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"Rock of Ages," a rags-to-riches rock 'n' roll musical set mostly in a music club on Sunset Strip, wins no prizes for originality. A lot of it is zesty entertainment, with some energetic musical numbers; several big names ( Tom Cruise , Russell Brand , Alec Baldwin ) prove they can sing well enough to play the Strip if they lose the day job. The two leads are Diego Boneta , as a bartender in the Strip's hottest club, and Julianne Hough , as a naive kid just off the bus from the Midwest. They're both gifted singers and join the others in doing covers of 1980s rock classics.

Of course they also fall in love. Of course they have heartfelt conversations while standing behind the "Hollywood" sign. Of course they break up because of a tragic misunderstanding. Of course their mistake is repaired and (spoiler!) they're back together at the end. Has ever a romance in a musical been otherwise?

They're sweet and likable, but for me, the better story involves the fate of the club, the Bourbon Room. Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin), its owner, is desperate because he owes back taxes and will have to close the doors at any moment. His only confidante is a weathered rocker named Lonny (Russell Brand), whose primary function is to lean over him during phone calls and frantically tell him what to say. The person on the other end of the line is usually a venal music manager named Paul Gill ( Paul Giamatti ), who claims he will save the club by supplying his legendary client Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) for a one-night farewell concert.

If you're tracking those names, you're perhaps impressed. Adam Shankman's "Rock of Ages" not only has a high-profile cast, but they never seem to be slumming; they play their roles with great intensity and earnestness, which is really the only way to do satire.

A subplot is recycled directly out of old "Beach Party" musicals. If you are of a certain age, you may remember them. Frankie, Annette and the gang were always having a great time down at the beach when some stuffy local politician decided to run them out of town as a campaign tactic. In this case, the politician is Mayor Whitman ( Bryan Cranston ), who gets all of his instructions from his domineering wife, Patricia ( Catherine Zeta-Jones ). She leads a group of protesters across the street from the Bourbon Room, while Dennis and Lonny look grimly out the window.

There isn't an original idea in the screenplay by Justin Theroux and Chris D'Arienzo, based on an Off-Broadway hit. Even the songs are oldies. And that's OK, because the actors are having a lot of fun, and the production values of the musical numbers are slick and high-spirited. The only problem is that the plot meanders when nobody is singing. If you're making the kind of movie where everybody in the audience knows for sure what's going to happen, it's best not to linger on the recycled bits. If Drew misunderstands something he sees and thinks Sherrie was cheating on him with Stacee Jaxx, then let them clear that up without a lugubrious return visit to the Hollywood sign.

In a movie where all the stars except the leads are essentially satirizing themselves, Tom Cruise is the most merciless on himself. Stacee Jaxx, his muscular body a quiltwork of tattoos, travels with a couple of grim bodyguards ( Kevin Nash , of all people, and Jeff Chase , a giant 6'7" bodybuilder). Stacee has such a big ego that when he's interviewed by a Rolling Stone reporter ( Malin Akerman ), he's so narcissistically seductive he almost seduces himself. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand have a big scene I'll bet neither one saw in his future.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Rock of Ages (2012)

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, suggestive dancing, some heavy drinking, and language

123 minutes

Diego Boneta as Drew

Julianne Hough as Sherrie

Russell Brand as Lonny

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Patricia

Mary J. Blige as Justice

Alec Baldwin as Dennis Dupree

Malin Akerman as Constance

Paul Giamatti as Paul

Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx

• Justin Theroux

Directed by

• Adam Shankman

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By Manohla Dargis

• June 14, 2012

“Rock of Ages,” a jukebox musical turned junky big-screen attraction about making it in the music biz back when it still existed, is just entertaining enough to keep you from dark thoughts about the state of Hollywood. The movie is too insipid for such hand wringing, in any event, and the attention-grabbing turns by Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand and especially Tom Cruise as a rock-star crazy help enliven its overlong two hours. All singing, some dancing, the movie brings to mind “Glee,” but its truer, superior progenitor is that 1933 Cinderella story, “42nd Street,” the one in which the producer tells the chorine, “You’re going out a youngster, but you’ve got to come back a star!”

The chorines this time around are Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) and Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough), who early on meet cute on the Sunset Strip, that asphalt ribbon distinguished by its clubs, eateries, high hopes, low prospects and celebrity deaths that winds through West Hollywood. She’s a little bit country, newly arrived from Flyover, U.S.A.; he’s a little bit hair-metal, with a menial gig at the Bourbon Room and dreams of guitar-rock divinity. The make-believe Bourbon sits next to the Whisky a Go Go although in reality it and the rest of the conspicuously faked Strip were shot in a tricked-out neighborhood in Miami. Mostly, though, the whole thing rests on a, er, bedrock of clichés from Hollywood’s favorite genre: movies about itself.

“Rock of Ages,” directed by the former dancer and choreographer Adam Shankman, is based on a musical — nicely described by Lina Lecaro, a Los Angeles scenester, as a “headbangin’-to-the-oldies revue” — that originated in a Hollywood club in 2005 and eventually migrated to Broadway, where it continues to pull in fans at the Helen Hayes. (Mr. Shankman directed the 2007 movie “Hairspray,” which was based on the Broadway musical that was, in another testament to entertainment industry self-cannibalization, based on the 1988 John Waters film.) Like the musical, the movie “Rock of Ages” is set in 1987, the year that “Appetite for Destruction,” the first album from Guns N’ Roses , and Tipper Gore’s book “Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society,” both hit the cultural fray.

Appetite for Depravity

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Written by Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo (who wrote the original show) and Allan Loeb, the movie resurrects these two forgotten events through a pair of opponents: an Axl Rose-like rocker, Stacee Jaxx, played with uncharacteristic heat and an undulating bare torso by Mr. Cruise, and a crusading neo-Puritan, Patricia Whitmore, energetically embodied by an underused Catherine Zeta-Jones. Whitmore has vowed, as part of the campaign to have her husband, Mike (Bryan Cranston), elected mayor, to clean up the Strip. In actuality it was Prince’s album “Purple Rain” that triggered Ms. Gore’s outrage over rock ’n’ raunch, an indignation that led to the Parents Music Resource Center, Senate hearings about dirty minds and government regulation, and eventually her wider pop-cultural attacks. Bringing in Prince would have made the movie listenable, but it would have complicated its white-bread world.

That’s less a reference to the picture’s homogeneous racial and ethnic makeup, which debatably reflects that of the music milieu it seeks to replicate. (Mary J. Blige, as Justice, the owner of a strip club, and the character actor Angelo Donato Valderrama, as a club busboy named Chico, are among the movie’s few tokens of diversity.) Rather, this Wonder Bread banality comes from how thoroughly Mr. Shankman has vacuumed his rock-scene simulacrum of anything recognizably rock, including the lust, juice, heat, bad behavior and excesses that characterize its real-life analogue. There isn’t any grit to these people or their art, not a speck of dirt anywhere. It looks like Disneyland and sounds, well, like a bad Broadway musical, with all the power belting and jazz-hand choreography that implies.

To put it another way, there’s way too much Journey on the soundtrack, and Foreigner. There’s also an REO Speedwagon ditty, a few from Twisted Sister, Def Leppard and Poison, and at least two hits that were released after 1987 (“More Than Words” and “I Remember You”). All the songs are sung, mostly without shame or distinction, by the actors themselves, who slide into the warbling as if into a conversation. A grizzled, bewigged Mr. Baldwin enunciates through his songs, in the Rex Harrison mold, to play a rock survivor, Dennis Dupree, who runs the Bourbon with his sidekick, Lonny (Mr. Brand). They make their stale buddy routine and romance amusing and, as with the rest of the adults, make the movie bearable. A whispering and writhing Mr. Cruise makes it watchable.

“Rock of Ages” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). No sex, few drugs, some rock ’n’ roll.

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Tom Cruise Reveals Singing For His Role Of Stacee Jaxx In Rock Of Ages Was One Of The Scariest Things He's Done... (PHOTOS)

Entertainment Editor, HuffPost UK

Tom Cruise has revealed that opening his mouth to sing for his role in Rock of Ages was up there with the scariest things he's done during his career.

Cruise told HuffPostUK at the European premiere of the film in London's Leicester Square, "This was different, but it's definitely up there."

Tom Cruise prepared religiously for his role of Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages

This is from the man who, on his last big screen outing, made even those watching feel queasy with his walk around the top of the world's tallest building in Dubai - on the outside.

He described the challenge of preparing for the role of the world's biggest rock star Stacee Jaxx in the big-screen adaptation of the 80's musical... which he appears to have approached with his customary zeal and attention to detail

"I was actually producing Mission Impossible and acting in it when I started.

"I play this character that's been performing for a long time, so to figure it out was a real challenge.

Cruise had to learn to sing as well as act

"The singing, I spent five hours a day, I spent hours dancing every day, I read a lot of books, I called my friend Cameron Crowe, and he gave me books, biographies, not just from that time period, but the history of rock and roll... different stories about bands, and hearing what they went through, and looking to find common denominators for that rock and roll lifestyle.

"This is a character that you can't go half-way with. So, it wasn't scary, it was fun."

Cruise added to other reporters on the red carpet: "I applied the principles of how I learn anything. I started with the vocal coach and he just taught me the same way that preparing for a stunt, I work with the stunt team.

"I'm just learning how to move air through the body, 'cause really that's what singing is - developing those muscles. So I learned technically how to sing and then I really had to find that rock voice."

Cruise spent a tireless two hours (timed by my watch out of curiosity) on the red carpet, greeting fans and talking to his co-stars - Russell Brand, Malin Akerman, Diego Boneta and Paul Giametti.

The film, which tells the story of a young couple falling in love in a 80s' nightclub, also stars Catherine Zeta Jones and Alec Baldwin, and is in UK cinemas on Friday.

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Rock of Ages Director Adam Shankman on Tom Cruise Singing and Naming the Wigs

As the director of the hair-band rock musical Rock of Ages , Adam Shankman has several story lines to juggle: There’s the one where sweet rock naifs Sherrie (Julianne Hough) and Drew (Diego Boneta) fall in love, but you’ve also got Axl-channeling Tom Cruise as shirtless rock icon Stacee Jaxx, Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand smooching on the sidelines, and you’ve got to find time for Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, and a baboon as well. Luckily, as a former choreographer, Shankman’s used to making all those wildly disparate elements come together. Vulture rang him up recently to talk about the movie’s high degree of difficulty and the movie star who was hired without having sung a note.

At what point in the process did you actually get to hear Tom Cruise sing? Did he sing something for you before you hired him or did you sort of take it on faith? We talked about it in theory and in faith, but didn’t seal the deal until we went to vocal coaching and he was so unbelievable even in his first session. We realized we could move forward and it was going to work, and he felt good about it and he was going to get there. Then he spent months and months literally singing four or five hours a day, to the point where I was telling him, “You have to rest.” He sort of refused. I was concerned he was going to blow out his voice, but he’s like a terrier: He bites into it and there’s no shaking him off.

But when you initially cast him, did you have that moment when you said to him, “I know I need to ask this, but … you can sing, right?” I never had that moment. I, in my heart, believed that we could get there, and maybe I was foolish in just hoping in the way that I did. But here’s what I knew: We were never going to set him up for failure. He just wanted to know what I saw, what to do, and he wanted to know how to fit into it and how he could best serve the film. Here’s the thing: When I saw him do Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder , which I always tease him was his audition for the movie, I realized he had no problem taking the piss out of himself and committing as hard to a comic character as a dramatic character or an action character. He doesn’t do a hundred percent, he does a million percent, so if there was any shred of possibility there, he was going to nail it. Then I saw him dance on the MTV Awards with Jennifer Lopez and I was like, “Oh, okay, the dude can take choreography. That’s interesting.” That’s when it all kind of came together.

Is there a correlation in the ability to pick up on choreography and taking direction well from a director? There is. It’s the same thing. People have asked me a million times if I had a hard time transitioning from a choreographer to a director, and I say “Sadly, no.” It’s basically the same thing: You’re literally telling people where to go and what to do, and oftentimes, why and how to do it. The biggest thing was knowing how to handle the camera, and by the time I started directing, I had done, like, 70 movies and a million TV shows, so I had a sense of how it all worked.

Which of these songs was the hardest to clear the rights to? Ultimately, “Paradise City,” but once Axl [Rose] saw the movie without it and he said, “Go with God, this is fantastic.” I got the blessing from all of them.

Did you have to engage in any special wooing with any of these bands? Def Leppard, we definitely had to do a little bit of extra wooing for. They refused the rights for “Pour Some Sugar on Me” to the play and then they gave it to us. They needed convincing that we weren’t making fun of them.

Unlike the stage musical, Stacee and Sherrie actually don’t hook up in the movie. Can you explain that choice to me? If Sherrie actually slept with Tom, there was no way in a million years you could root for her and [Diego Boneta’s character] to be together. You would have lost any ability to root for them, and the breakup is much more heartbreaking [because] it’s a mistake.

There is a baboon costar in this movie. Is that the hardest performer you’ve ever had to deal with, or have there been some humans that were a little more difficult? On this movie, there were no difficult humans, and I think I can say that with great joy. [ Laughs. ] The hardest thing to deal with is when to yell “Cut!” on Russell Brand because he just keeps going and going and you don’t know what’s going to be gold and what’s going to work and what’s not. It’s just hilarious. Then Alec is laughing the whole time [through takes] and I’m pulling my hair out. But certainly, there was no attitude or diva behavior.

Speaking of pulling your hair out, I want to give the wigs in this movie their due. Did you have any trouble wrangling the big hair in this movie? You know, I had to talk to the wig department, because initially they were bumping them up really, really huge, and I was like, “The audience will never be able to relate to the characters or appreciate them if they have that hair.” I’ve always said that one bad wig can take down a whole movie, so I was very clear about it. I think Diego Boneta practically half got the job because that was actually his real hair. [ Laughs .]

I love the idea that there’s this sort of inverse relationship between how high the wig can be and how much the audience can relate to the character. We used to name the wigs! Like, Russell’s was the “Nikki” for Nikki Sixx, and Mary J. had two different “Donna Summers” and a “Chaka” and a “Side Chaka.”

Were Tom’s wigs named? Tom only had a little hairpiece in there! He grew his hair out for the movie.

I wanted to ask about one of my favorite credits of yours: How was it to choreograph the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer ? Oh my God, it was an absolute blast! I am very close to Sarah Michelle [Gellar]. I married Sarah and Freddie [Prinze Jr.]. Joss was very careful directing that episode, but we got along great and we just had a ball making that. It was a great time.

Is it exciting that you and Joss Whedon both have big summer movies out this year? I love Joss, so I’m so happy for him with The Avengers . I can’t even tell you.

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• rock of ages

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Top songs: a guide to Tom Cruise singing cheesy tunes in movies

Might as well face it, Tom Cruise is addicted to belting out an off-key classic in his films. Here's a quick guide to some of his most memorable – and more forgettable – moments on the mic

Photos: Alamy/Collage: The Big Issue

Ace fighter pilot, champion stock car racer, secret agent extraordinaire, barman at TGI Fridays: Tom Cruise has lived exciting lives which we mere mortals can only dream of through his blockbuster acting roles. And yet, from watching the vertically challenged sexy scientologist’s movies over the years, I can’t help but sense that his greatest ambition in life has never been fully realised.

I still haven’t seen Top Gun: Maverick – and I understand he judiciously leaves the theme song to Lady Gaga – but if it doesn’t feature a scene in which Cruise wonkily if gamely sings his little heart out to some sort of vintage rock’n’roll tune then he is selling us all and indeed himself short. The man clearly just wants to sing!

Not content merely packing the soundtracks of his movies with hit songs that can have taken anywhere between three and seven minutes to write – be it Take a Look Around , Limp Bizkit’s butthurt riff on a Lalo Schifrin TV theme classic from 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2 , or Paul McCartney’s fantastically lazy Vanilla Sky from 2001’s film of the same name (sample lyric: “Tonight you fly so high up/In the vanilla sky” ) – Cruise has on many a memorable occasion grabbed the mic himself, only rarely crashing and burning in the process. Shake your nerves and rattle your brain, with a short history of Tom Cruise singing in films. 

Great Balls of Fire  – Top Gun (1986)

Whether it’s spectacular aerial dogfights or a very homoerotic beach volleyball match, Cruise’s breakout action classic is full of memorable scenes, including not just one but two where he sings. The best is of course when Mav and Goose and their respective better halves are drunk in a bar, and Goose is banging away at an upright piano with his young son perched on top, and the two BFFs are going ballistic howling Jerry Lee Lewis’s horndog anthem like a right pair of flaming testes. Unbearably wholesome content.

Addicted to Love  – Cocktail (1988)

It’s hard to believe it happened not long after Top Gun , but Cruise’s arguably worst-ever film saw him play a flair bartender at a MOR American chain restaurant, serving up extravagantly made boozes with often sexy results. His credentials as the money-maker shakin’ lothario who can also do you a decent margarita are burnished by a scene in which the erotic mixologist starts ad-libbing to Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love behind the bar while a woman stares at him longingly, whether smitten or perhaps just wondering when the hell she’s getting her drink. 

Free Fallin’  – Jerry Maguire (1996)

He’s a cocky American sports agent just been binned from his job, she’s a naive and let’s face it desperate secretary and single mum (played by the future multiple Oscar-winning Renée Zellweger). Their relationship makes no sense whatsoever and is actually quite tragic. But watch this much-overrated romcom anyway for the always enjoyable scene where Jerry’s driving off from doing what he thinks is a career-saving deal, searching the radio for a song to match his ecstatic mood, before finally settling on Tom Petty’s 1989 classic Free Fallin’ . Cue Cruise frantically car singing along at the top of his voice with no-one’s-listening aplomb. 

Little Deuce Coupe  – War of the Worlds (2005)

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, but still they come!” OK, so sadly Cruise didn’t have a go at singing Jeff Wayne’s 1978 funky prog-rock opera based on HG Wells’ Victorian era proto-sci-fi frightener. But in playing the unlikely part of the deadbeat dad in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 blockbuster movie adaptation, he does have a pretty sweet moment when, searching his mind in vain for a lullaby to sing his terrified daughter, from somewhere he comes up with The Beach Boys’ 1963 hot-rod rock ode, sung in a fragile reedy voice with tears in his eyes. 

Various songs  – Rock of Ages (2012) 

Perhaps we should be more careful what we wish for. Back in 2012, Cruise really did get to fulfil many of his obvious rock star fantasies by joining the ensemble cast of a film based on a popular glam-rock Broadway jukebox musical. The actor took lessons with Axl Rose’s vocal coach to get up to scratch for his role as brooding superstar Stacey Jaxx, and ended up singing surprisingly passable lead vocals on various songs including Guns N’ Roses’ Paradise City , Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive and Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me . Luckily the film tanked at the box office, and music’s loss remains acting’s gain.

Malcolm Jack is a freelance journalist

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Tom Cruise 's bread-and-butter is action movies, but every now and then he's willing to try something new like he did with Collateral (the only movie where he plays a villain), Magnolia (the biggest supporting role in his career), and disappearing under the make-up and personality of Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder .  His newest challenge will be playing rocker Stacee Jaxx in Adam Shankman 's adaptation of the rock musical Rock of Ages .  The plot centers on a small-town-girl (Julianne Hough) who falls for Jaxx against the backdrop of 80s rock like Journey, SEO Speedwagon, and Styx.  Cruise recently spoke about what drew him to the project, and how he prepared for his role.

Hit the jump for more.  The outstanding cast also includes Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, Malin Akerman, Bryan Cranston, Will Forte, Mary J. Blige, and Diego Gonzalez Boneta .  Rock of Ages opens June 1, 2012.

Speaking to 24 Frames , Cruise says his decision to join Rock of Ages came from a combination of his wife's influence and trying to build on his hip-hop work from Tropic Thunder :

"I had started dancing because I was inspired by my wife. She kept saying, 'You've got to do a musical sometime,'" Cruise said. "[ Katie Holmes ] is a dancer, so she would say, 'Let's go to dance class,' and she would take us and that's how I kind of came up with the idea of Les Grossman doing hip-hop. And then to take it to this level with this? It was really fun."

Cruise says he was also impressed with Shankman's previous musical adaptation, Hairspray :

"What he accomplished with 'Hairspray' was amazing. My daughter has seen it 15 times and our whole family has watched it over and over and it's just enormously entertaining. To be able to hold that tone throughout is really something."

Just like he commits himself to the physical demands of acting in an action film (he did an insane stunt off the tallest building in the world for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ), Cruise says he prepped for six months to do Rock of Ages and was working on singing for five hours a day and dancing for five hours a day.  We'll see if it pays off when the musical hits theaters next summer.

• Entertainment

Watch CBS News

"Rock of Ages": Tom Cruise sings Bon Jovi in new trailer

By Jessica Derschowitz

April 4, 2012 / 11:25 AM EDT / CBS News

(CBS News) A new trailer for the rock musical "Rock of Ages" has arrived, and it has Tom Cruise showing off his pipes.

The actor, who plays rocker Stacee Jaxx, is shown singing Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" in front of a crowded arena at the end of this latest clip.

There are also glimpses of Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige and a leather jacket-wearing monkey called "Hey, Man."

The Adam Shankman-directed film, filled with classic '80s rock songs, will arrive in theaters on June 15.

Tell us: What do you think of this new "Rock of Ages" trailer?

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‘rock of ages’ director: ‘i was like a 15-year-old girl’ hearing tom cruise sing (video).

Adam Shankman talks to THR about Warner Bros.' movie musical, which opens in theaters on June 15.

By Rebecca Ford

Rebecca Ford

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Director Adam Shankman had his work cut out with him when it came to taking the musical Rock of Ages and transitioning it to the screen. Sure, he had an all-star cast including Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Julianne Hough, Malin Akerman and Tom Cruise , but he also had a group of actors that included some who had never sung in a film.

PHOTOS: Broadway Musicals That Have Sung Their Way to the Big Screen

Cruise, who plays rockstar Stacee Jaxx in the Warner Bros. film, is known for his full-on commitment to his characters, but could the man sing?

Shankman described to The Hollywood Reporter the first time he heard Cruise sing.

“The first time I heard him sing was before we formally agreed that we were going to go forward with this,” he said. Shankman sat in the other room as Cruise did his first lesson with Axl Rose ’s former voice coach.

“He sounded amazing,” Shankman told THR. “And within one lesson his range broadened as he opened up. I opened the door, and I was like a 15-year-old girl, I was screaming and jumping up and down and going, ‘Oh my god this is going to work.’ ”

PHOTOS: ‘Rock of Ages’ Premiere Features Tom Cruise and Julianne Hough, plus Josh Duhamel and Fergie in Costume

For the film, which opens in theaters on June 15, Cruise worked on his singing voice for months.

“He was singing literally four or five hours per day. He wouldn’t stop, and I started to get scared he was going to blow out his voice,” Shankman said, adding that “There’s no 100 percent with him, there’s 10,000 percent.”

Shankman, who also directed the musical movie hit Hairspray, added that he was impressed by the level of commitment from all of the actors.

Who surprised him the most? Malin Akerman , who plays Rolling Stone journalist Constance Stark. Akerman’s character interviews Stacee Jaxx, but ends up falling for his rock star ways in one of the craziest scenes in the film.

“Because of her fearlessness and her willingness to let all of that insanity that she got embroiled in just sort of happen without blinking an eye,” Shankman said.

For her part, Akerman told THR it was an honor to work with Cruise.

VIDEO: ‘Rock of Ages’ Star Malin Akerman on Tom Cruise: ‘He Transformed Himself Into a Rock Star’

“To be able to work with Tom Cruise is incredible,” said Ackerman . “If you look back at his body of work, he’s such an incredible actor so I always feel like whenever you get to work with someone who’s been in the business for a while whose really good at their job, they always make you a better actor.”

Watch THR ’s complete interview with Shankman above.

Email: [email protected]; Twitter: @Beccamford

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'rock of ages' premiere features tom cruise and julianne hough, plus josh duhamel and fergie in costume, 'rock of ages' star malin akerman on tom cruise: 'he transformed himself into a rock star' (video), laughter amid the darkness, 'rock of ages' star alec baldwin on russell brand's sex appeal: 'he has a lot of magical powers' (video), how 'rock of ages' star tom cruise embraced his inner rock god (video), thr newsletters.

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Tom Cruise's 'Intergalactic' 'Rock of Ages' Performance

The Rock of Ages star will show off his vocal chops in the upcoming movie musical

Tom Cruise made it big dancing in his tighty whities in Risky Business . But can he sing?

As far as Stephen Baldwin is concerned, he can.

Cruise, 48, is currently filming the big screen adaptation of the musical Rock of Ages , costarring Alec Baldwin, and his singing abilities are otherworldly, Alec’s brother Stephen Baldwin reports.

PHOTO: Alec Baldwin Channels Bret Michaels

“The word behind the scenes is ‘intergalactic,'” Stephen told PEOPLE at the Cinema Society and Grey Goose-sponsored screening of The Ledge on Tuesday in N.Y.C.

“He covered a song by a particular band, and the feedback was that the band was completely blown away,” says the younger Baldwin brother. “The whispers and the rumors are that what he’s doing with Rock of Ages is out of this world. Pretty cool, huh?”

The film is set to be released on June 1, 2012.

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Rock of Ages first listen: Can Tom Cruise actually sing?

Critics get a taste of the actor's take on Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" in the upcoming rock musical — and they aren't so sweet on it

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The audio: Tom Cruise is, apparently, "hot sticky sweet." But can he sing? Ever since the Mission: Impossible star was cast in the upcoming musical Rock of Ages , based on the jukebox Broadway show of the same name, critics wondered whether he had the vocal chops to pull off the role. In the film, out June 15, Cruise plays Stacee Jaxx, a bare-chested, chaps-wearing rocker in the mold of Poison's Bret Michaels, who is tasked with belting out rock and roll classics like "Paradise City" and "Wanted Dead or Alive." The first audio clip of the actor singing the Def Leppard track "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was released Tuesday. (Listen to it below.) Cruise claims that the hair band already gave his performance its stamp of approval .

The reaction: Cruise may look the part of the long-haired, tatted-up rocker in the preview images we've seen, says Mary Ouellette at Loudwire , but his vocals are too Broadway. He lacks Def Leppard's "imperfections and reckless abandon," and sounds "more like he's singing a showtune than a rock anthem." What vocals? says Billy Dukes at Ultimate Classic Rock . He's drowned out by the ramped-up background production. While Cruise's version will bring the classic track to a new audience, "it fails to separate itself form the original in any remarkable way." He sounds fine, says Katey Rich at Cinema Blend . Cruise "always seemed like one of those people who can do just about everything well." The true test, though, will be whether he can pull off those crazy '80s dance moves. Listen to Cruise's "Sugar" rendition:

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Def Leppard Review Tom Cruise's Performance In "Rock Of Ages"

FUSE TV - Def Leppard Review Tom Cruise's Performance In "Rock Of Ages"

Fuse recently sat down with hard rock legends Def Leppard to talk about their experience with the movie adaptation of the Broadway smash Rock of Ages , an in-theaters-now flick that prominently features Tom Cruise singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me." According to the Sheffield, England rockers, they just happened to drop by the movie set at the exact time Cruise was performing their 1987 hit for the film. 

"We walk in and Tom Cruise is tatted up with long hair—in character—and he starts singing 'Pour Some Sugar On Me.' The coincidence was beyond belief," Joe Elliott tells us. "Obviously being a film, they shoot multiple takes from different angles. We were in the pit for an hour or 90 minutes watching him do it maybe six, seven times. Between takes he would jump down and we would interact and talk. He'd be like, 'Am I doing it right? Are you okay with this?' And I'm like, 'Dude, more than okay.' This is the guy from Mission: Impossible !"

Although Elliott says Cruise nailed the vocals, he doesn't think the megastar looked to Def Leppard for stage presence inspiration. "He'd obviously been studying videos from, I'd say, Axl and Iggy. Maybe Scott Weiland. He had that lizard snake walk thing going on, which is not my cup of tea."

Those only familiar with the film version of Rock of Ages might be surprised to learn that Def Leppard resisted giving their songs to the musical for years. Elliott explains why they eventually caved. 

"About eight years ago the producers came to us and said, 'We want to use some of your songs' and they gave us the premise of what [ Rock of Ages ] was all about. We said, 'Oh no! Don't think so.' But lo and behold, this particular stage play went through the roof," Elliott says. "It got to the point where David Coverdale [Whitesnake's frontman] did a narration at the beginning of the play and they mention, 'A big-boo hiss to Def Leppard for not giving us their songs.' Which is very comical, vaudeville, almost English humor, which we actually thought was very funny.

"So cut to last year: They approached us again saying, 'We're turning this into a movie now, and oh, by the way, we're looking at Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, etc. Will you rethink your decision? So we discussed it and said, 'Alright, go on then.'"

For Leppard's full take on the Rock of Ages film, watch the video above. And to hear the rockers' crazy tour stories—including the tale of a Polish witch with a white rat in her hand casting a hex on the band—check out the video below. Also in the clip at the bottom: Elliott talks about his fan moment in 1983 when he caught Queen's guitarist riffing on "Photograph" while warming up. "I was thinking, Christ, 10 years ago I was in school buying Sheer Heart Attack , and now he's up on stage playing one of our riffs," Elliott fondly recalls. "It was like god, this is amazing."

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Tom Cruise Is Planning to Sing and Dance in an Original Movie Musical

He is also keen to revive his 'Tropic Thunder' character Les Grossman.

At the top of the list is an "original song and dance-style musical" which they will write as a starring vehicle for Cruise. While audiences might associate Cruise primarily with dramatic action roles, he has sang on-screen before. And no, that's not a reference to the terrible lullaby scene from the middling War of the Worlds remake. He was critically lauded for his pipes in the 2012 adaptation of the Broadway show Rock of Ages , in which he played a washed-up musician and performed impressive renditions of some hair rock anthems, including "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard and "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.

No plot details have been announced about this new musical, although given Cruise's propensity for throwing himself into life-threatening stuntwork, it's likely he will train like a professional tap-dancer to get the moves right.

And speaking of stunts, another one of Cruise and McQuarrie's pending projects is the eighth Mission: Impossible movie, which will see Cruise "speed flying." They're also keen to create a brand new action franchise together. Most bafflingly though, they are reportedly excited about the prospect of bringing back Les Grossman, Cruise's scene-stealing character from the 2008 comedy Tropic Thunder .

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The 32 greatest Tom Cruise movies

Posted: 21 June 2024 | Last updated: 21 June 2024

The Mission: Impossible and Top Gun star has had us all at "Hello"

For decades, the name Tom Cruise has been synonymous with Hollywood movies. With so many classic movies under his belt, it's not hard to understand why.

Though his career has had its share of controversies, Cruise has maintained high altitude as one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars in its history. Raised in near poverty under an abusive father, Cruise took up acting in high school after he was cut from the varsity football team when he was caught drinking beers before a game.

After starring in his school's production of Guys and Dolls, Cruise caught the acting bug and moved away - first to New York, then to Los Angeles - to pursue a career in TV and movies. He made his movie debut in the 1981 movie Endless Love, and then had a supporting role in the film Taps. After several more small parts, he starred in Paul Brickman's Risky Business, where Cruise won over audiences everywhere with a killer lip-sync routine.

With numerous accolades and just as many controversies to his name, Tom Cruise is the definition of a Hollywood superstar whose presence alone can move mountains.

Oblivion (2013)

Well into his career as a top-tier Hollywood star, Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski aimed to prove that the old ways of original, star-driven spectacles could still draw audiences without attaching a known superhero IP. Enter: Oblivion. Based on Kosinski's own unpublished graphic novel (which Kosinski said was always just a pitch for a movie anyway), Tom Cruise stars as a maintenance technician in the far future who, on the brink of retirement, is drawn into the mystery of both himself and the true nature of the war that destroyed Earth. Oblivion was a modest success at the box office and drew mixed reviews from critics. But it has aged very well, being an expansive original sci-fi epic with breathtaking imagination.

Knight and Day (2010)

From director James Mangold comes Knight and Day, a satirical action romp that set fire to romantic comedy conventions. Tom Cruise leads the movie as a spy on the run from the CIA who bumps into, and then whisks away, a beautiful vintage car dealer played by Cameron Diaz. (The two previously starred together in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky.) Although Knight and Day was just the first of many Hollywood rom-coms that felt obligated to double as action movies to attract a wide demographic, the movie succeeds with legitimately impressive set-pieces that violently whip Tom Cruise across the screen.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Tom Cruise being unrecognizable in heavy makeup and prosthetics, all while playing a sleazy Scott Rudin-type caricature, is like only the fourth or fifth funniest thing about the R-rated comic blockbuster Tropic Thunder. In Ben Stiller's napalm-coated parody of Vietnam War films and the pampered lives of Hollywood stars, Cruise features in a minor supporting role as Les Grossman, a truly gross man and ruthless studio executive. Cruise's role was meant to be a secret, though leaked paparazzi photos and internet blogs ruined that fun by spoiling it ahead of time. Nevertheless, Cruise's sharp and venomous performance was and still is hailed by critics and audiences as one of Cruise's all-time best movie roles.

The Firm (1993)

In 1993, two movies were based on John Grisham novels. The first was The Pelican Brief, a legal thriller starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The other was Sydney Pollack's The Firm, with Tom Cruise leading in an adaptation of Grisham's 1991 novel. Cruises plays a young, talented Harvard Law grad who is recruited by a prestigious Tennessee firm who specialize in mob clients. Soon enough, Cruise finds himself in the crossfire between the FBI, the mob, and his own colleagues ready to sell him out. Although The Firm is one of Cruise's more overlooked movies in his career, it makes a solid case for being one of his greatest.

Valkyrie (2008)

In this solid World War II thriller from Bryan Singer, Tom Cruise leads as one of several German Nazi Army officers, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who seek to enact Operation Valkyrie – a national emergency plan to take control away from Adolf Hitler. In preparation for the role, Cruise spent months devouring history books and even interviewing members of the real von Stauffenberg's family. Because von Stauffenberg had several physical disabilities including a lost left eye and a missing right hand, Cruise spent a lot of time affecting those ailments while doing things like dressing himself and writing letters. The results speak for itself, with Cruise dependably engaging as a soldier loyal to his country and not a political ideal.

Days of Thunder (1990)

While Tony Scott's Days of Thunder was criticized during its 1990 release as a derivative copycat of his own box office smash Top Gun, Days of Thunder still burns rubber like few movies can. Set in the world of professional NASCAR, Tom Cruise plays hotshot rookie driver Cole who clashes with veteran driver Rowdy (Michael Rooker). Eventually these rivals become brothers on the track, with Cole driving Rowdy's car against their common enemy, a cheat named Russ Wheeler (Cary Elwes). Even if Cruise is basically playing Maverick again, Days of Thunder easily satisfies anyone with a need for speed.

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

After Hong Kong director John Woo made his way to Hollywood in the '90s, the legendary action filmmaker collaborated with Tom Cruise on the first sequel to Cruise's 1995 mega-hit Mission: Impossible. The follow-up sees Cruise return as daredevil agent Ethan Hunt, who teams up with a beautiful thief (Thandiwe Newton) to secure a modified disease held by her ex-lover and rogue IMF agent (Dougray Scott). While a box office hit, Mission: Impossible 2 remains divisive among M:I aficionados, being one of the more elaborately designed and even melodramatic entries in the otherwise stone cold sober series.

Legend (1985)

Mystifying but magnetic in equal measure, Legend is basically a dark Disney fairy tale through the eyes of master filmmaker Ridley Scott. Tom Cruise stars as Jack, a free-spirited forest dweller who must stop the demonic Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry in the illest devil makeup you've ever seen) from plunging a fantastical world into eternal night. Although Legend was praised for its gorgeous production design, critics complained the movie was nothing more than a pretty storybook in motion. Honestly they are kind of right, as Legend severely lacks forward movement and meaty action. Still, the movie is drop-dead gorgeous to look at, with a score by Tangerine Dream that feels otherworldly.

Jack Reacher (2012)

While it's true that Lee Child's literary antihero Jack Reacher is a walking, talking slab of meat and that Tom Cruise is decidedly not that, Cruise still kills it in the role. In the first Jack Reacher movie from director Christopher McQuarrie, which adapts the ninth Reacher novel One Shot from 2005, Cruise plays the title hero, an ex-U.S. Army Major and military police investigator who is mysteriously named by a mass shooting suspect in custody. Never mind that Cruise is several shirt sizes smaller than what Reacher is supposed to be. His movie has all the muscle and swagger to make up for it.

Magnolia (1999)

In Paul Thomas Anderson's celebrated (and quite long) ensemble drama inspired by the music of Aimee Mann, a number of interrelated characters look for happiness in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. While the movie features a number of actors like Jeremy Blackman, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, and John C. Reilly, a standout among them all is Tom Cruise, a misogynist motivational speaker who lectures rooms full of men how to pick up women. While Cruise's character Frank lacks humanity on paper, Cruise's performance imbues rare pathos into the role that you might find yourself pitying him instead of spitting at him. The Oscars seemingly agreed and nominated Cruise for Best Supporting Actor at the 72nd Academy Awards. In a 2015 interview on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, Anderson revealed that the inspiration for Cruise's role was pickup artist Ross Jeffries.

Minority Report (2002)

In Steven Spielberg's blockbuster adaptation of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novella from 1956, Tom Cruise plays a psychic cop in the future year of 2054. While his department of "Precrime" use the power of foreknowledge to apprehend criminals before they actually commit a crime, Cruise's John Anderton winds up being accused of a crime yet to happen and races to prove his innocence. A dizzying mix of crime noir, speculative science fiction, and whodunit mysteries, Minority Report entertains as a strange hybrid of Total Recall and The Fugitive, made sublime simply because of a master like Spielberg present on directing duties. Eerily and quite fittingly, a lot of the movie's speculative future technology like multi-touch interfaces, eye scanners, and autonomous cars have come to fruition in our real world.

Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

Before J.J. Abrams took on both Star Trek and Star Wars, he made his directing debut with the third Mission: Impossible installment. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, now retired from the IMF, who is forced back into action to hunt down a sinister arms dealer played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. While Mission: Impossible 3 was a hit when it opened in 2006 and considered by many much better than John Woo's previous film, Mission: Impossible 3 struggles to stand out in the shadow of other sequels like Ghost Protocol and Fallout. Still, M:I 3 is solid popcorn fare with Cruise doing what he does best.

The Last Samurai (2003)

Despite its awkward optics of Tom Cruise in samurai armor, The Last Samurai is a majestic period drama that teeters between prestige war epic and pulpy action movie. (When a film stages Tom Cruise in a fist fight with ninjas, you know you're dealing with something that's hard to pin down.) Directed by Edward Zwick and following in the tradition of stories like Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai sees Cruise play an American captain who bears witness to the last generation of samurai amid the Meiji Restoration of 19th century Japan. An elaborate metaphor about modernization and adaptation, The Last Samurai is one of Cruise's most dad-core movies of his career, a high-grossing blockbuster that also earned several Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, including a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for Cruise.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

In Cameron Crowe's sci-fi psychological drama Vanilla Sky, itself a remake of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 movie Open Your Eyes, Tom Cruise stars as the playboy owner of a major publishing company in New York City who becomes disfigured in a vehicular crash caused by an obsessive lover (Cameron Diaz). In the aftermath, Cruise becomes smitten by a beautiful woman (played by Penélope Cruz) as his sense of reality starts to fracture. With a memorable plot twist and ambiguous ending, Vanilla Sky blew moviegoers away to become a massive box office hit despite being unpopular with most critics. In the years since its 2001 release, Vanilla Sky has become a must-see cult movie.

A Few Good Men (1992)

You can't handle the truth, but Tom Cruise can. In Rob Reiner's acclaimed film version of Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play, Cruise stars alongside other acting heavyweights like Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Kiefer Sutherland. Cruise plays a Navy lawyer who must defend two Marines accused of killing another soldier. Memorably explosive and gripping with nary a single bullet fired, A Few Good Men culminates in an iconic courtroom confrontation that reveals the difference between following orders and fighting for justice.

The Color of Money (1986)

You can almost feel Paul Newman hand the torch of Hollywood heartthrob to Tom Cruise in Martin Scorsese's smoky and cool 1986 picture The Color of Money. A sequel to The Hustler, Newman returns as Fast Eddie Felson, who partners with an up-and-coming pool shark (Cruise), and his tough girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) as they play their way to an Atlantic City tournament. While The Color of Money was compared unfavorably to The Hustler at the time of its release, it has earned greater appreciation as yet another showcase of Scorsese's talent - not to mention longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker's - and the pairing of Newman and Cruise representing the changing of the guard between two generations of Hollywood.

Rain Man (1988)

In this acclaimed drama directed by Barry Levinson, Tom Cruise plays a selfish and arrogant Lamborghini dealer who learns, after his estranged father's death, that he has a grown autistic savant brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman, in an Oscar-winning performance). As the two embark on a cross-country roadtrip in their late father's 1949 Buick convertible, they develop a bond long past due. Rain Man was a massive critical and commercial success in 1988, and it's a movie that still holds power to thaw even the most cynical hearts.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

In 2014, Doug Liman helmed a cult classic sci-fi that paired Tom Cruise with Emily Blunt, making a real movie star out of her in the process. Essentially Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers, Tom Cruise plays a public affairs military officer, Major William Cage, who is forced to the frontlines of humanity's war against a violent alien race. Somehow, Cage ends up in a time loop, forced to repeat his first day on the battlefield until he teams up with a war hero (Blunt) to break the cycle. Despite mismanaged marketing including a clunky title, Edge of Tomorrow impressed a lot of critics and performed well enough at the box office. But its high production budget meant it wasn't the heroic success it could have been. In the end, Edge of Tomorrow maintains appealing status as a muscular, one-and-done sci-fi.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

With J.J. Abrams lost in the final frontier with 2009's Star Trek, the job of directing the next Mission: Impossible was accepted by Brad Bird. Previously a director of animated family movies like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Bird revived the Mission: Impossible series with a clear eye and sharp sense of spectacle, helming an installment that saw Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt climb the Burj Khalifa and ingeniously sneak past guards at the Kremlin. The fourth Mission: Impossible was no reboot, but it was without question a rebirth that kicked off a new era for the aging franchise.

War of the Worlds (2005)

In a 2005 interview with Empire magazine, Steven Spielberg said that for the first time in his movie career, he was making "an alien picture where there is no love and no attempt at communication." We don't dare correct Spielberg, but he's wrong about one thing. In his magnificent and harrowing remake of War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise plays an estranged father who tries to get his children to safely reunite with their mom (and his ex-wife) in Boston. Only love can make a father go to the extreme lengths that Cruise does in War of the Worlds, which is still one of the darkest and finely crafted movies ever by Spielberg.

Mission: Impossible (1995)

The original movie that lit the fuse to one of the most dominant movie franchises in Hollywood history is still a mighty sight to behold. In the first Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma, Tom Cruise makes his first appearance as Ethan Hunt, an agent for the Impossible Missions Force who tries to figure out who framed him for the murder of his team. Being an adaptation of the popular 1960s television show (which is where the franchise's iconic theme song came from), the '95 Mission: Impossible established the formula and standards for all of its subsequent sequels. Throughout the 1990s, you couldn't throw a rock without seeing a parody of the memorable "wire scene." It can still make audiences sweat even now.

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

In one of a handful of movies where Tom Cruise plays the antagonist, Neil Jordan's 1994 film version of Anne Rice's 1976 novel features Cruise as the sinful vampire Lestat, who bites and transforms a Louisiana plantation owner named Louis (Brad Pitt). Together the two spend hundreds of years drinking human blood, eventually adding a little girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) to their circle. Moody and atmospheric, Interview with the Vampire is a mid-'90s gem that feels most effective around autumn time. While the picture mostly belongs to Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise is unavoidably handsome and haunting as a seductive vamp who can really sink his teeth into all who look at him.

Risky Business (1983)

You only need a pair of white socks, a white button-up shirt, and Ray-Bans to dress as one of Tom Cruise's most memorable movie characters for Halloween. In 1983, a young Tom Cruise became a movie star overnight with the release of Paul Brickman's Risky Business, which is about an overachieving high school senior who parties up with a sex worker while his parents are on vacation. Often compared to The Graduate in its timeless portrayal of promising youth indulging in self-destructive vices, Risky Business launched Tom Cruise to Hollywood stardom, and for good reason. He's simply sensational, an instant star in the making who makes it impossible to hate him while he's kicking his feet up to some old time rock 'n roll.

Collateral (2004)

With an off-putting blonde dye job and a steel gray suit that never wrinkles, Tom Cruise inhabits the part of a disturbing and charismatic hitman who hires an unsuspecting L.A. cab driver (Jamie Foxx) to take him up and down the City of Angels for one violent night. Arresting and unstoppable, Collateral is a fine demonstration for both Michael Mann as a filmmaker and Cruise as an actor, the latter keenly locked in as a man so skilled at his deadly job that he seems inhuman. Collateral is simply one of the coolest movies ever made. It makes a complimentary double-bill with Mann's own Miami Vice, both being emotionally-charged neo-noir action thrillers whose digital camera lenses harness an abstract uncertainty of the new millennium.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

It may be the lowest grossing entry in the Mission: Impossible series, but that doesn't mean Dead Reckoning doesn't soar. While being so late into his career, Tom Cruise proves he can still hang - or ride off cliffs - with the best of the industry in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the first of a two-part installment. With a plot centered around Cruise's Ethan Hunt and the IMF fighting against a rogue artificial intelligence, Mission: Impossible existentially wrestles with the precipice of Hollywood cinema's imminent evolution (or extinction) as an artform. With a diverse cast of exceptionally beautiful people, including Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Pom Klementieff, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One feels like an old school action epic in spirit that executes with cutting-edge style.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

In Stanley Kubrick's last movie as a director and released posthumously after his heart attack, Tom Cruise plays an affluent New York doctor who infiltrates a masked orgy hosted by a dark and secret society. And it's all because his wife, played by Cruise's then-real spouse Nicole Kidman, admitted she almost cheated on him. With loads of sexually explicit imagery that really tested the boundaries of the MPAA's R rating, Eyes Wide Shut was initially divisive among critics and audiences before earning retrospective praise as a sterling classic of the 1990s. Its reputation still precedes it, being one of the most provoking and captivating movies Kubrick ever made.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

The second installment of movies that illustrate Oliver Stone's artistic interest in the Vietnam War (of which Stone himself is a veteran), Born on the Fourth of July sees Tom Cruise play an eager volunteer for the U.S. Marine Corps who changes his tune during his deployment and physical paralysis in Vietnam; returning home, he becomes a vocal anti-war activist. Revered by critics and a smash hit at the box office when it opened in December 1989, Born on the Fourth of July earned Cruise's first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Stone was initially dismissive of Cruise, finding his appearance in Top Gun "fascist." In an L.A. Times interview from 1989, Stone said he changed his mind when he thought Cruise's "golden boy" image would be interesting to see shatter. Said Stone: "I thought it was an interesting proposition: What would happen to Tom Cruise if something goes wrong?"

Jerry Maguire (1996)

When Tom Cruise yelled "Show me the money," audiences responded with a massive $273 million box office gross for a modest movie about a sports agent in love. In one of Cruise's all-time greatest movies, the star plays a hotshot sports agent whose crisis of conscience leads him to swing for the fences with just himself, a loyal accountant and single mother (Renée Zellweger), and a middling player for the Arizona Cardinals (Cuba Gooding Jr.). A warm time capsule of mid-'90s era professional sports and Hollywood romances, Jerry Maguire made us all learn how to say: "You complete me." Honestly, it had us at hello.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

When movie theaters were struggling in the era of COVID-19, Tom Cruise flew to the skies and saved the industry for all. With $1.4 billion gross in ticket sales, Cruise's return to the cockpits made sonic booms to keep theaters open, all while delivering an effective and emotional story about legacy and personal limits. Set over 35 years after the original Top Gun, Cruise's "Maverick" is assigned to oversee Top Gun at NAS North Island, where he must train a new generation of students for a very dangerous mission. As close to dying and seeing heaven as cinema can get, Top Gun: Maverick takes all our breaths away.

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

When Tom Cruise hung on to the side of a moving airplane in the first 10 minutes of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, we knew instantly this is a sequel that was built different. In the first of several M:I films helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, the IMF reunite after their disbandment to fight The Syndicate, an international black ops group made up of rogue agents from around the world. Not only is Rogue Nation just a fist-pumping great time, it also introduces franchise favorite Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent working undercover. 2015 was a crowded year for tent poles, with blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens all vying for attention. Rogue Nation didn't sell the most tickets, but there's no arguing it wasn't one of the year's best.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Man, even just its trailer can get the adrenaline going. In Christopher McQuarrie's second Mission: Impossible film, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and the IMF race against time after a job in Berlin to obtain dangerous plutonium cores away from terrorists goes belly-up. Forced to pay for saving his team over saving the world, Ethan must stop a terrorist mastermind, played by Sean Harris, from blowing everything up. Among the people standing in his way: August Walker (Henry Cavill), a muscular CIA assassin. Featuring some of the most intricately designed set-pieces in the entire franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the platonic ideal for all M:I sequels by doing one thing and one thing well: Letting Tom Cruise run wild.

Top Gun (1986)

Sometimes, a movie comes along and changes everything. Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, isn't just a perfect summer movie only Hollywood could deliver; it's a movie that understands what moves people, what draws them into dark rooms and casts spells to make them feel like they can fly. Set at the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School - aka, Top Gun - in San Diego, the movie stars Cruise as a young pilot who sets out to prove himself among the best of the best. While critics in 1986 didn't heap universal and unanimous praise on Top Gun, the movie soared to become one of the biggest commercial hits of all time. Mirroring its own story, Top Gun permanently cemented Tom Cruise's status as a Hollywood titan. At the time Cruise was a rising talent, but through Top Gun, he brandished a killer smile and scorching charisma that made him find his place among the stars.

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Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise's Daughter Suri Celebrates High School Graduation With Mom

Katie holmes and ex-husband tom cruise's daughter suri graduated from her new york high school and celebrated the milestone with her mother..

Oops, you blinked and Katie Holmes is now the proud mom of a high school graduate.

The Dawson's Creek  alum joined her and ex-husband  Tom Cruise 's daughter  Suri as the 18-year-old graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in a ceremony held at the United Palace Theatre in New York City June 21.

Katie, 45, and her daughter were photographed together outside the venue, with the  Batman Begins  actress sporting a cream collared shirt, matching pants and silver kitten heel sandals and Suri dressed in a red cap and gown, white maxi dress, floral sandals and white sash showcasing her music concentration, as seen in pics published by Page Six .

Tom was not spotted at the event. The 61-year-old has been working on  Mission Impossible 8  in England in recent months and was last spotted June 22 attending Taylor Swift 's second Eras tour concert at Wembley Stadium in London.

While living away from the spotlight as a teen, Suri has showcased her own musical talent on a professional level. Katie's 2022 movie  Alone Together  features her singing a cover of "Blue Moon" in its opening credits. Suri also sang in her mother's 2023 film  Rare Objects .

"I hope she always does something on my films. I always ask her," Katie told Glamour in 2023. "But both of those experiences came out of the same sense of what I love about our industry, which is, you have these projects and you become a family with people. And it's this safe, beautiful, creative space. So it comes out of love for me to include someone who I love dearly."

Meanwhile, Suri is headed to college. In a brief appearance in a classmate's TikTok earlier this month, Suri signaled she is set to attend Carnegie Mellon University .

Read on to see more celeb kids at their graduations this year...

Ryder Fieri

There's a new graduate in Flavortown! Guy Fieri 's son big farewell to high school with a whopping 3.7 GPA, according to the Food Network star.

"Wow what a great high school career!!" he wrote in a June 9 Instagram post . "Love you son!"

Sophia Meloni

Christopher Meloni and wife Sherman Williams  celebrated their daughter's college graduation in June 2024, with Mariska Hargitay —who is Sophia's godmother—making an appearance at the party.

Liv Moore Freundlich

Julianne Moore and her husband Bart Freundlich watched their daughter graduate from Northwestern University in June 2024. Along for the commecement ceremony? Their older son Caleb Moore Freundlich , who graduated from Davidson College in 2020.

Christian Nassif & Colin Nassif

Adrienne Maloof and Dr. Paul Nassif 's twins proved that they didn't botch high school, graduating in June 2024.

"Overwhelmed with pride for my boys," the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum wrote on Instagram , "and excited for their future adventures."

Henry Günther Ademola Dashtu Samuel

Heidi Klum and ex Seal 's eldest son graduated from a Los Angeles prep school in June 2024.

"CONGRATULATIONS HENRY," the proud mom wrote on Instagram . "We are all sooo proud of you. You did it my beautiful boy. College here we come. SHINE BRIGHT."

Finn McDermott

Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott 's son Finn graduated from elementary school in June 2024. 

"And, just like that I have a 5th grade graduate…," Tori shared on Instagram . "Finn Davey I’m so proud of you! Bye elementary school and hello middle school. I love you chat! Disclaimer to the haters : Dress code was shorts FYI bc they had student/teacher kickball aka sports day right b4."

Beau McDermott

But Finn isn't the only one in the family moving on up! Tori and Dean's youngest child Beau graduated from kindergarten that same month.

"Beau Beau is officially a 1st grader," Tori raved on Instagram . "So proud of this kid! My Baby."

Mabel Willis

Emma Heming Willis and Bruce Willis ' daugther Mabel graduated from elementary school in June 2024. 

Emma shared a photo of Tallulah Willis , Scout Willis and Demi Moore sporting Mabel masks on Instagram , writing, "Middle school! Here she comes!"

Justin Pippen

Scottie Pippen 's youngest son with ex Larsa Pippen received his high school diploma in May 2024.

"Proud dad moment!" NBA star captioned a family photo, which included his and Larsa's other kids Scotty Jr. , Preston and Sophia . "Congrats, son!"

Ella Stiller

Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor ’s daughter graduated with a BFA in acting from The Juilliard School in New York City.

“I couldn’t be happier to be done or prouder to have survived or more grateful to my family for the unwavering support that got me there and through," the college grad wrote on Instagram May 25. "I have a degree in playing pretend!!! Yay!!!”

Isaac Rivera

Teen Mom alum Kailyn Lowry and ex Jo Rivera 's teen son Isaac graduated from middle school.

"so many things to celebrate this week!" Kailyn wrote on Instagram June 7 . "& still processing Isaac going to high school later this year."

Massai Zhivago Dorsey II

Nia Long and Massai Z. Dorsey 's oldest son received his degree from New York University.

"Oh my baby," the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actress wrote on Instagram May 20. "I’m so proud of you! Let’s get it!"

Jennifer Gates

Jennifer Gates , the eldest daughter of Bill Gates and ex-wife Melinda French Gates , graduated from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

Following her special day, the Microsoft founder shared a touching message to celebrate her achievement. 

"From pre-K to MD," Bill wrote in a May 15 Instagram post . "I'm so proud to officially call you Dr. Gates."

Emma Chamberlain

On May 31, the YouTuber—who left high school in 2017 to focus on her mental health and career as a full-time content creator— received her diploma from Notre Dame High School in Belmont, Calif.

Ivey Watson

Jamie Lynn Spears ' youngest daughter Ivey Watson , who she shares with husband Jamie Watson , graduated from kindergarten. The little one proudly held her diploma in front of her older sister Maddie Watson , who Jamie Lynn shares with ex Casey Aldridge .

Laird Stone

Sharon Stone celebrated her second son's high school graduation in May 2024.

Riley Burruss

Kandi Burruss ' daughter graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Music degree.

"My baby did it!" the Real Housewives of Atlanta alum wrote on Instagram May 15. "I'm a proud mama!"

Karma Bridges

Ludacris ' daughter graduated from Spelman College with a degree in Documentary Filmmaking in May 2024, according to Essence . The rapper said he was a " #prouddaddy " over her achievement. 

“I want to make movie and film content that helps shape and change the social and political landscape,” Karma said in a statement to the Ludacris Foundation. “Tell stories that are meaningful and thought provoking. I’ve always been drawn to storytelling due to its ability to heal, inspire, educate, create empathy, and ultimately catalyze positive change in the world.”

Avery Sehorn

Angie Harmon 's second daughter with ex Jason Sehorn received her high school diploma in June 2024, with the Rizzoli & Isles actress writing on Instagram, "We are all immensely proud of you Avery!"

"You have overcome & conquered & excelled to shine brightly with the stars," she caption a family photo, which included her other daughters Finley and Emery . "Remember to leave every place better than you found it & we are all so excited to see what God has planned for you!"

Jace Caussin

Jana Kramer 's son Jace—who she shares with ex Mike Caussin —said goodbye to Pre-K and celebrated the milestone at a mini prom.

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Independent TV

Showing now | culture.

Lucy Leeson | Saturday 29 June 2024 21:11 BST

Watch: Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg enjoy Glastonbury crowd singalong

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has been spotted enjoying himself at Glastonbury .

Cruise was seen by The Independent at Worthy Farm with celebrity friend Simon Pegg on Saturday evening (29 June) ahead of Coldplay’s much-anticipated Pyramid Stage performance.

The 61-year-old waved to fans and could also be seen dancing as the crowd sang along to the Oasis classic of Don’t Look Back In Anger .

At one point the delighted crowd also started singing the Mission Impossible theme tune to Cruise.

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Tom Cruise's generous birthday gifts revealed ahead of Suri Cruise's 18th birthday

The mission impossible actor shares suri with his ex-wife katie holmes.

Tom Cruise  goes above and beyond when it comes to giving gifts and his generosity has been highlighted ahead of his daughter, Suri's 18th birthday . 

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar , Tom's former co-star, Dakota Fanning, revealed she's received a birthday gift from him every year since they starred in War of the Worlds together. 

At the time, Dakota was 11 years old and she recently turned 30 — and he didn't forget that milestone either. 

"Tom sends me a birthday gift every year, and has since that birthday," she told the outlet. "30, I got a birthday gift. So thoughtful, yeah really really nice."

Tom also gave Dakota her first cell phone and she remembers it like it was yesterday. 

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"It was a Razr, Motorola Razr," she recalled. "Oh, my God, I was so excited." And despite the fact she "didn’t have anybody to call or text at that time," because of her age she said:  "I still loved having it. I love it. I felt so cool."

Dakota - who played Tom's character, Ray Ferrier's daughter, Rachel in the science fiction movie - confession comes after her milestone birthday and ahead of Siri's who turns 18 on April 18.

Tom is believed to be estranged  from his youngest child. After his divorce from Katie Holmes in 2012, she was granted full custody of her only child, and as part of their settlement Tom agreed to pay $400,000 per year in child support to his ex for Suri's upbringing.

However, that agreement lasts until Suri turns 18, and is set to expire this week, after 12 years of payments, which roughly equate to $33k a month in child support.

Katie did not ask for spousal support in their divorce.

It is reported that Tom also pays for Suri's insurance bills and contributes to her college tuition.

Siri is expected to leave the home she shares with her mom in New York this fall when she will start college. 

Katie adores motherhood and while she's kept Suri out of the spotlight, she's spoken about parenting and her love for her daughter in interviews. 

"Motherhood means everything to me," she said in an interview with People  on 2014. "I'm learning every day, and I have been since the minute I became a mom."

She's also opened up about Suri's personality, telling  Instyle :   "I love her so much.  My biggest goal has always been to nurture her into her individuality. To make sure she is 100 percent herself and strong, confident, and able. And to know it. 

"She came out very strong — she's always been a strong personality. She'll pick an activity and work her butt off until she's really good at it. Then she's like, 'OK, I'm going to try the next thing.' She's very focused and a hard worker."

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Travis Kelce, Tom Cruise and Greta Gerwig Dance to Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' at Her Eras Tour Concert

Watch tom cruise, mila kunis and ashton kutcher ‘shake it off' at taylor swift concert, olivia culpo marries nfl star christian mccaffrey, zac efron reveals behind-the-scenes secret about viral 'hsm 2' golf course performance, kendall jenner makes controversial fashion choice at louvre, jon bon jovi joins millie bobby brown and jake bongiovi's honeymoon in italy, emily osment dishes on 'young sheldon' spinoff 'georgie and mandy's first marriage' (exclusive), lizzy musi, 'street outlaws' star, dead at 33 after stage 4 breast cancer diagnosis, andy cohen on his interview regrets and which celeb guest he’s still ‘pursuing’ | retrospective, how elton john found out he was an egot winner (exclusive), watch troye sivan and ross lynch recreate sexy music video on stage, 'queer eye's jonathan van ness breaks silence on 'rage issues' allegations, prince william reacts to king charles' joke about his grandchildren, 'bridgerton's nicola coughlan releases viral 'housewives'-inspired song 'shoes... more shoes', teri hatcher reveals why she was kicked off this dating app (exclusive), will smith abandons classic dance music for emotional new single, 'owning manhattan': ryan serhant on moving on from bravo and his season 2 hopes (exclusive), derek hough says he could 'barely watch' celine dion doc after wife hayley's seizure, elton john and husband david furnish on chappell roan, sabrina carpenter & more women ‘killing it’, 'rhonj's margaret josephs breaks down jackie goldschneider feud, reacts to teresa giudice 'takedown', 'mama june: family crisis’: june gets roasted by daughter anna over her feet (exclusive), how justin timberlake and jessica biel are handling his arrest (source), travis kelce, tom cruise and greta gerwig were among the bevy of celebrities attending night 2 of the eras tour..

Travis Kelce ,  Tom Cruise  and  Greta Gerwig  were among the nearly 90,000 Swifties who partied like it's 2014 on Night 2 of Taylor Swift 's  Eras Tour stop  in London, England.

There's an awesome 30-second video circulating on social media -- shared by a Taylor Swift fan X account -- that shows the trio inside a VIP tent Saturday night at Wembley Stadium vibing out to "Shake It Off." It's quick, but you can see the Mission: Impossible  star smiling, groovin' and movin' as the camera pans back and forth.

Swift's boyfriend is bopping his head, singing along and nailing the hand gestures, while his brother,  Jason Kelce , is going berserk jumping and shaking his head. Meanwhile, the  Barbie  director is rocking out and moving her head from side to side while belting out lyrics to the hit track off of Swift's 1989 album.

It's an awesome display that follows Prince William  doing the exact same thing  the night prior. The Prince of Wales and his two kids --  Prince George , 10, and  Princess Charlotte , 9 -- joined their dad on Night 1 of Swift's Eras Tour. William was celebrating his 42nd birthday that night, and the future king of England looked like he was having a total blast.

Cruise and Gerwig were far from the only celebrities who showed out for Night 2 of the Eras Tour. Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Liam Hemsworth and many more were also in attendance . There may have been a few glitches on Saturday night, but that didn't stop everyone from having what's sure to be the night of their lives.

Swift is performing at Wembley Stadium from June 21 to June 23 and then again on Aug. 15-17 and Aug. 19-20. 

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• Travis Kelce
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Tom Cruise Dances and Grins at Taylor Swift Eras Tour Show in London

By Eve Batey

It seemed impossible to top the star power at Friday’s Taylor Swift show at Wembley Stadium, but that was before Tom Cruise —Mr. Impossible , himself—showed up on Saturday at the second London stop in the billionaire singer’s Eras Tour. And Cruise wasn’t the only big name at Saturday’s Swift show, as Hugh Grant , Princess Olivia of Greece , Greta Gerwig , and a number of other stars packed the stadium’s VIP area as Swift sang—and threw shade—from the stage.

Cruise has reportedly lived in London since 2021, making his presence at this show (as opposed to one in, say, LA or New York) less brow-raising than it might otherwise be. And yet, it still feels surprising (did you know he was a Swiftie? I sure didn’t!) that he was there , and that he arrived—as numerous users of social media noted—with a Swift fans' now-familiar handful of DIY friendship bracelets that he traded with his fellow VIPers. Did Tom Cruise make his own friendship bracelets for this thing? Wouldn’t it be wild if he did? ( Vanity Fair reached out to a Cruise representative for more information on his Swift interest, but has not received a response as of publication time.)

Taylor Swift performs onstage during “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour” at Wembley Stadium on June 22, 2024, in London, England, UK.

The 61-year-old star was seemingly good-natured even when a huge man in the tent grabbed him by the shoulders and started shaking him about, as was captured in footage shared by fans . It helps, perhaps, that the big guy was Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce , who is also known as Swift’s boyfriend and/or the guy the royal family didn’t want a selfie with the night before.

Actor Hugh Grant, who was also at Saturday’s show, was similarly struck by Kelce’s size and charm. Via X (formerly Twitter), the 63-year-old Grant wrote of his Saturday night concert experience, “Dear @taylorswift13, You have an incredible show, an amazing and v hospitable team and excellent if gigantic boyfriend (#tequilashots.). Thanks so much from one ageing London boy, wife and thrilled 8 year old #halfgirlhalfbracelet." It's a tweet that leaves this correspondent wondering what seemed less likely likely a decade ago: the star of Eyes Wide Shut playing with beaded bracelets, or the star of Four Weddings and a Funeral using hashtags?

By Julie Miller

Other luminaries at the show included Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who danced shoulder-to-shoulder with Cruise and Kelce; Danny Masterson apologists Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher ; and YA dystopia poster boys Liam Hemsworth and Theo James , among many others.

But the drama wasn’t just in the VIP tent, as Swift went a bit off script to celebrate the crowd, as well as slam her enemies, footage posted to social media shows . As she transitioned into the acoustic portion of her set, Swift said, “I was thinking about getting to play Wembley Stadium. That’s not remotely normal [and] it is so insane for you to [have] done that for me … and for my crew because we get to play Wembley Stadium eight times this summer,” she said, a reference to the Era Tour’s return to England in August.

“You clearly thought this was a good idea [and] you wanted this to happen. Blows me away. I’ll spend forever trying to thank you for that.”

“On the other hand,” Swift continued, “it really makes me think about how every time someone talks shit, it just makes me work even harder and it makes me even tougher. So, it also makes me incredibly thankful for those people.” Swift then launched into “thanK you aIMee,” a song from The Tortured Poets Department widely believed to be a dig at Kim Kardashian , a Swift nemesis since 2006 .

Swift has one more show at Wembley Stadium on Sunday night, and then it’s off to Aviba Stadium in Dublin for a three-show stand from Friday, June 18 to Sunday, June 30.

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Tom Cruise’s Incredible ‘Speed Flying’ Stunt Is Highlighted In New Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Video, And I Hope You Aren’t Scared Of Heights

This is intense, even by Tom Cruise stunt standards.

Tom Cruise and stunts go together like peanut butter and jelly, and it’s been that way for a long time. This effective combination has been shown off best in the Mission: Impossible movies, where we’ve seen the Ethan Hunt actor do things like climbing the world’s tallest building and hanging off the side of an airplane taking off (that one scares his late mother) , and naturally there’s more to come in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One . With just a few more week’s left to go until its arrival, a video has been released highlighting one of the 2023 new movie release ’s major stunts, Cruise’s incredible “speed flying,” and hopefully those of you who watch aren’t scared of heights.

Even by Tom Cruise standards, speed flying is an especially intense thing to go through, because as writer/director Christopher McQuarrie lays out at the beginning of this featurette released by Paramount Pictures , this is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. Because while the more conventional skydiving is “fairly predictable,” speed flying is “incredibly unpredictable.” See for yourself:

Jon Devore, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One ’s skydive/base/speed flying coordinator explains in the video how this speed flying stunt sees Cruise a small canopy and racing down a mountain just feet off the ground, with McQuarrie adding that “any sort of crosswind could put Tom at peril.” As for the speed, Cruise himself notes that this stunt will see him landing at over 80 kilometers an hour. In case it isn’t clear already, this isn’t something one can tackle with just a few hours of preparation; Cruise trained for years to pull off this stunt.

M:I 7’s Hayley Atwell Says Tom Cruise Does Not Just Have A Need For Speed, But 'Stratospheric Speed'

The Mission: Impossible Series Doesn't Need To End, But Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt Needs To Retire

But coordinating the speed flying itself in the latest Mission: Impossible movie is just part of the challenge. There’s also figuring out how to film the stunt in a way to show that it’s Tom Cruise who’s operating the speedwing, and since it wasn’t possible to get too close with a helicopter or drone, a gimbal system was developed to fly along with the actor and be operated from further back by someone on a helicopter. Throw in the unpredictability of weather, and there’s no question that the odds of something going wrong were high.

Fortunately, Tom Cruise made it out of shooting the speed flying sequence intact, and for many of us, I think it’s safe to say that we’re perfectly fine with watching him do it rather than trying it ourselves. As for why Ethan Hunt will be speed flying in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One , we’ll have to wait until the movie is released to learn that information. But again, this is just one of the impressive stunts this latest installment will show off, with others including Cruise fighting on top of a train and jumping off a cliff in a motorcycle literally at the start of production .

Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One opens in theaters on July 12. Use your Paramount+ subscription to stream the previous six movies ahead of time, remember that Part Two is slated for June 28, 2024.

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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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