Oliver Battershall

Collateral (2004) 4.5/5
Takes a while to get going, but once it does, it really gets going. We all know Cruise as the quintessential movie star of the last 30 years but his performance as a cold-blooded villain unconcerned with the phoney moral code that Hollywood instils upon hitmen to make them more likeable or justified, improves massively on his legacy. Jamie Foxx gives an all-timer performance in the “nerd turned tough guy” character category. Michael Mann is huge on stylistic action that ebbs and flows, so when you see a chase or a fight scene coming in this you really get psyched.

Vanilla Sky (2001) 3.5/5
What a wild ride this was. A really hard film to give a rating to. For the first half, maybe even two thirds I was feeling quite unengaged, but then the climax hits and (some of) the loose ends start making sense and it starts to redeem itself. Under the surface I began to see some of the shards of the misunderstood masterpiece that some proclaim this to be. I’ve always loved when films play with the boundaries between reality and fiction, life and dreams. I just wish this had the guts to go full Lynch with it from minute one because once it got disorientating was when I really locked in. Mulholland Drive came out the same year and I can’t help but see failed chances to create something that would’ve been on that level. That being said, the (very 2000’s) soundtrack is great and Cruise/Cruz/Diaz are unashamedly very nice to look at for over two hours. Maybe this warrants a rewatch, I might check out the Spanish film this is based on.

Spring Breakers (2012) 2.5/5
There’s some interesting satire throughout, on the modern Young American Dream and the hedonistic, almost colonial yearning to travel somewhere far and exotic and fully indulge in violent carnal pleasure. It’s cool when that message is hanging under the surface, but the excessive repetition of shots and dialogue make it feel like it’s insisting on itself, like a satire of a satire. The cinematography is very nice and it was a bit of a guilty pleasure to hear some dubstep for the first time in a decade, but altogether this felt like a worse version of a Sean Baker movie.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) 4/5
A solid action movie with a fun gimmick that manages to stay fresh throughout. Cruise is good, if slightly miscast, Blunt is great. They work well together, and thankfully the romance is only shoehorned in at the end, and done tastefully. This could be one of the last high budget non-franchise action movies that actually looks high budget and has character to it. With the streaming model nowadays I’m not optimistic for the future of high-quality popcorn movies. Aside from the blatant American writing of British people’s dialogue (see “2nd Grade teacher”) this was a good time that flew by.

Cop Land (1997) 3/5
Pretty disappointing. A meandering plot with big holes and mostly flat direction and dialogue make this feel longer than its actual modest runtime. It’d feel even longer if not for a few solid acting performances, especially that from Ray Liotta. As for Stallone, whose performance had earned enough plaudits to single-handedly put this on my watchlist, I found him pretty dull. A pretty average film like this stings a bit more when the core premise and cast are this dynamite.