After all this time maybe it's time we stop acting like Tom Cruise isn't really good at acting.

After watching the sheer insanity that was Mission Impossible: Fallout,  one thing kept running laps around my brain the entire time, and it wasn't any particular stunt, or action sequence (though they were nothing short of legendary)  no.   It was this....Tom Cruise may be one of the most underrated actors living.  Yes I said underrated. After over 30 years of making movies, a net worth of over 400 million dollars, and a procession of memorable films I still believe as an actor Cruise is underrated.

 Of course there is all the weird Scientology stuff, which in an era where your star is heavily maintained by the cult of personality you build around yourself is well...earned.  But I'm not talking about Cruise's possibly waning Star power, I'm talking about Cruise as an actor.  I've sat in on far too many conversations dismissing Cruise as an actor (these are usually the same types who dismiss John Wayne as being himself..sorry dad I love you though! ). Most of us by now have heard of Anne Rice's reaction to Cruise's casting as Lestat,  and I definitely believe you could trace the root of that reaction in an ideology about what kind of an actor Tom Cruise is.  Google Tom Cruise and acting and you get this...

Or this by Christopher Hooten at the independent...

The last acknowledges both that there is a hatred for Tom Cruise's acting (again I think his off screen persona has some part to do with that)  and what I think is a common mistake in this conversation...prizing one characteristic of acting over another to the point you dismiss the importance of others. It reminds me of the scene in Gladiator (one of the few where you empathize with Commodus) when after being told he will not be emperor, he explains to his father Marcus Aurelius that though he did not possess any of "the four chief virtues" Aurelius wrote to him about,  he did have other virtues it seems his father outright dismissed or hated because they were not his.   We often do this, and as I have said before in conversation - "who and what we praise often tell us a lot more about ourselves than any objective idea of greatness".  As an actor and a lover of film and storytelling,  I feel Cruise's range,  (See Interview with a Vampire,  Magnolia,  Born on the fourth of July)  depth,  and craft are consistently underappreciated.   Intensity is the word I most associate with Tom Cruise. It's what embodies and encompasses his films, and his performances,  and unlike Mr.  Hooten at the Independent  I think it's very interesting if you're not placing acting in strict objective absolutes.  I would argue that both Cruise and Reeves -  who Mr Hooten calls "horrible" -could not possibly be around for thirty plus years and be uninteresting.  For Reeves I'd need to do another piece to argue what he brings to the screen, but thankfully Anjelica Bastien wrote THE PIECE on Keanu Reeves talents. As for Cruise,  the physicality,  radiancy,  and mentality he brings to every gesture, facial expression, and objective is ever present in his acting.  Energy is also a core tenant of acting it's importance stated in almost every method from Stanislavsky to Lessac. And Cruise understands, and very naturally harnesses his energy to convey to the camera any number of potent emotions.  It's there when he plays the piano and utters the lines  "Claudia you've been a very very naughty little girl"

Listen Louis... there's life in these old hands still... Warner Bros All Rights Reserved

It's there in his eyes alone as he tries desperately to fend off an emotional breakdown on stage...

Tom Cruise's awesome performance as Frank Mackey in Magnolia (1999), a film by Paul Thomas Anderson.

It's there in the many times Cruise gives himself over physically to the point he's literally seconds away from what could end in possibly horrific consequences that are caught right on camera like in this collateral scene...

Tom Cruise falls over a chair in the movie Collateral (2004)

Or in this scene where it's clear that his energy threw his balance off near the end,  nearly causing him to fall as he trashes the table.

A Few Good Men movie clips: http://j.mp/1BcRpvP BUY THE MOVIE: http://bit.ly/2ddS0MJ WATCH ON CRACKLE: http://bit.ly/2dorpdG http://amzn.to/rCV8mU Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6pr CLIP DESCRIPTION: At his wit's end, Lt. Kaffee (Tom Cruise) explodes when Lt. Cdr. Galloway (Demi Moore) makes a suggestion to call Col. Jessep to the stand.

I don't think you could be as vulnerable as Cruise consistently makes himself physically, and have that leak out nowhere emotionally.  But more on that later.  The potency of the energy Cruise brings to any part of his acting extends even to the way he sells punches.  Outside of Jackie Chan and maybe the other underrated talent in Hollywood - Keanu Reeves - no one sells a punch like Cruise... pay attention to what Cruise is doing and when being hit,  what he adds to it,  how he captures how the shock of a throat punch registers not only to the face but to the entirety of the body ( especially nice, since both he and Cavil are hit there so that we get to see both in scene) in this clip from his latest Mission Impossible Fallout...

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong. ★Subscribe HERE and NOW ►https://goo.gl/jp9aW8 Release Date: July 27th, 2018 Cast: Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill ★Listen to our weekly podcast!

Now compare that to a scene in the Bond series with Daniel Craig, a magnificent actor himself.  But look how little he puts into taking the hits,  all of his energy is put into giving out punishment,  but the reactions to receiving it?...Not so much.  They aren't bad,  they're just not necessarily good or great either...

Uploaded by 5 Min Entertainment on 2017-06-25.

This could be editing but I have a feeling if Craig did something really fantastic it would be left in there to enhance the visceral nature of a fight that seems to be going for that very thing.  But Cruise's reactionary prowess ( a by-product of being a good listener as an actor) is one of a kind, and it's not only relegated to those of a physical nature. Cruise is vulnerable on camera in a way that vibrates off screen, no hes never been truly revelatory in that sphere, because there's always something he holds onto, some darkness abd light he keeps for himself, but even in that space he does reveal things about the men he plays, about their and maybe his worship at the altar of masculinity and the masks we wear in service, and he is not fake when he does.   One of my favorite scenes ever is representative of this ability.  It's in the wildly insane aquarium scene in the first mission impossible.  Starting from about the 1: 40 mark cruise has a great cascade of reactions to Kittridge (played by the great character actor Henry Czerny)  that range from "Wait a minute"  to surprise,  to incredulousness,  revelation,  and then finally anger.  It's a natural, organic,  purposefully deliberate progression that manages to rise as the mask melts perfectly along with Elfmans score matching Cruise  beat for beat until both explode simultaneously along with the actual events in the scene.

Subscribe for more like this! For Mission Impossible 2 Clips: https://youtu.be/ONne1YQclbI https://youtu.be/G0ugUBBycFY https://youtu.be/6MF79yFomPo

  It's a wonderful case of collaboration,  and my case for why Cruise is a movie star that understands his craft as well as his brand.  There are actors who understand their brand but not their craft (The Rock,  Will Smith,  come to mind) and actors who understand their craft but not their brand (Idris Elba, Bryan Cranston) and then there is the rarest actors who know both (Meryl Streep, Denzel, Btad Pitt, Emily Blunt, Angela Bassett) and of course Cruise.  And when you have a brand most times you have a signature, and for Tom Cruise that's running.  A cinematic hallmark or signature of a Cruise film as much as a Spike Lee dolly shot,  or a Godard jump cut,  it's also again indicative of Cruise's singular focus and drive.  There's no half assing it in a Cruise scene and whatever he may not have in a natural ability to morph into characterizations,  or convey a seemingly endless myriad of emotional nuances he makes up for with the jolting intention he applies to any action be it great or small.  It's the reason why Cruise like Denzel (albeit  for different reasons)  doesn't really have what people might call a terrible movie.  He's always a joy to watch and has lasted this long because we always appreciate that kind of effort,  that love for what you do. In every Tom Cruise film you will find an actor who is dedicated to entertaining us and pushing himself,  and after almost 30 years of doing just that I think it's high time we stop hating and start congratulating.