Tom Cruise has been one of Hollywood's most prolific and successful actors for 40 years. From the '80s to the 2010s, the man has been consistently employed and churning out films that tend to be well above average.
From the Mission: Impossible series to smaller films like Magnolia, Cruise can do it all and continuously proves as much. As far as Metacritic is concerned, some of these films are more worthy of a rental or purchase than others. However, the actor's also been involved in more great films than can be counted on two hands.
War Of The Worlds (73)
Steven Spielberg brought H.G. Wells's classic alien invasion to the screen for the first time in a decade with the Cruise-Dakota Fanning movie War of the Worlds. The well-paced movie—with a particularly strong first act— worked as a summer blockbuster but scored with critics as well.
Spielberg's remake holds a Metascore of 73, which is a stand-in for generally favorable reviews. Furthermore, its user score was slightly higher at 7.5, which also indicates favorable marks.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (73)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol reinvented the franchise with a slightly altered tone, new characters, and an expanded role for Simon Pegg's Benji. Each installment that's followed has received even more fanfare and critical acclaim, however, with fans' excitement for Mission: Impossible 7 reaching a fever pitch.
The series' soft-reboot has a Metascore of 73, for generally favorable reviews, and a higher user score of 7.9, which indicates the same.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (75)
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation feels less bombastic than Ghost Protocol, and it works all the better. Ghost Protocol was a big-budget spy film that managed to reinvent a franchise, and it did it supremely well, but Rogue Nation showed that personal stakes were far more effective than hanging off the side of a massive building. Rogue Nation is the act of bringing M:I back to basics; the interest is in Ethan Hunt's reaction to the mission over the objective itself, at least in terms of excellent filmmaking.
Rogue Nation holds an even higher Metascore than the film that preceded it, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, at 75. Again, the user score is higher at 7.9.
Born On The Fourth Of July (75)
Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July is one of the definitive anti-war films. This Ron Kovic biopic shows the tolls of heroism, and how attention and praise can affect us all. It's one of the better showcases for Cruise's non-action acting prowess.
Stone's film holds a comparable Metascore and user score, at 75 and 7.8, respectively. Both scores indicate generally favorable reviews, though there aren't many of them tallied for a Tom Cruise movie.
Risky Business (75)
In Risky Business, Cruise's breakthrough role, the actor portrays Joel Goodsen, an uptight young man who starts to live dangerously. His method of acting out: starting a brothel under his own parents' roof.
With a Metascore of 75, Risky Business received overall favorable reviews. However, its user score is atrocious, at a baffling 3.8. This score indicates generally unfavorable reviews from the public, and that's after 138 submitted ratings. Why it received this low a user rating is a mystery, because Risky Business is typically seen as a minor classic.
The Color Of Money (77)
The underrated Cruise movie The Color of Money, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a follow-up to the 1950s classic The Hustler. The film again stars Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson, who is now training Cruise's young poolhall regular.
Cruise's first, and still only, collaboration with Martin Scorsese holds a Metascore of 77, which indicates mostly favorable ratings. It also holds a user score of 7.7, so for once it seems the critics and audience were in line about the quality of the film.
Magnolia (77)
Magnolia is more an ensemble piece than a star vehicle, but Cruise still has arguably the best role of the film. Teamed, for the most part, with Jason Robards, Cruise really gets to flex his emotive muscles in what is arguably the deepest performance of his career.
While Anderson's film holds a generally favorable Metascore of 77, its user score is much lower at 4.5, which indicates average ratings. This is not entirely unsurprising, considering much of Anderson's work, particularly Magnolia and Phantom Thread, aren't for everyone.
Jerry Maguire (77)
Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire, one of the best 90s rom-coms, follows a selfish sports agent as he turns his back on the way his work is done. He stops viewing people as commodities and even starts to open his heart to young single mom Dorothy Boyd, who was the one person to join him as he left his agency.
Unlike Magnolia, where the Metascore was higher than the user score, Jerry Maguire has a higher user score than it does Metascore. For the latter, Crowe's film holds a rating of 77, which indicates overall favorable reviews. Then there was the user score at 8.4, which signifies universal acclaim.
Minority Report (80)
Steven Spielberg's great tech noir, Minority Report, based on a short story by the great Philip K. Dick, is easily one of Cruise's most inventive and rewatchable films. The actor is a natural fit for a director of Spielberg's prowess, and like in the later War of the Worlds, the director elicits one of Cruise's better performances.
Minority Report's Metascore of 80 indicates favorable reviews, as does its lower user score of 7.1. Even still, these scores are towards the upper end of being "generally favorable."
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (86)
The sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise is a rarity. As most film or television series progress, their quality decreases. However, in the cast of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth time was the charm. Fallout is the most exciting and well-put-together movie of the entire series.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is the only Tom Cruise film to receive universal acclaim and a Metacritic Must-See badge. At 86, the Metascore is higher than the user score at 8.3, though this still signifies universal acclaim.