Never Mind Pop Film

The premise seems familiar enough: it’s the not-too-distant future and Earth is under attack by aliens. The “Mimics” arrived by an errant asteroid and now they have taken over half of continental Europe. To help combat these hyper-intelligent aliens, humans wear armored combat suits fitted with rocket launchers and side-guns. One might even confuse the whole thing for a video game, if it didn’t have Tom Cruise’s face slapped on the poster.

Edge of Tomorrow replicates the experience of jumping into a video game through the eyes of untested combatant Major William Cage (Tom Cruise). Like most video game rookies, Cage is unfamiliar with his weaponry and panicked by the rushing hordes of attackers, he dies within minutes. And when he dies next he wakes up to the shouts of master sergeants (Bill Paxton in R. Lee Ermey mode). With each new life, Cage, mirrors other trepidatious gamers gathering their bearings in a new level, testing weapons in hopes of getting a feel before close quarters c…

Major William Cage has never seen a day of combat of his life, but he sells war to millions on television everyday. A crisp officer's uniform and a broad, beaming grin are all he needs to send enlistment numbers skyrocketing. Earth is facing an all-fronts assault by an alien race and humans are losing. Badly. The "Mimics" have proven a daunting challenge, taking most of continental Europe in five years. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), of the United Defense Force, has one last trick up his sleeve: A suprise attack against the Mimics in France.

Films about assassins can sometimes be trite, but every once in a while a gem comes out. The best flicks that capture these professionals don't just feature killing machines, but fully-fleshed with motivations they keep all to themselves. These characters are fascinating with their natural charisma and yet merciless nature when dealing with others. Characters like Vincent (Tom Cruise) and Anton Chiguhr (Javier Bardem) are oddities in cinema, but their unique behavior makes for compelling viewing.

Below are ten of the best hitmen movies on Netflix and DVD.

Pulp Fiction

Jules and Vincent (Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta) are the most memorable characters from Quentin Tarantino's touchstone Pulp Fiction, and it comes with good cause. The two enforcers keep it all interesting while they chew the fat on such philosophical topics as French names for American fast food and t.v. pilots in between laying down the law. The dialogue pops, nods to old classics are weaved throughout ev…

Not much can be said about Oblivion without spoiling the experience for audiences, too much has been shown already by trailers and television spots. If the premise intrigues you, stop reading, and just go see it in theatres. This review will gladly wait for you.

The year is 2077. Following a war with extra-terrestrials, the Earth is left a shell of its former self. Humans won the war, but only after resorting to nuclear weapons. Monuments like the Statue of Liberty are shattered, half of the land is still radiated and remnants of the alien army litter the land.

Jack (Tom Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) are Earth's last two inhabitants. The two are assigned the responsibility of overseeing security while T.E.T. takes the last of the water from Earth. T.E.T. holds the rest of the survivors awaiting the trip to their next settlement on Titan, if all holds well, Jack and Victoria will join them in two weeks.

Jack is an inquisitive man, he takes a lot of risks and incurs ple…

Joseph Kosinski's new project features another star facing the prospect of being the last man left on Earth. This premise has been done many times before Vincent Price with The Last Man on Earth, Charlton Heston with The Omega Man, Will Smith with I Am Legend, etc. Those three features are all entertaining during the first 2/3rds of the film, but their conclusion leave much to be desired.
So what makes this one more appealing? Morgan Freeman.

A lot of people claim to have a dislike of Tom Cruise, but only Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is willing to take his dislike to the max. In All You Need Is Kill, Liman blows up Tom Cruise again and again. Cruise plays Lt. Col. Bill Cage, a soldier forced to relive violent battle with aliens when he is thrown into a time-loop. Lord only knows what Mr. Cruise is running away from in this set photo, but one thing is for sure, Doug Liman is a twisted man.
(Courtesy: Collider)

Since J.J. Abrams took the reins of the Mission: Impossible franchise, there has been a sense of fun and exhilaration unmatched by other action series. The tone for the films prior to the 2006 release was an evolving one: Mission: Impossible played it dark and had very little room for laughs of any kind, the sequel dialed back the seriousness, but not enough to translate to a good time. Placing Abrams in the director's chair was a good start to revitalizing the series and once it was announced the Pixar's Brad Bird would helm the fourth film, anticipation went sky-high.

Ghost Protocol opens with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) breaking out of a Russian prison to the tune of Dean Martin’s “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head”. From the opening on, the audience knows it is in the hands of a director who can compose action sequences cleanly and competently.

Newly named field agent Benji (Simon Pegg, one of two IMF holdovers from MI: 3) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) await Hunt outside the comp…

I have a hard time imagining doing this without dying.

Eminem? Why? Doesn't this franchise deserve a little more credit than that?

Death and Taxis.

Girl meets boy, girl meets boy again on a plane, boy shoots everyone on plane and drugs girl so they can get away. It's a little spin on a familiar formula.
Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) is a super-spy who might need a mental adjustment, and is on the run from the government. June (Cameron Diaz) is the woman stuck with him on a flight to Boston. Things start off friendly enough, they flirt, share their future "someday" dreams and when June goes off to the bathroom, Roy dispatches everyone on the plane. Of course he is kind enough to meet her with a drink when she comes out. A kiss is exchanged and he tells her he has to land the plane.
June's flight from Wichita to Boston was to find a part for her father's GTO that she plans on rebuilding and then giving to her sister for her wedding that weekend. Unfortunately, with her new association with Roy she won't be going anywhere. Now on the run along with him, June must do everything she can to stay alive and, if poss…

The quintessential good guy: Top Gun, Mission Impossible, The Last Samurai, A Few Good Men, I could go on but I'm sure you get the point. That is what made the transformation he undertook in Collateral all the more intriguing. Tom Cruise is a hell of a villain.
"I just shot him. The bullets and the fall killed him." Never were words uttered by a contract killer offered so smoothly. Cruise doesn't look radically altered in this film, but he might as well be an entirely different human being. Vincent's eyes say a lot more about the man than the film ever mentions. He is cool, calm, collected and charismatic. While he is holding Max (Jamie Foxx) hostage he is helping him retake his life before missed opportunities do him in for good.
Sleight of hand is Vincent's trade, he kills with the best and feels no remorse for the deed. It makes it that much more interesting when he scolds Vincent for not buying his mother flowers at the hospital, "She carried you i…

How different and yet so alike these two men that share a cab. One, a contract killer, the other a man with broken dreams.