Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers

Rating: 9/10 (22 November 2016)

I saw the trailer for this in the theater and wanted to check it out but my 11 year old regular movie companion passed, he was probably right at least for him. Cruise is an army officer with no taste for combat who gets railroaded into active duty against, well, one really tough bunch of alien invaders. Just by chance he happens to come into contact with a strange alien substance in his first battle and finds, after being exterminated, that he wakes up one day earlier being rousted (again) for duty. When this happens several times he is a much more capable fighter and begins to enlist the aid of Blunt, the "Angel of Verdun" who had the same thing happen to her some time before. Cruise continues his trial by error, getting further along against the aliens each day with the help of Blunt.
There is a grim humor to this, along with some pretty scary scenes. Whether you like Cruise or not there are certain movies just made for him, see War of the Worlds, and this one is right in his wheelhouse. Blunt is equally fine as the no-nonsense warrior. I thought the script was very intelligent and very involving and I highly recommend this movie.