Dr. Venkman Reviews: VALKYRIE

by Joey Paur



As you know I have not been kind to the movie ‘Valkyrie' since nothing I saw made it look like it was going to be any good. But I am also a big history buff, and the story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and the plot to kill Hitler has always fascinated me. So when Bryan Singer and all the creative people behind the movie came out and said they wanted to make it an authentic type film with all the details, I was pretty excited. Then when I saw the trailer and heard Tom Cruise speaking in his normal American Tom Cruise voice I immediately began my Valkyrie film ranting.

The movie actually starts out with Tom Cruise doing a voice over in German then they slowly transitions from German into English. It's a cheap trick, but what are you going to do? No one would go see the film if it was done in full on German with English subtitles, which in my opinion would have made the film much more powerful and believable. 



I went to this movie expecting to hate it, but I didn't. I actually quite enjoyed the damn thing. It is by far not the best WWII film made, but it is still a good movie to watch if you want to see a decent suspense thriller, and one of the greatest conspiracies to come out of WWII. When it comes to a big event in history like this you already know the outcome of the film, like with ‘Titanic' you knew the ship was going to sink. I still couldn't help but enjoy the ride. As I was watching the movie I really wished they would have succeeded in killing that son of a bitch Hitler. Most people that don't know the story of operation Valkyrie will really like this movie. It has got everything a good story needs and it will keep most people on the edge of their seat.



Bryan Singer did a fine job directing the film, and telling this amazing story. Valkyrie is the best film he has directed since ‘The Usual Suspects'. He is very good at directing these types of movies. The X-Men films were ok and Superman was just awful, but the guy sure knows how to put together a good suspense thriller.



The downfall of Valkyrie was of course Tom Cruise. He was just as good in this as he was in Mission Impossible. In fact it was like Ethan Hunt went back in time, and dressed up as a Nazi to plan the plot to kill Hitler. Tom Cruise is good at playing one role and that is the role of Tom Cruise. I really can't expect anything more or less from the guy.



Everyone else in this movie was freakin fantastic though! Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terrance Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, and everyone else were just perfect in their roles, and they are the ones that propelled the movie forward.



I was pleasantly surprised with ‘Valkyrie' most people wont knit pick at certain things like I do so it is safe to say a good majority of movie goers out there are going to love this movie. If you saw it what did you think of it?

GeekTyrant Homepage