Edge of Tomorrow

Out of nowhere, Edge of Tomorrow is an exhilarating mix of Verhoeven-esque sci-fi subversion, existential comedy straight out of Groundhog Day, and the slaughter-and-reset structure of a first-person shooter game. Tom Cruise plays a glib military P.R. man shanghaied into a losing battle against parasitic aliens, where inadvertent contact with their blood causes him to absorb their power to “reset the day.” Like an Xbox geek clearing levels, Cruise cashes in limitless lives and replays the battle until he can figure out how to defeat the aliens. Director Doug Liman doesn't completely shake Cruise from the airtight terseness of his recent performances, and the script has more holes than female speaking parts (although Emily Blunt is very good as a war hero), but the film has fun undermining and reconstructing Cruise's image of “Go for it!” cocksureness, and the action scenes are incredibly effective.