Rating of
3.5/4
"Edge Of Tomorrow" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 10/31/14
A cowardly military media relations officer is conscripted to the front lines of a counter attack during an alien invasion and finds that he keeps reliving the same day over and over again. Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers in this tongue in cheek sci-fi blockbuster penned by Christopher (The Usual Suspects) McQuarrie. This is the kind of film that in the wrong hands could have been a painfully tedious exercise in American military gung ho machismo, but thankfully McQuarrie makes sure that it never takes itself too seriously and making Cruise's character a rather cowardly, inept soldier works wonders for his likeability. It's also good to see Bill Paxton back in space marine uniform and Brendan Gleeson is as fun as always as his grumpy commanding officer and the battle sequences are a brilliantly realised cross between Saving Private Ryan and Starship Troopers with a time travel element which serves to keep you guessing for the duration. The explanation for it all is the standard sci-fi cobblers which you can either just accept and enjoy or not and like the similar Source Code, the ending inevitably chooses to elect for crowd pleasing rather than logic. But it's a lot of fun while it lasts and skillfully blends just the right measures of action and comedy making for a quality mainstream crowd pleaser.