Posted on 12/11/2008 9:04:57 AM PST by mojito
After a long takeoff, "Valkyrie" finally takes flight as a thriller in its second half but never soars very high. Bryan Singer's long-awaited account of the near-miss assassination of Adolf Hitler by a ring of rebel German army officers on July 20, 1944, has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense. This second production from Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner at United Artists will do better than the first, "Lions for Lambs," but is a decidedly odd choice for Christmas Day release, and looks destined for just so-so commercial returns. Cruise himself is a bit stiff but still adequate as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the handsome, aristocratic officer whose disenchantment with Nazism, the Fuehrer and the war finds sympathetic ears among a sizable number of military bigwigs at a time when the tide has turned against Germany in the East and an Allied invasion is expected imminently in the West.
Well-carpentered script by Christopher McQuarrie, reuniting with Singer for the first time since their joint career breakthrough on "The Usual Suspects," and Nathan Alexander must inevitably wrestle with the "Day of the Jackal" issue of the known failure of the central plot. Allowing for the need to compress and streamline events, the scribes have hewed pretty closely to the facts but haven't injected sufficient sizzle into the dialogue or individuality into the characters.
As if the filmmakers felt the need to placate modern viewers who might wonder why they should emotionally indulge Nazi authority figures, the opening is swathed in Stauffenberg's feelings about how Hitler and the SS are a "stain" on the German army and his coincidentally contemporary desire for a "change" in the country's leadership.
(Excerpt) Read more at variety.com ...
It was supposed to come out in the summer but it was so bad they had to do some reshoots and editing and are throwing it out at Christmas in the hope that Cruise’s name on it will help them break even.
I’m curious but Cruise is still on the edge of our family black list. He made it out of the black list when he finally got recognized as a cook and lost all credibility.
Now he gets the respect any good jester deserves. I might watch it when it comes out on DVD, that is if I know someone that can let me borrow it.
something about Mr. Scientology playing a Nobleman, A devout Catholic and a hero doesn’t set well with me or from what I understand set well with the German people.
Cruise has been on a downward slide. And he is pathetic in period pieces (what was that movie where he was in Japan in the 1800s?). My bet is that this is a bigger bomb than what they used to try to kill Hitler.
Did anyone see Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder? His best role ever!
I suspect that people are getting tired of yet another politically correct anti-Hitler movie, with nothing new and no possibility of any plot surprises.
Yeah, Hitler’s generals got sick of Hitler and plotted against him, but they got caught and executed. Too bad they didn’t succeed. I think I’ve heard that one before.
Especially since it’s hard to work up a lot of sympathy for a bunch of Nazi generals who probably would have stuck with Hitler if he hadn’t started losing.
Another Hollywood remake of film ideas from the 40s and 50s. But they did it a lot better back then.
I’ve protested $cientology. That creep IS WELL AWARE of what goes inside his cult.......from child abuse and labor to ripping families apart and murder. He won’t get a penny from me. Slime. Hope he rots in hell.
It is a great story that has generally remained untold.
Most of Hitler’s victories came despite his leadership. It’s almost too bad so many of his generals were disobedient and succeded because of it. But that’s another story.
I saw some previews, and for me Cruise just doesn’t have the acting chops to play a man of this complexity. Cruise looked and sounded flat and bland.
Cruise can play Reinhard Heydrich. Wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
“No statue has ever been put up to a critic” — Jean Sibelius
I agree. Paying to see this movie indirectly supports Scientology, which is something I refuse to do. They are an evil cult.
Between Cruise and the director Bryan Singer (the guy who made the truly awful Superman Returns) there is no reason to see this movie. If the studio has had it in the can since the summer, it must truly suck.
It’s just a movie... You are way too serious about all of this.
Anything that Tom Cruise (or most other Hollywierdos, for that matter) has anything to do with will never see a penny of my hard-earned $$$$.
As he gets older, he'll still have his smile, but he's no Paul Newman, who still got some great roles as he aged. If there was a remake of Butch and the Kid, he could play the Kid. But that would be a stupid remake. He needs some new break out role if he's going to be around for decades.
The von Stuaffenberg conspiracy was covered briefly in the 50's classic The Desert Fox with James Mason as Rommel. It was also the subject of a well-made TV movie called The Plot to Kill Hitler with the late Brad Davis as von Stauffenberg.
It is an interesting story to me because I am a history buff, but I expect it to misfire at the box office. The people who fill movie theaters these days are young people who have probably never heard of Hitler, aside from hearing the Bush is "worse than Hitler". Those as have heard of him already know that--SPOLIER ALERT--the plot to kill Hitler failed.
This would have made a good HBO film, but it just looks like it is doomed to fail at the box-office.
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