Photo: PHILIP FONG / AFP / Getty Images
Tom Cruise has saved the world more times than I can count. He’s flown fighter jets, dangled off airplanes, scaled skyscrapers and jumped a motorcycle off a cliff.
So naturally, his next move is to put on a dad bod, a ten-gallon hat, and possibly help destroy the planet.
Cruise stars in “Digger,” the new dark satire from Oscar-winning “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director Alejandro G. Iñárritu. And if you’re expecting Ethan Hunt with an oil rig, think again.
Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a larger-than-life Texas oil billionaire whose drilling operation helps unleash an environmental catastrophe. Buried under prosthetics and sporting a paunch, cowboy boots and a Texas drawl, Cruise goes BIG as a man far more interested in protecting his empire than saving humanity.
The movie also stars Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller and Jesse Plemons, with Goodman playing the president of the United States.
And yes, at one point somebody apparently thinks bombing the runaway iceberg might be a good idea.
“Digger” is proving to be seriously divisive. Critics seem to agree that Cruise fully commits to the insanity, but whether Iñárritu’s sprawling climate satire actually works is another question entirely. Early reviews have ranged from calling it one of the year’s boldest movies to a spectacular misfire.
Which, frankly, should make you want to see it even more.
Let’s Play Name That Cruise
Since Tom Cruise is taking such a massive swing with “Digger,” I decided it was time to test Gary and Shannon’s knowledge of his other movies with a little game I’m calling Name That Cruise.
The rules are simple: I badly explain the plot of a Tom Cruise movie, and they have to figure out which one it is.
For example: A bartender learns that juggling liquor bottles is apparently a viable career path.
“Cocktail.”
Or: A teenager borrows his dad’s Porsche and makes a series of increasingly questionable financial decisions.
“Risky Business.”
We dug into some deep Cruise cuts along with the blockbusters because after more than four decades of Tom Cruise movies, “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible” are just the beginning. Listen and play along to see how many you can guess!
Anne Hathaway Gets Twisted in ‘Verity’
If climate catastrophe isn't your idea of a relaxing weekend at the movies, perhaps murder, obsession and extremely attractive people making terrible decisions will do the trick.
“Verity” stars Dakota Johnson as Lowen Ashleigh, a struggling writer hired to finish a bestselling book series after its author, Verity Crawford, is left incapacitated following a car accident.
Verity is played by Anne Hathaway. Her handsome husband is played by Josh Hartnett.
You already know this is going to end well.
Lowen moves into the family's home to sort through Verity's notes and discovers a secret manuscript containing some horrifying revelations. She also starts getting closer to Verity's husband, because apparently nobody in a psychological thriller has ever watched a psychological thriller.
The movie is based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover and directed by Michael Showalter, who previously worked with Hathaway on “The Idea of You.”
Reviews are all over the place, but even some of the harshest critics seem to agree on one thing: Hathaway understood the assignment. She gets to go full sinister femme fatale, and I'm here for it.
Florence Pugh Takes on ‘East of Eden’
Over on Netflix, “East of Eden” is giving one of America's great novels the prestige limited-series treatment.
Florence Pugh stars as Cathy Ames in the seven-episode adaptation of John Steinbeck's sprawling 1952 novel about family, jealousy, good, evil and whether we're destined to repeat the mistakes of the people who came before us.
And there's a fantastic Hollywood connection behind this one.
The series was created by Zoe Kazan, whose grandfather, Elia Kazan directed the legendary 1955 film adaptation starring James Dean. That movie only tackled the latter portion of Steinbeck's enormous story. The Netflix series has seven episodes to explore much more of the Trask family's multigenerational drama, with Pugh's Cathy taking a central role.
Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist also star, along with Ciarán Hinds, Martha Plimpton and Tracy Letts.
Steinbeck considered “East of Eden” his magnum opus, and more than 70 years after it was published, its central question still lands: Are we trapped by who we are and where we came from, or can we choose to become something different?
So your weekend viewing options include Tom Cruise potentially destroying civilization, Anne Hathaway possibly murdering people and Florence Pugh wrestling with the nature of good and evil.
Happy watching!
Hear more about “Digger,” “Verity” and “East of Eden,” plus play along with Name That Cruise on the entertainment report only on Gary and Shannon!