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David Mumpower: Eric, I disagree with you on that point in that Knight & Day seems to have too much creativity if anything. The "hero" of the film shoots a police officer at one point in the trailer. That's not something you see in an action film very often. Even the moments we've seen before like his riding the windshield of her car instantly establish the character as quirky and unique. At the end of the day, I put all of the disappointment on Cruise's doorstop.

Katie Holmes is dying to know.

Kim Hollis: Do you think this was Tom Cruise's last chance to regain his standing as an action hero, or do you think he'll have another opportunity to succeed in the genre?

Brett Beach: For someone whose career as a big-draw leading man now spans nearly a quarter of a century, I think it would be ridiculous to count Cruise out of the action genre (or any genre for that matter). I remained mystified as to how the CJ incident was the straw that broke the camel's back when he had survived nearly 20 years prior of rumors, innuendoes, and anecdotes about personal behavior that far exceed in weirdness anything he may have done on Oprah that day. I still find him to be a perennially underrated actor, and the "with me, up here/ without me, down here" clip in the Knight & Day trailer still leaves me in stitches. I think a "comeback" could be as simple as good hype and buzz for MI:IV which could clean up during the holiday season as the go to action film. Cruise may have lost the battle vis a vis Sandler this weekend but he has ten years on him and the ability to bag hits in virtually every genre. I say he is not down, not out.

David Mumpower: Despite how harsh I was in the Knight & Day discussion, I believe we are still largely in a to be determined stage with Cruise. When I look at his situation analytically, what jumps out at me is that Mission: Impossible II was a shiny but mediocre movie that earned $215 million. Mission: Impossible III is in the discussion for best action film of the 2000s yet it earned only $133.5 million. And I'm not stating that opinion on my own. The third film is better reviewed by critics and smokes its direct predecessor in terms of all popular internet movie metrics. The difference between the two projects is simply that consumers got fed up with Cruise's antics. Will they eventually let him off the deck? Well, John Travolta has been forgiven more times than Brett Favre has unretired and yet he's not only allowed but fully encouraged to keep making movies.





Tom Cruise has been in 16 $100 million domestic earners. There aren't five people in our industry who have his name recognition. Writing him off is a dangerous practice for this reason yet at the end of the day, movie producers are in sales. And the first rule of sales is that the customer is always right. If customers keep saying that no matter how good a movie looks, they won't see it if Tom Cruise is in it, he's done. Alternately, he'll make something like Mission: Impossible IV that people will love and all will be forgiven. Until that is settled one way or the other, he's in this box office purgatory. My current vibe is that at the age of 48, Cruise needs to move on to the role of wise adviser to the action hero if his next attempt fails. And the Tropic Thunder spin-off featuring his character, Les Grossman, would be a baaaaaaaad idea.

Tom Houseman: I think Cruise still has some life left in him as an action star, but I'm curious to see what happens to Cruise after his time is past. Besides cameo roles (Austin Powers 3 and Tropic Thunder), Cruise has only ever played the lead, the antagonist, and Frank T.J. Mackey. Will he start to take more supporting roles as he ages?

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