Valkyrie








Director - Bryan Singer

Genre - Drama/History/Thriller/War


Tom Cruise teams up with Bryan Singer to play the mastermind of a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Realizing that Hitler is destroying his beloved German, Cruise's one eyed character with a stump for a hand (he was injured in an explosion) decides to join a rebellion group which has had enough of Hitler's evil ways. The film takes a bit of getting used to because everyone's supposed to be in Germany but nobody's speaking German. Cruise speaks the language he uses towards Katie and Suri everyday. He doesn't even bother with putting on an accent. The suspense in most scenes are also halved as we know Hitler would remain safe. Overall, we get this movie. We know it tried to show how not every German is bad. Many have actually tried to stop this mad dictator, but were dealt a terrible fate instead. That doesn't equate it being a good movie. Watchable history lesson made with flair? Heil yes!

2.5 STARS!

All about Valkyrie

Comments

Shubhajit said…
"Watchable history lesson made with flair? Heil yes!" Absolutely. I too agree Valkyrie isn't a great work of art by any stretch of imagination. But its a fun watch nonetheless.

And when Americans superstars enact the role of foreigners in American movies, they usually speak with American accents ;)

By the way, I've posted my best of the decade list. Waiting to hear from you.
June 22, 2010 at 10:31 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
Yeah. We never knew before watching 'Valkyrie' about this part of Hitler's life and of these Germans who actually did try with all their might to stop him. What was horrific about this dark moment of history is that Hitler's luck was incredibly good. How else are we to explain a completely mad man being allowed to manipulate his whole country in committing one of the most heinous crimes ever? And even after that, his luck didn't run out as evidenced by the failed murder attempts made by his detractors.

'Valkyrie' may not be perfect but it surely isn't a frivolous movie either. Thank you for your comment buddy.
June 23, 2010 at 6:48 AM
Dan (Top10Films) said…
Appalling film. I couldn't tell whether I was in Germany, a Cornish southern English town, or California. The accents were all over the place. No tension whatsoever. This Hollywoodized version of history would be annoying if it was even watchable.
June 23, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Shubhajit said…
The last 100 years or so has seen a number of mad men wielding enormous power to further their insane beliefs and propaganda. Hitler might have taken matters to whole different plane altogether, but there have been others vying for the 2nd best spot, e.g. Stalin (who might have actually murdered more than Hitler even, though his madness was far more subtle), Himmler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, etc., and their legacy has been continued till this date with the likes of Bin Laden, Saeed Hafiz, George Bush (both Sr. & Jr.), Saddam Hussain, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Slobodan Milosevic, etc. to name a few.

As they say, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". That's the sad fact of human history.
June 23, 2010 at 10:30 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
Dan - We're with you on the part about Germans not speaking Germans. Hollywood in many instances do pander too much to the general audience. It is done to reach as many people as possible, English being the international language. Still, we feel that compared to many other crap out there, this one isn't as bad as you said.

Shubhajit - Yes, you're right Bush Sr. and Jr. belong in that group of evildoers too! And Bush Jr. although not mad was as idiotic as they come. Sadly, the wars he and his dad instigated were supported by those who craved riches (oil and the selling of weaponry), damning innocents to their deaths in the process.
June 25, 2010 at 9:49 AM
illusions said…
While watching the movie I thought that its enough time that people start to understand that putting 'Nazi Uniforms','SS tags' etc is not enough to make a movie good. Its not a book we are reading, films are different. When i was a kid I read about this in a paperback with the heading 'The Attempt' (a 'Commando' type paperback comics book) and undoubtedly it was far better than the film. I saw a lot of people gave a high ratting to this film(i don't know why). But I agree with you guys ratting completely.
January 9, 2011 at 7:37 AM
1minutefilmreview said…
Thank you for agreeing with us. There are times when we've felt that maybe we should ease up a little on movies that we have issues with. It is getting responses like yours which keep us doing what we do. Telling it as it is and making the world safer from mediocre or bad films.
January 13, 2011 at 7:57 AM
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