8. A Few Good Men (1992)
Tomatometer: 83 percent

You've got a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, Rob Reiner behind the cameras, and a cast that includes Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Keifer Sutherland. Perhaps the most surprising thing about A Few Good Men is that it wasn't more successful -- critically, anyway. Though it was one of the biggest box-office winners of the year, and Nicholson received an Oscar nomination for his brief performance, some critics were bothered by what they perceived to be a formula legal drama. Even some of the more complimentary critics were lukewarm in their praise -- like Time's Richard Schickel, who called A Few Good Men "an extraordinarily well-made movie, which wastes no words or images in telling a conventional but compelling story." While it wasn't his most memorable role, playing junior-grade lieutenant Daniel Kaffee only added to Cruise's box-office clout, and -- thanks to Nicholson barking "You can't handle the truth!" -- added to the list of iconic scenes in Cruise's career.

7. Magnolia (1999)
Tomatometer: 84 percent

After the spectacular success of Boogie Nights, New Line gave director Paul Thomas Anderson carte blanche on his next project -- and he took full advantage of it, spinning a three hour-plus yarn about the lives of various residents of the San Fernando Valley. So much serious analysis has been devoted to Magnolia that it would be foolish to try getting into it here; even a cursory synopsis would require more space than we have. Suffice it to say, then, that playing sleazy "self-help" guru Frank Mackey was the perfect way for Cruise to shake off the years he'd spent working on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut -- and though the movie doesn't rest on his performance, his work here still won praise from a number of critics, such as Chris Gore of Film Threat, who referred to it as "an amazing display of acting for Tom Cruise, and one of the best films of 1999."