Based on the book All You Need Is Kill by Yoshitoshi Abe
(which is a much better title by the way Warner Bros.) this might go down as
the best film of the summer. Tom Cruise plays a major in the military charged
with public relations during an alien invasion. Proving to be a coward unwilling
to follow his orders and cover the front lines, he is shoved into an infantry
squad about to storm a beach D-day style to assault the alien monsters. Without
any training this is pretty much a suicide mission. Yet in the attack and
ensuing death he discovers he’s stuck in a time loop repeating the same day
very much like living a video game returning to the same moment when killed.
[Funny how any story that has a time loop is now referred to as being like the
great Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day even though it wasn’t the only story to
use the technique.] Now with the help of Sergeant Rita, a woman who knows what
he’s going through, he must find a way to defeat the aliens even if it means
being killed over and over again. What one might not realize from this film’s
misguided ad campaign is how funny it is. It’s not some dark action movie but
an entertaining alien busting romp with a solid love story entwined. Emily
Blunt who plays Rita is the highlight of the film (not that Tom Cruise is bad
he’s great actually). Her character is tough and complex and delivered with an
intense vulnerability. It pains me that no one is seeing this film and that it
might go down as being a box office bomb. It’s an excellent film deserving a
bigger audience. I predict that years from now this will be considered a
classic of science fiction action. Grade: A
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