When I finished watching Tom Cruise’s new movie, “Digger,” 10 days ago, I had a very bad reaction.
I actually said to someone outside the theater that I thought something bad had happened to during the screening.
There wasn’t a lot of buzz on “Digger” before the screening. The trailers and clips were headscratchers. Tom Cruise, our biggest movie star, was dressed like like Colonel Sanders from KFC. John Goodman looked like he’d been taxidermied (if that’s a word). One of our great actors, he seemed as though he was mimicking himself from “The Hudsucker Proxy.”
You wouldn’t think of Tom Cruise dressing up like Slim Pickens from “Dr. Strangelove,” or sounding like a hillbilly. Not Maverick from “Top Gun,” or the sly kid from “Risky Business,” or super spy Ethan Hunt from “Mission Impossible.
And then there were the filmmakers. Alejandro Innaritu and Emmanuel Lubezki. I was no fan of “The Revenant,” but they’d made a lot of good films.
So I braced myself for “Digger,” hoping that it had all worked out.
Alas, it didn’t.
Now the reviews have dropped. One hundred and eleven of them on Rotten Tomatoes, where the score is 52%. And that’s being kind. A lot of reviewers panned the movie but gave it a ‘fresh’ tomato simply because it’s well made and attractive. But if you read into the reviews, it’s a different story.
Some are just eviscerating. I actually went out of my way to soften the blow. I didn’t want to use the word “unwatchable.” But a lot of my peers did, and worse.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise — a Sphinx when it comes to interviews — has appeared in a lot of formats and said nothing. When he speaks, it’s like white noise. He can’t mention his children, or his religion. He lives in some kind of time capsule. In the old days, he’d never have done afternoon talk shows. But I guess he’s desperate at this point.
“Digger” opens in previews tonight. I have no idea how the box office will look Friday morning. Will diehard Cruise fans ignore the reviews and go anyway? And how will they feel after 20 minutes or so? Like I did? Like you’re at the wrong party and there’s no way to excuse yourself.
I guess we’re about to find out.
