Entertainment as it should be

Rating: 10/10 (14 June 2011)

This is the Dakota and Tom show, with the latter graciously conceding to the little starlet. Cruise pretty much lets Fanning steal the shared scenes - why even bother to compete with such a cute and adorable child?! Fair play to him, and well done Dakota, despite being a tad heavy in the trademark "hysterical screaming banshee" mode.
She may have to try harder to keep up with Cruise, who literally does live up to his name by effortlessly cruising through this, but she shows depth of talent and is obviously at ease in front of a camera, and in front of one of the biggest movie stars of the last 20 years.
With so much action and CGI on display, it would be easy to sit back and let the tech boys make the movie for them, but all the main players really turn on the style here. Add in that stunning action and cinematography (minus the usual gratuitous violence and gore) and expert direction and editing, and we have here a very slick, polished and visually exciting movie.
They really don't get any better than this - movies are primarily meant to entertain, and anyone not entertained by this must be a very jaded person indeed.