Cruise is off time-travelling again and this time it’s war, as Alex and Ben discuss Bryan Singer’s Hitler assassination conspiracy thriller, Valkyrie.

Cruise’s first (but not last) collaboration with screenwriter extraordinaire Chris McQuarrie, this presents him with another opportunity to play an unlikely war-time hero and raises some important questions:

How does his portrayal of Claus Von Stauffenberg compare to Ron Kovic?

Does he settle the question of if you could, would you go back and kill Hitler?

What does this mean for the Cruisiverse?

And just how do you say, ‘Woo!’ in German?

All this and some other stuff too.

Music is Mission:Improbable by Dorian Kelly; artwork is by Laura Highton; contact details are at the end of the episode.

Ben, Alex and guests spend far too much time talking about Robert Downey Jr., as we get down to taking in Ben Stiller's semi-satirical Hollywood farce, Tropic Thunder.

We're embracing gossip this week and it's time to talk about the strangest period of Cruise's career to date - and what better time, given how balls-out insane his performance in this film is?

As always, nothing we say is intended to offend so be warned, we try and tackle some of the more controversial elements the film throws up.

Don't be feared that we've gone all serious though - there's a round of impressions and a line-a-rama to get you through.

Music is by Dorian Kelly, artowrk is by Laura Highton and our contact details are at the end of the episode.

What do Police Academy, The Simpsons, The Office and the war on terror have in common? If you guessed that they all get passing mentions in this episode, you guessed right. We can't explain it, but for such a serious film, we got the giggles discussing this film and we ran with it.

In talking about the film itself, Alex and Ben try to get into why it does or doesn't work, depending on your viewpoint and offer Hollywood some helpful tips on how to improve it (they're still not answering our phone calls).

And fret ye not, we haven't forgotten about all the regular features.

Contact details are at the end of the show, music is Mission: Improbable by Dorian Kelly and artwork is by Laura Highton.

Ethan Hunt comes back into the fray as Alex and Ben decide whether this is a step up or step down from the previous entries in the series.

This one is jam-packed with a variety of star performers, sweet one-liners, action set-pieces, running, tech, gadgets, romance, lip-reading, more running, actual physics and more product placement than you can shake a distance-measuring laser pen at.

All your favourite regular features are here too and we even factored in a bonus post-credits sting for you.

This episode gets silly.

Artwork is by Laura Highton, music is by Dorian Kelly.

Contact us! Details are at the end of the show (and littered throughout, to be fair).

Spielberg is back in the director's chair, taking on epic alien invasion as Ben and Alex get into Cruise's version of the classic sci-fi War of the Worlds.

Its place in the pantheon of HG Wells adaptations as well as how it stacks up against other grand-scale disaster movies is all weighed up, along with what Spielberg might be adding to the source material and what Tim Robbins might be taking away.

Most importantly, Alex has to settle the question of whether he still thinks this is Cruise's Batman and Robin.

Consider yourself a Cruisiversity graduate? Sign up for your Masters - there's still more to learn.

Music is by Dorian Kelly, artwork is by Laura Highton and contact details are at the end of the show.

Its hitman vs cab driver as Ben and Alex go into the night with Michael Mann's gritty psycho-thriller Collateral.

Cruise takes on villainy (or does he?) for only the second time, Foxx delivers his star-making turn and Jada Pinkett-Smith adds class to a solid cast, while the script is on a slightly different journey to the filmmaking at times.

If you think the Cruisiverse is going strange places, wait til you hear who was lined up to play these roles originally.

Contact details at the end; music is Mission: Improbable by Dorian Kelly; artwork is by Laura Highton.

As Alex and Ben - and Future Alex and Hightron - try to figure how Cruise can leap from the near future to 2 centuries earlier, they get into a discussion that takes in historical verisimilitude in cinema, race, class and colonialism.

Such is life when you're this deep into the Cruisiverse and you get thrown The Last Samurai.

Hokey white guilt, epic action adventure or Oscar-bait slightly out of time? Some of these and more, it transpires.

Please get in touch if you have thoughts and feelings about any of this (details at the end of the episode).

Music is Mission: Improbable by Dorian Kelly; artwork is by Laura Highton.

As a way of saying thanks to the fans - and because there really isn't any reason to spend a whole episode talking about Goldmember - we've got a double feature for you this week.

First up, the amuse-bouche is a quick peek at Cruise's 'sneeze and you'll miss it' cameo in Austin Powers' third outing, before getting to the main course of Cruise's first de facto pairing with Steven Spielberg in Minority Report.

Is this a bona fide Philip K Dick classic or just a good, post-Matrix sci-fi film? We've got the answers, depending on how you look at it, as well as the most convoluted Cruisiverse yet.

Music is Mission: Improbable by Dorian Kelly; artwork is by Laura Highton; contact details are at the end of the episode.

Balerdi boys unite once again as we welcome back Alex's brother Andrew - he of the epic T3 discussion - to discuss one of his favourite Tom Cruise outings, Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky.

As well as all the regular features and foolishness you've come to expect, we get into comparisons with Amenabar's Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), from which Vanilla Sky is based, we talk about possible readings of the film and how explicit Crowe is in trying to make it as clear as possible what is actually happening, as well as what the film says about modern love and sexuality - all the while jumping back and forth in time ourselves.

Which, of course, makes for an intense chapter of the Cruisiverse.

Thanks to Andrew Balerdi for increasing the fun and thoughtfulness; Dorian Kelly for the music (Mission: Improbable); and to Laura Highton for her excellent artwork.

Contact details at the end of the episode.

After a couple of more introspective entries from Cruise, Mission: Impossible II feels like a South American soccer match - high-kickin' and low-scorin'.

As is becoming tradition when Alex and Ben aren't so hot on a film, they've invited a guest to offer a slightly more positive opinion, so Rob (not that one) is here to try to defend this bizarre Bond ripoff and love letter to slow motion hair adverts.

Can Ethan Hunt save the Cruisiverse, or is he becoming the (secret) agent of chaos that will destroy it? All this and more awaits you.

Music is 'Mission: Improbable' by Dorian Kelly; artwork is by Laura Highton.

Start putting your list of favourite Cruise films together and listen to the contact details at the end of the episode for where to send them, along with any other comments.