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Legendary filmmaker Guillermo del Toro has come to the defense of Tom Cruise's latest movie, Digger, which has received mixed reviews and is being criticized as the actor's worst film. Del Toro praised the film for its scale and ambition, despite its low Rotten Tomatoes score and poor box office projections.
Tom Cruise's polarizing new movie Digger has received a spirited defense from legendary Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. The big budget black comedy was positioned as a major awards contender for the 64-year-old, who has never won an Academy Award, but critics are already calling it 'the worst film' of Cruise's career.
Guillermo del Toro defends Digger against critics
It currently has a 'rotten' rating of just 51 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, making it his worst-reviewed film since 2017's The Mummy. However del Toro, 61, whose 2017 movie The Shape of Water won the Oscars for best picture and best director, lashed out at a critical appraisal of Digger on X. He responded to IGN headline that read: 'The theater experience won't change your mind on Digger, and the laughs that are there still will be when it hits HBO Max.
' 'Entirely Petty headline,' Del Toro sniffed. 'Love it or not. And, yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level.
Daring, bold and Cinematically complex. Decidedly a Theatrical experience.
' Digger was helmed by Mexican auteur Alejandro G Inarritu, who previously directed Leonardo DiCaprio to his first Oscars victory in the adventure film The Revenant. Batman star Michael Keaton also landed his inaugural Academy Award nomination for an Inarritu movie, the surrealistic 2014 dark comedy Birdman. In one particularly scathing review, the Boston Globe called Digger a 'turgid, unfunny, and borderline unwatchable 128 minute mess'.
Den of Geek wrote, ' forgets the statement must still work as anything more than a self-flagellating valediction from a movie star.
Mixed reviews and dire box office predictions
' Some other outlets were more positive, including Collider, who praised Cruise's 'bizarre but brilliant performance'. Daily Mail's own Brian Viner also heaped gushing praise on Digger, scoring it four out of five stars. Despite some positive feedback from certain critics, box office predictions for the film - which cost upwards of $125 million to make - are dire. According to World of Reel, Digger may open with less than $10 million this weekend.
Box Office Theory has a strong prediction, reporting that Digger could open with between $16 million and $26 million. The big budget political satire has mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and is tipped to tank at the box office. The film follows the world's most powerful man, eccentric oil tycoon Digger Rockwell (played by Cruise), as he races to fix a catastrophic ecological disaster that he himself unleashed.
The politically-charged satire is said to be a commentary on climate issues and corporate greed. Digger is one of the few awards-focused movies that Cruise has starred in in almost three decades. He's primarily focused on action-packed blockbusters, most notably the Mission Impossible franchise. In 2022 he headlined Top Gun: Maverick, which became a surprise critical hit and was nominated for six Academy Awards.
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