Edge of Tomorrow

Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton
Director: Doug Liman
Rated: PG-13

An officer with zero fighting experience is forced into combat and then gets caught in a time loop, reliving the same day every time he dies.

Cruise stars as Cage a military talking head who will do whatever he can to not have to fight. When General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) forces him into combat he doesn’t last long. Upon his inevitable death he wakes up in bootcamp at the start of his day. He soon finds “Full Metal Bitch” Rita (Emily Blunt) who informs him what is happening and helps hone his combat skills in hopes of using Cage to end the war.

What on first look appears to be “GroundHogs” day meets “Starship Troopers”, turns out to be much more than the a simple mashup. It’s great to see Cruise who in every movie is the hero who saves the day, starting off as a wormy officer who will do anything to not experience combat, seeing him clumsily falter just increases the inevitable payoff as he gets better and better morphing from weasel to warrior.

Opposite Cruise is Emily Blunt as Rita a bad ass special forces fighter and war hero, it’s a star making performance from Blunt. The scene of her sweaty in “Cobra Pose” is enough to take her career to the next level not to mention the showcasing of her unknown action chops.

What sets Edge of Tomorrow apart from simple action fare is the combination of Direction, Story and Editing all merging together to take a repetitive premise and never make it repetitive. While there are multiple scenes that are repeated, they are done in a way that is both engrossing and engaging. It’s more than just watching a live action video game, with a character repeatedly dyeing till advancing to the next level.

People give Cruise a lot of crap for his personal life his Scientology beliefs his odd Marriage to Katie Holms and a slew of less than stellar films (Oblivion, Knight and Day, Rock of Ages, Valkyrie, Lions for Lambs etc..) For the past decade the biggest star in Hollywood has been Hit or Miss. Ghost Protocol Hit the rest mostly a miss, this time he is back in top form proving that iron sharpen iron with the great Doug Liman bringing out the best in Cruise.

I walked in with zero expectations and walked out completely impressed. The most enjoyable film I have seen all year.

Grade-94