Valkyrie

Tom Cruise recently said in an interview, "Go kill Hitler this Christmas!", in promotion for his film Valkyrie. The ironic part is that in this film Cruise tries, fails, and is executed for his attempt. It's not really a spoiler in any way, for this is actually a true story. Regardless of Mr. Cruise's false statement, Valkyrie is a fun, tense thriller that will keep you glued to your seat, ridiculous moments included.

Cruise is Colonel Klaus von Stauffenberg, a German officer in 1944 who is becoming increasingly fed up with the Nazis' planning and ideals. He begins to assemble a team to plot to kill Adolf Hitler himself. What results makes history.

The plot of the film is simple, the plan of the characters is not. The director of the film is Bryan Singer, who has mastered tension before, to the tune of 2 Oscars. (The Usual Suspects, anyone?) The fact that even though we know the end Singer still creates such tension deserves to be mentioned. The musical score is partly responsible, it's elegant yet undeniably gritty.

The supporting cast is great. Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp. But the best supporting performance is by David Bamber. I've never heard of him before this. But in his 3 minutes as Adolf Hitler, he almost literally gives you chills. Cruise is pretty good in this. Nothing Oscar-worthy (or Tropic Thunder-worthy for that matter) but not distractingly or face-meltingly bad, as he has been called.

It isn't all roses though. There are some moments that are undeniably corny. I won't give most away, but one in particular where Cruise is forced to 'Heil Hitler' with his severed arm was just ridiculous. It was the only time during the movie where people actually laughed.

One major thing that bugs you is the abscence of any accents whatsoever. They all have the look of Germans, and type in German. And yet everyone has an American or British accent. Oddly enough, Cruise's eyepatch doesn't ever bug you though.

It has taken a lot of bad advance buzz, a hundred date swaps and one big budget to get Valkyrie to the screen. It was worth it. B+