot of the movie does give it a somewhat less-Cruisey feel.

I guess you could count Tropic Thunder and (less generously, because the movie sadly is a snore fest) Lions for Lambs as well. And if you felt War of the Worlds was still too TOM CRUISE for your tastes... it might be all the way back to Collateral.

When was the last time a Tom Cruise movie felt like he was a living part of a DIRECTOR's movie and not the kind of "movie star" co-creation he's been doing for a long time now? Is it... War of the Worlds? Like, more than 20 years.

I am glad to see Cruise back to working with auteur filmmakers again (not, in any way, to diminish the impressive results of films like Maverick and Fallout). I just... kind of wish it was anyone but Iñárritu, a filmmaker I've grown deeply skeptical of a while ago? But I guess I'll take it.

Actually, John Francis Daley taking on the Muppets would make a little too much sense after Game Night and Dungeons and Dragons.

It might be the second best version of Do They Know It's Christmas, second only, of course, to Fucked Up's. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd4R...

Thom Yorke plays piano! Johnny Greenwood plays drums! Paul McCartney plays bass! THE DARKNESS and DIZZIEE RASCAL trade lines! (Not those kinds of lines.) Keane! Travis! Oh what fun.

New Halifax Harbour Bridge Commissioners Bert and Gert

You can see how it fits — both in the moment AND Spielberg's oeuvre more broadly. it just doesn't really WORK.

Also, I'd need to revisit both films to be confident in this take, but I feel like odd missteps of Crystal Skull are ultimately more rewarding than the confident but middling Dial of Destiny. Or maybe that's just me feeling the difference between Spielberg behind the camera vs Mangold.