Tom Cruise‘s polarizing new movie Digger has received a spirited defense from legendary Pan’s Labyrinth filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.
The big budget black comedy was positioned as a major awards contender for the 64-year-old, who has never won an Academy Award, but critics are already calling it ‘the worst film’ of Cruise’s career.
It currently has a ‘rotten’ rating of just 51 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, making it his worst-reviewed film since 2017’s The Mummy.
However del Toro, 61, whose 2017 movie The Shape of Water won the Oscars for best picture and best director, lashed out at a critical appraisal of Digger on X.
He responded to IGN headline that read: ‘The theater experience won’t change your mind on Digger, and the laughs that are there still will be when it hits HBO Max.’
‘Entirely Petty headline,’ Del Toro sniffed. ‘Love it or not. And, yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and Cinematically complex. Decidedly a Theatrical experience.’
Tom Cruise’s divisive new movie Digger has received a spirited defense from legendary Pan’s Labyrinth filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, whom he is pictured with in March
He then began re-posting comments from X users who also enjoyed the picture, advising his more than two million followers on the platform: ‘Tune in or drop out-.’
Digger was helmed by Mexican auteur Alejandro G Inarritu, who previously directed Leonardo DiCaprio to his first Oscars victory in the adventure film The Revenant.
Batman star Michael Keaton also landed his inaugural Academy Award nomination for an Inarritu movie, the surrealistic 2014 dark comedy Birdman.
In one particularly scathing review, the Boston Globe called Digger a ‘turgid, unfunny, and borderline unwatchable 128 minute mess’.
Den of Geek wrote, ‘[Digger] forgets the statement must still work as anything more than a self-flagellating valediction from a movie star.’
Some other outlets were more positive, including Collider, who praised Cruise’s ‘bizarre but brilliant performance’.
Daily Mail’s own Brian Viner also heaped gushing praise on Digger, scoring it four out of five stars.
Despite some positive feedback from certain critics, box office predictions for the film – which cost upwards of $125 million to make – are dire.
According to World of Reel, Digger may open with less than $10 million this weekend.
Box Office Theory has a strong prediction, reporting that Digger could open with between $16 million and $26 million.
The big budget black comedy was positioned as a major awards contender for the 64-year-old, who has never won an Oscar; Cruise is pictured Friday at its premiere in Seoul
The big budget political satire has mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and is tipped to tank at the box office
Del Toro, who is pictured with Cruise at the 2023 Academy Awards, hailed his new movie as ‘Daring, bold and Cinematically complex’
Either way, even on the high end these numbers are still disastrous for the big budget Oscars contender.
Digger follows the world’s most powerful man, eccentric oil tycoon Digger Rockwell (played by Cruise), as he races to fix a catastrophic ecological disaster that he himself unleashed.
The film co-stars John Goodman as the dictatorial President of the United States.
The politically-charged satire is said to be a commentary on climate issues and corporate greed.
Digger is one of the few awards-focused movies that Cruise has starred in in almost three decades.
He’s primarily focused on action-packed blockbusters, most notably the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 2022 he headlined Top Gun: Maverick, which became a surprise critical hit and was nominated for six Academy Awards.
The normally reclusive Cruise has been on a press blitz for Digger in recent weeks.
He posed for the cover of GQ magazine this month and gave the magazine a rare interview.
The Vanilla Sky star also appeared on Good Morning America and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
