I wrote awhile back about how ridiculous and desperate I felt it was that Valkyrie was opening on Christmas Day. A friend emailed me later that night to point out that Schindler’s List also opened on Christmas Day. “Somehow,” I told her, “I don’t think this is going to be comparable.”
Here are some excerpts from an early review of this feel-good Hitler-assassinating holiday flick (emphasis mine).
Turns out Cruise is both the central figure in “Valkyrie” and its weakest link. He’s distractingly bad in this, the iconography of his celebrity so strongly overshadowing his performance. He’s just too powerfully contemporary. With his hard, flat American accent, he stands out in every single scene. And he’s not a good enough actor to immerse himself in this kind of period piece, or allow us to do the same. (Then again, if he had affected a German accent – or a British one to blend in among his co-stars – he would have invited derision for that, too. Maybe the guy just can’t win.) … Cruise undermines the potential of “Valkyrie” at every turn. He’s outclassed and outmatched by every member of the strong supporting cast, any of whom would have been more believable as Stauffenberg …
But we never get a sense of inner conflict, of the doubt he may have felt in betraying his duties, of the fear he may have faced in putting himself and his family in danger by going through with the plan. When Stauffenberg states with clenched-jawed, hushed certitude, “We have to kill Hitler,” we’ll just have to take his word for it that he feels strongly about the task he’s about to lead … The whole effort feels rather smoothly detached. The actual bomb-orchestration sequence is well-staged and has a few breathless moments, but a scene that’s supposed to be pivotal and poignant – when Stauffenberg reluctantly thrusts his partially amputated arm in the air and declares “Heil Hitler!” – instead comes off as laughable.
Ouch, ouch, ouch. BIG ouchies there.
I expect my headline here is going to be one of many, many, many jokes made in the next week or two where you basically pair the concept of a failed Hitler assassination with the concept of a failed movie. Collect ’em all!
i’m thinking of his most recent movies and the plot however thin, covered the fact that he just opened his eyes wide and acted shocked at the right time. boring actor.
the real question is who is a worse actor? tom cruise, nicole kidman, penelope cruz, or katie holmes?
penelope is AMAZING!! are u out of your mind!!???!!
It really is to bad,
At least their attempt to kill an important story did not fail….
They made a bad movie an could,’t even keep the facts right.
Thank you Xenu!
Hold the phone….
This movie’s NOT about Val Kilmer eating Indian food???
Damn Fandango bastards!
I don’t know about anywere else, but here in Detroit the movie “Marley and Me” is being pushed everywhere and in every way imaginable. I loved the book, but despise both Maniston and Wilson, but have decided to overlook them, because the dog is the star anyway. And it’s the feel good movie of the holiday. My guess it it will wipe the floor with all other movies, probably combined.
Tom Cruise’s movie should not open on Christmas day. It is not the kind of movie anyone wants to see during any holiday.
Tommy Cruise should have stuck with –
“You paying attention? I’m talking… G5, Pecker! That’s how you can roll. No more frequent flyer bitc* miles for my boy! Oh yeah! Playa… playa! Big dic* playa!”
The story of von Stauffenberg is really interesting and should be told in a movie. It’s just a tragedy that this stooge is doing it!
von Stauffenberg’s family has spoken out against the film as well.
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Man, I can’t get why you all take the time to hate him so much. Odd yes but evil no
Tom is so completely overrated, and so is this movie. I just saw a promo of it a few minutes ago on tv and I just kept thinking that he was trying way too hard to look sane while he was talking about it, but it just wasn’t working. You can totally see that he was on the verge of having some massive breakdown lol, I dunno he just seems really strange to me.
Arg…another possibly great movie ruined by Tom Cruise… WHEN WILL IT BE ENOUGH!?
maybe he’s over? i know it’s a matter of opinion but he was not funny in thunder whatever the title is – it was him in make up and that was all. maybe if he changed his voice? anyway…
the eye patch cracks me up every time
i don’t know why…