2. The Last Samurai
A movie where Tom Cruise embraces the samurai way to destroy his former allies in the 1800's is admittedly ludicrous on the surface but you have to hand it to director Edward Zwick; he made a convincing story out of it. The movie was also lauded with Academy Award nominations. What the studio did not receive was a strong domestic grossing at the box office failing to garner back its $140 million budget. International audiences must have been stoked to see a samurai Tom Cruise though as the film generated a strong take of $345 million. You would think that international audiences around the world would have been up in arms over Tom Cruise playing a samurai but instead it was just American audiences not caring.