These days, I’m not much of a loyal Tom Cruise fan, but I happen to like some films he’s in when the cast around him gets to do some decent work around his not so silent takeover method of acting. That said, 2005’s War of the Worlds is pretty much Stephen Spielberg’s film to win or lose as he puts Cruise, the rest of the cast, some stellar visual effects and a mostly tensely coiled John Williams score to work in this updated version of the classic H.G. Wells science fiction story.

Save for some overuse of the “Hollywood escape” and still not yet patented Cruise running style in scenes where plenty of extras get vaporized or otherwise killed as the actor and his movie kids make a few too many narrow escapes (at least for the first part of the film) and a wee bit too much allegory on the director’s part, this is a solid little movie that still packs a bit of a punch… Continue reading →