Edge of Tomorrow

The Gist: A military officer is grudgingly drawn into combat, to fight against an alien enemy who seems unstoppable. When he's endowed with some special powers, he tries to turn things around.

Because of all the Scientology crap that's become an unbearable drag on his persona, Tom Cruise is an actor I can hardly stand to watch these days, but he is still a movie star, and certainly hasn't lost the flair for picking good projects.

Edge of Tomorrow is just one example. The story is intriguing and well developed, and it keeps you on edge beginning to end. And Tom is good enough as an actor to succeed in making you forget his role as that cult's poster boy for a couple of hours.

I also enjoyed enormously watching Emily Blunt, a fine actress hardly pictured as a war hero, get down and dirty and playing badass.

The only gripe I have is with the predictable Hollywood ending. It never ceases to amaze me how studios always fall into the trap of having to save the day on the last few minutes, just in case there's a half chance of getting a sequel made. Unless they're just afraid that the audience would get too upset by a less than rosy ending (they aren't, a sequel is already in the works apparently).

The Bottom Line: Edge of Tomorrow is a good sci-fi/action movie that keeps you glued to the screen and even makes you chuckle a couple times in the process.

Grade: 8