IN CONTROL…Actor Tom Cruise
This week, our film buff, Austin Lynch, looks at the latest Tom Cruise flick, ‘Oblivion’…
UNLESS you’ve been under a rock, or a snow drift, for the past week you will have noticed that Hollywood mega-star Tom Cruise was in Ireland for the premiere of his latest film called ‘Oblivion’.
In a world which loves the movies the stars don’t get much bigger than Mr Cruise – the ultimate action hero whose film credits include some of the biggest grossing films ever made.
For my generation he was the star of ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Days of Thunder’ while for the slightly younger audience he is agent Ethan Hunt from the ‘Mission Impossible’ movies.
He is also famous for being married to actresses including Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes, and for jumping up and down on Oprah’s sofa declaring his undying love for Ms Holmes.
Cruise was in Dublin at the premiere of Oblivion and, true to form, the actor spent hours walking about outside the Savoy cinema meeting and shaking hands with his fans and doing interviews with anyone who wanted to talk to him.
The Hollywood actor also met the Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore in Government Buildings and was handed a certificate of ‘Irishness’ (or something like that) which declared his ancestors left Ireland for America many moons ago and proved he is one of our own.
Cruise always comes across as a likeable sort of guy who always gives 100 per cent no matter whether its in a film, on a walkabout or in an interview.
He always comes across as glad to be here – wherever here is – and his mixture of charm, charisma and boyish good looks (he’s 51 this year) make him someone who it’s hard not to like. The fact he makes very few bad movies is more reason to like him.
Never one not to milk a publicity trip for every drop Cruise appeared on Friday’s night ‘Graham Norton chat show on BBC1, and despite the host – ‘fellow’ Irishman Norton – claiming recently he could do a whole show just looking at the actor, Norton manages to ask the star about his movie, and plenty more besides.
It appears that Oblivion was originally intended to be a summer 2013 release (it has that kind of summer blockbuster feel about it) but when its opening looked set to clash with the 3D release of Jurassic Park it was decided to move things forward a few months.
In case you missed last week’s column I predicted that we could soon be subjected to the re-release on 3D of a plethora of movies from years gone by – and it looks like I wasn’t far wrong.
Set in 2073 in the future Oblivion stars Cruise as Jack Harper, one of the last remaining drone repairmen left on Earth.
Sixty years before the film opens (which would be 2013) the film is partially destroyed by an alien invasion (cool) and Jack is part of a huge operation to salvage the last of the Earth’s resources before the planet dies.
When Jack rescues a strange young female ( former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko) from a crashed space craft his world, and that around him begins to unravel and when he is captured by insurgents (led by Morgan Freeman) he is forced to question who is in control of the world he knows. If you like science-fiction, and if you like Tom Cruise, then this film is definitely for you.
Even if sci-fi isn’t your cup of tea this is a rollicking adventure featuring Cruise doing what he does best – running around and looking like Tom Cruise.
