Warner Bros. and the filmmakers frame 'Digger' as an urgent, prestige satire tackling environmental issues with an A-list star and an Oscar-winning director.
Critics are saying the 'last real movie star' hype has blinded Cruise to the fact that his latest vehicle is a 'rage-inducing sit' with no jokes and no stakes.
Page Six gave the film ZERO stars. The review notes audiences will want to leave after five minutes. It’s Cruise’s first 'real stinker' in nearly 10 years.
If you thought Cruise was untouchable, think again. 'Digger' isn't just a flop; it's a cautionary tale about ego blinding you to a bad script.
Tom Cruise’s reign as the invincible box office king just hit a massive snag. Page Six’s scathing review of “Digger” awarded the film ZERO stars, labeling it a “laugh-free turd” that will have audiences stampeding for the exits. This marks the actor’s first real critical stinker in nearly a decade, a shocking turn for a star who has carefully curated his image as Hollywood’s last true movie star.
The review didn’t hold back, describing the experience as a “rage-inducing sit” driven by two enormous egos—Cruise and director Alejandro González Iñárritu—being completely blinded to their project’s badness. The film, which hits theaters October 2, has all the boxes checked for a prestige hit: an A-list star in ugly prosthetics, a big environmental topic, and an auteur with two Best Director Oscars. Yet, the review argues these elements became pitfalls.
The satire, featuring Cruise as Texas oil tycoon Digger Rockwell and John Goodman as a foul-mouthed US President, lacks a single funny joke or even a half-believable moment. Instead of urgency, the critics found a “glacially paced tedium parade” where the main character screams about banking crude oil before shutting down, leading to a plot point involving an ice shelf ten times the size of Washington DC careening toward Europe.
Insiders point to the movie’s meta-pretensions as a major flaw. The review notes a delusional moment where a character asks, “What is this?! Is it funny?
Is it supposed to be satire?” Critics feel this is wishful thinking from Iñárritu. The film’s frame story causes 90% of the runtime to feel like it doesn’t matter, leaving no stakes and no laughs. While John Goodman’s performance as President Compson was cited as the “best part,” even he couldn’t save the movie.
The review brutally compared it to Will Ferrell’s “You’re Welcome, America,” noting Ferrell’s satire looks like “Frost/Nixon” by comparison. The waste of talent is staggering. The review highlights that superb actors like Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons are banished to the periphery, serving a “flashy, mediocre central performance” that is the film’s only reason for existing.
Cruise, who hasn’t played an original title character since 1996’s “Jerry Maguire,” is described as a “silly and annoying sidekick” rather than a larger-than-life figure. The critic even suggested that Nicholas Cage or Woody Harrelson would have been better choices, noting Cruise did this kind of caricature vastly better in “Tropic Thunder.” With a 128-minute runtime and an R rating for pervasive language, “Digger” seems less like a cinematic event and more like a risky business move that might finally dent Cruise’s untouchable status.
