3 Rotten Tom Cruise Movies Rated Lower Than Digger (That Are Actually Great)
Simon Gallagher has worked in movie and TV journalism for more than 17 years. He has written more than 6000 articles and reviews, and edited thousands more. He is an expert in the entertainment industry, particularly in the golden age of screen superheroes. Simon is also a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s climate satire Digger was always a gamble for Tom Cruise. When it landed with an awkward thud on Rotten Tomatoes at 51%, you could have been forgiven for questioning why the Hollywood veteran would go so weird, given he’s spent most of the last decade making blockbusters more in line with his star power.
But that’s the real joy of Tom Cruise: if you stick with him long enough, you’ll witness him make a Tropic Thunder, or a Rock of Ages, or, now, a Digger, because he’s clearly driven by more than just paint-by-numbers box office success. Cruise will also know that despite Digger’s critical reception being framed as a major blow to him, he hasn’t always had the best relationship with professional reviewers. So why not throw in some curve balls and test out some underused muscles?
The image of Cruise as an out-of-shape, aging oil tycoon under heavy prosthetics and on the edge of mania is about as far removed from his Top Gun and Mission: Impossible brand, but he’s more familiar with a green Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes than you might imagine. And in a weird trend that conspiracy theorists might read more into than is necessary, some of his most beloved movies scored terribly with critics. So maybe that’s just part of his brand too? And even if Digger is predicted to be a box office flop, that doesn't mean it deserves the hate.
They haven’t all been unfair assessments, of course: The Mummy was an undeniable dud, and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back saddled his completely unfaithful Reacher with an unforgivable poor plot. But the real turkeys have been rare, which you have to admire over a career that’s last as long as his. So maybe Digger’s reception isn’t as catastrophic as the Chicken Littles of movie discussion would have you believe: because there have been several of Cruise’s movies that scored far worse that have gone on to be remembered as genuine classics.
3 Cocktail (1988) - 11%
No movie has done more for the glamorous profession of bartending than Roger Donaldson’s achingly ‘80s Cocktail. It’s a sort of anti-corporate dream, in which Cruise’s Brian Flanagan shuns the boring life of business school to be the coolest bartender in New York, chasing his dream to open his own bar. That’s largely all there is to the story, but it’s just a vehicle for Cruise’s charisma, and simple is not an immediate marker of badness.
Nevertheless, critics hated Cocktail, and it’s Cruise’s lowest critically rated movie of all, but with a far more respectable 58% from audiences. That’s also very low for a flashy, intoxicating melodrama that gives Cruise the opportunity to offer a surprisingly deep performance that appears superficial, but masks a deep emotional vacuum. As a further insult, it also won two of the four Golden Raspberry awards it was nominated for, including Worst Film, which gave Cruise the impressive record of being the only actor to win both a Best Film Oscar (for Rain Man) and the top Razzie in the same year.
2 Legend (1985) - 34%
In 2026, if you pitched a dark fantasy starring Tom Cruise and directed by Ridley Scott, Hollywood executives would probably snap your hands off, but 40 years ago, Legend became notorious for basically killing the genre outright. Plagued by studio interference, Legend was torn to shreds by American critics, who essentially called it a vapid victory for style over substance.
What the most cynical critics missed was that Legend was - and still is - an achievement in pure ambition that has grown into a cult classic over the decades. It’s dreamy - an intentional creative decision that weirdly became a crutch of criticism - but the cinematic fairy tale was wildly ahead of its time. Cruise’s Jack is a picture of wholesome, earnest heroism, and opposite him, Tim Curry’s Lord of Darkness is an absolute joy. He’s also still one of the best examples of movie makeup there’s ever been.
Scott’s Director’s Cut improved on the theatrical cut, but even without that alternate cut, Legend was an underrated fantasy gem that deserved none of the spiteful reaction.
1 Days of Thunder (1990) - 38%
Given the fact that Tom Cruise has now revealed he’s making Days of Thunder 2, you’d be forgiven for assuming the original was a huge success. It did pretty well at the box office, coming twelfth in 1990’s domestic take ranking, but critics weren’t sold on the idea of a Top Gun remake on the race track. Imagine hearing that as an elevator pitch and being incredulous. Who were these people?!
Since Tony Scott’s death, Days of Thunder has been reappraised more favorably, but it still sits well within the Rotten bracket at 38%. That is frankly ridiculous: it’s a glorious realization of Scott’s action formula that leans hard into Cruise’s charm, and the Top Gun parallel should be classed as a selling point, not a detractor. Even now, with the sequel coming round a distant bend, Days of Thunder is a blockbuster masterclass from an era Hollywood moved away from too quickly.
And if you’ve watched any great racing movie released since 1990, you’ve watched the blueprint set by Days of Thunder. So it can’t have been that bad.
Digger is in theaters worldwide now.
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Legend
- Release Date
- August 28, 1985
- Runtime
- 94 minutes
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Writers
- William Hjortsberg
- Producers
- Arnon Milchan
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Mia Sara
Princess Lili
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Jack
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