24 May 2012

Great movie, bad set...

The only thing I want to say about the movie itself is that it is pretty good. If you are just going off the negative review then do yourself a favor and rent it.Now, for those collectors that like two-disc sets with extra features, skip this edition. The only thing this set has over the one-disc is the digital copy. You will be paying $10+ for a digital copy.

Ram Logan

23 May 2012

Engrossing political thriller

It was heartening to know that this was based on a True Story. Good toknow even under Hitler's rule, people had the courage to stand up forwhat was right. So thanks to Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer for lettingthe world know about such people and their efforts.The movie was well made and had some great acting. As mentioned by theother IMDb reviewers, the supporting cast had done their job toperfection.But on the flip side, there were just too many characters in the movieand all with some significance. So you had to stay alert at all timesin the movie and not miss a single sequence. The other drawback I hadwas that the very essence of the movie (suspense) was lost even beforeit began. Since everyone knows its a failed assassination plot, whatwas I waiting for in the Climax? So while I empathized with them Icouldn't root for the protagonists.But all in all, it was a good drama and should find something in theAcademy awards this year! 8/10

22 May 2012

Great movie, important people participating in the plot are omitted though.

This movie has had a great impact on me, I had to watch the movie over and it makes me feel very sad for those brave men who really wanted to do something right but were doomed since the inception of their plan due to rats in their surroundings. We all should take lessons from this plot and how it went. One mistake the group made was the order to take over all of the cities, divisions, radio stations, etc without any on the spot executions. How do you expect same people that 3 minutes ago were working for the other side, all of a sudden start working for you? We are talking about a serious operation here, not some furniture shop business. I'm sure if they would have given orders to shoot all SS, Gestapo and other high command men who were down with Hitler, and if they would have put their own people in all the important communication posts etc, things would have been different. I don't know why people hate Tom Cruise's performance, that was a brilliant role. He played it smooth, you get a feeling that it was Clause von Stauffenberg himself, that's how much he captured me. The individual who was involved in the plot and who miraculously was not executed was Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager. Me fathoms he was one of the man along with Alfred Delp S.J. (perhaps unknowingly) leaking the info to the right people about the plot and all of its intricacies. Should not be a surprise here, as man was taught by the Jesuits, "for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived" - Revelation 18:23. Of course his son H. E. Albrecht Freiherr von Boeselager is also a Knight of Malta, nice reward there for bringing all those men who dared to go against the Holy Inquisition to their quick departure from this planet. We also have The Jesuit provincial, Augustin Rösch introducing before mentioned Alfred Delp S.J. to the conspirators circle. Hence we have Jesuits knowing everything and anything they needed to know about the plot as Alfred Delp S.J. played a patsy role perhaps not knowing it, for which he was executed. All the German patriots were removed thus, as there is no place for REAL PATRIOTS in this world, we all need be exterminated. Another genius plan hatched by the Society of Jesus in their 500+ year history, BRAVO!!!!I agree that movies dealing with foreign affairs should be played by actors of that country or at least those who speak language. If you watch movies where German side has Germans and they speak German, it makes it look that much better. Sure, you have to read captions, but hey, if you want more realistic action, it shouldn't be a major block for you. There is a German movie called "Operation Valkyrie" with German actors, so you might want to check that one out if you want some German taste.

jemps918

22 May 2012

Educational and entertaining

Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, X-Men, X2, Superman Returns)steps away from his typical fantastic stories and instead embarks on astraight-forward historical drama with Valkyrie.Based on the true story of the German resistance's plot to kill Hitler,Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) is a decorated war herosecretly against the Fuhrer. He gets an opportunity to do somethingabout it by joining the German resistance, and they plot a daring coupto topple Hitler's Germany.Carice van Houten (who oddly looks like Vilma Santos!) plays vonStauffenberg's wife Nina, and while without much dialogue, effectivelytransmits emotion on screen with the slightest of expressions. Thisacting style is strongly echoed by the rest of the cast: KennethBranagh (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Hamlet) plays thecunning Major-General Henning von Tresckow, who enlists him in theresistance; Bill Nighy (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Noteson a Scandal, Love Actually) plays the wishy-washy General FriedrichOlbricht and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton, Eternal Sunshine of theSpotless Mind) plays the careerist General Friedrich Fromm. Thehandsome Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, King Kong) plays yet anotherironic role as Nazi supporter, Major Otto Ernst Remer.Reminiscent of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, Valkyrie is beautifully told inbittersweet fashion. The suspense and drama are efficiently translatedby the stellar cast, told in a wonderful, old-school way ofstorytelling. Educational and entertaining.

ARTaylor

20 May 2012

A Great Cast Drives This Excellent Thriller

This is an enjoyable movie. It isn't quite as different as The UsualSuspects but it's still an intriguing film. The German channel ZDFsummed it up well: Valkyrie is "neither scandalously bad nor the eventof the century...Neither is it the action thriller we feared, but it isa well-made and serious film." The story is suspenseful, filled with tension to keep you glued to it.It isn't bogged down with pointless side stories to add needless drama."Will he do it for the world or will he chicken out to be with hisfamily?" There's already enough going on with just trying to get it allplanned out and get everyone on board. The movie's like the characters,know what needs to be done and just goes for it. And I liked that theydidn't delve into every character's back story and reason for trying tokill Hitler. It's 2008/09. We know there's plenty of reasons for peopleto kill the man. Besides, that would have just added twenty to thirtyminutes of dialog and exposition just to say that Hitler is bad.This proved to be a great role for Tom Cruise. For once he doesn't justbreak out in a run for some random reason trying to be an action star.Here he goes back to what he's good at, like his older roles in A FewGood Men or Rain Man. He's a good actor but not when he's runningaround. Maybe we can finally forget about him on the couch and think ofhis acting.The rest of the cast works perfectly. Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, andthe ever lovable Terence Stamp are all in top form. There doesn't seemto be a single person who could be replaced with someone better.The production values are great, certainly nothing is donehalf-hearted. Everything looks amazing and is well done, the kind oftouch Bryan Singer brings. I like all of Singer's movies. UsualSuspects, X-Men 1 & 2, and even Superman Returns. He's no ChristopherNolan or Steven Spielberg but he's still a fine director.My only real problem with the movie is I wish there was some extrapunch to it. This is a real historical account. Therefore we alreadyknow how it ends. Anyone who would see this movie should have enougheducation from grade school to know that this plot didn't kill Hitler.This is the problem that faced the Star Wars prequel trilogy. How tomake it engaging when the audience knows the ending. He did a good jobbut I feel he could have gone further. Maybe Singer should have taken apage from Nolan's book and made it non-linear. Perhaps played up thesuspense of Hitler trying to communicate before the plotters succeeded.Or something a little more that would have pushed it from a good movieto great one.It's an exciting thriller that I recommend to everyone. It showcasesnot only an important event but one of the best parts of humanity. Theplotters weren't saints but normal, average human beings trying to begood. They stood up in the midst of insurmountable odds to do what isright. And the fact that it was all true made it all the more touching.And in the end it did what all movies should aspire to do: I leftwanting to see it again.

19 May 2012

Grand Suspenseful Story, but...

There have been five versions of `Valkyrie' told on screen in the last twenty years. 1990 had the excellent Brad Davis in "The Plot To Kill Hitler", 2004 had "Operation Valkyrie" by Sebastion Koch and 2008 produced two films, "Killing Hitler: The True Story Of The Valkyrie Plot" and "Operation Valkyrie: The Stauffenberg Plot To Kill Hitler". For those interested, the word valkyrie is derived from `old horse' valkyrja (referring to the slain on the battlefield) and the verb kjósa (meaning "to choose"). Together, the words mean "chooser of the slain." A word chosen by Hitler himself. The story tells of the 1944 attempt by several High Command German Officers to asassinate Hitler and take over control of the German government. Colonel Stauffenberg led a resistance group who managed to plant a bomb in Hitler's battlefield headquarters. The bomb went off. We all know how Hitler really died.Now this year we have "Valkyrie" starring a host of grand actors like, Tom Wilkinson, Terrance Stamp, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy and Eddie Izzard. Hitler is played to perfection by a lesser-known actor named David Bamber. All sport British/German accents, which helps the credibility of the story. Then we have Tom Cruise as Colonel Stauffenberg. He is horrendously and miserably miscast. The beginning of the film has a Tom Cruise sound-alike German voice speaking that tries to slowly evolve into Cruise's American voice. It's as big a bomb as the one that goes off in Hitler's bunker.The direction by Bryan Singer is, of course, well done with first class cinematography and surround sounds of explosions and gunfire. All the acting is first rate, except for Tom Cruise who rarely raises his voice and looks meek and stoic throughout the film. I am sorry to bash Mr. Cruise, but he is just terribly miscast. He shows little emotion, drive or passion. Brad Davis in the 1990 version was excellent, showing a wide range of emotions, especially towards the plot, his companions and his family. In fact, Davis successful changes his accent even if it isn't perfect German or British. The Singer film is perfectly adequate, but I found myself sighing every time Cruise appears on film (and not the good kind of sighing). Singer does manage to be faithful to the original story, only changing some scenes to highlight Cruise. Many of the scenes of the Stauffenberg house, the bunker in the forest and others are identical and it manages to feel like WWII Germany (it was filmed there), but the ending set-up seems contrived, even if it is true. The Stauffenberg family was imprisoned and released a few years later, something not noted in the Singer film.If you have never heard the story, it is an amazing part of history. The supporting cast couldn't be better and Director Singer knows how to handle suspense and the horrors of war. However, Tom Cruise is simply "Risky Business" Tom Cruise in a German uniform. He is completely out of place. Enjoy the film with that warning.

DarkestOperator

19 May 2012

Manages to be suspenseful despite predictable ending

The first thing I want to say in writing this review is that anyoneeven vaguely familiar with history will already know how this movieturns out. The fact that the director managed to make this filmsuspenseful despite an inevitable ending is the most impressive aspectof this film. Given that I am an avid fan of military history,particularly from World War II, I just had to see this movie. Now I amnot the biggest fan of Tom Cruise since the guy has gone down as a bitof a psycho, but he did a top-notch job portraying the tragicallydoomed Colonel Stauffenberg. Another impressive feat that the makerspulled off was that the people they cast actually resembled theirhistorical counterparts, particularly Hitler. The music was what keptthis movie going, however. It was well-crafted and I was hooked frombeginning to end, every minute. Best movie of the holiday season I haveseen to date.9/10. Good movie considering it had Tom Cruise.

18 May 2012

Somewhat Disappointed

This review is from: Valkyrie (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD) I was expecting more from this movie. Although it probably followed the facts of the attempt on Hitler's life, it was pedantic and somewhat boring to me. Guess I'm too used to the fast paced shoot-em-up of todays' films, although I do enjoy factual historical films and have a large collection of war movies, some true some fiction.This if not Tom Cruise's greatest work. He did a much better job in "Collateral" and "A Few Good Men"

moviemaniac008

17 May 2012

Its so hard to believe that it was a true story! My opinion says I should put it between The Dark Knight and Eagle Eye!

Now, I know I put the spoiler warning, but maybe I shouldn't, becauseif you do know a bit about World War II, then you know that theconspiration didn't quite work the way it should be. After all, AdolfHitler committed suicide by shooting himself, didn't he? But still, thelast thing I want is some jerk coming and saying that my commentcontains spoilers and have my name on IMDb's blacklist and have therest of my comments unread. It's just too bad that their conspiracydidn't work because these guys had it all planned. Also, I found thatno matter how you can criticize Tom Cruise, you can't agree more on thefact that he was perfect for the role of Claus Von Stauffenberg. Idon't really like him either, but this movie was excellent and that'spartly because of him.Story (and be careful, this one here probably contains spoilers):Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg is a Nazi soldier who, after being hurtbadly in Africa, returns to Germany, where he is invited to join a Nazigroup, who are revolting against the mighty Adolf Hitler. After comingup with a plan, the conspiration comes up with operation ''Valkyrie'',which is a big job for Stauffenberg. After all, not only is he incharge of creating a government of opposition, but he is also in chargeof assassinating Hitler by placing a bomb under the dictator's desk. Myfriend's father watched the film with us and he already knew the story,still, like me and my friend who had hardly learned about this WWIIepisode were hanging on the edge of our seats. Of course, all theactors such as Bill Nighy especially, did a good job, but not as goodas Tom Cruise.Top 5 of 2008 (suggested by me): Wanted (#5), Harold and Kumar escapefrom Guantanamo bay (#4), Eagle Eye (#3), Valkyrie (#2), The DarkKnight (of course, # 1)

Kyle Smith

16 May 2012

Valkyrie is a taut suspense flick for grown-ups that asks: What if ruthless German efficiency had been used against Hitler?

sharktrooper21

14 May 2012

One of the Greater Films of 2008

I know that opinions will be mixed on this but I must say that Valkyrieis one of the better film that Modern Hollywood has produced. Yeah thisis a movie that is trying to tell the public that not all Nazis wereNazis. And you know what? They're right.Let's face it, Germany has kind of become the model country where the"evil people" are born all thanks to Hitler. So you would think that,for once, a movie that portrays Germans as good guys would receivebetter reception. I mean, that is one of the higher parts of this moviein my opinion, to try and stop the hate. I might be exaggerating butthat's probably how this film is going to be interrupted. And I have toadmit, it is refreshing to see people with appearances that are usuallyassociated with villains being portrayed as the heroes.I would strongly suggest this film to anybody but keep in mind thatthis is a MOVIE. You want a historically correct film? That's what thehistory channel is for.

Greg Maki

14 May 2012

The movie looks good and seems to hit all the right notes, yet never quite connects or resonates like it should.

11 May 2012

Very good movie

We were very impressed by this movie. Put together well and the actor's did their parts with excellence. We have wondered how different the world would be if hitler was assassinated in July 1944. May God give peace to those who gave their lives opposing men like hitler and the evil in the world. Great movie!

RelativeDisposition

11 May 2012

Would Hitler himself have displayed more emotions portraying von Stauffenberg (than Cruise)?

I find it ironic that in a movie where there is no such thing as onlytwo dimensions (to the emotional states of the characters), that TomCruise finds a way to make this possible. I'm saying that as a personwho has generally liked Tom Cruise, and really liked him in a couple offilms. I can't remember a movie where I've thought the general acting,and story line was very good, but cared so little for the maincharacter.The movie follows a good story line; the only thing I really would haveliked to see more of was some of the communications that went on behindthe scenes towards the end, to add a little more depth from ahistorical perspective, and to build a little bit more suspense. I alsodid not have a huge admiration for the Hitler impersonation, as I didnot find disgust enough for his character, but came in with lowexpectations of being impressed with those scenes anyway.I thought the acting was generally very good, and the characterslikable. Even some of the characters who didn't have any lines did agreat job of displaying their emotions just from facial expressionsalone.That brings us to the main character who I thought seemed more likeHitler than did Hitler himself in the film. Besides a couple of sceneswhere the character was obviously distressed, and found in tensesituations, I thought Cruise made for a very unlikeable and very twodimensional character. I didn't even realize the lack of emotional tiesI had to his character until after the film had ended. Watch some ofthe behind the scenes footage as well, and see if you get a veryunemotional impression of him there as well from how he talks to theother actors on set, like I did. I thought that the von Stauffenbergcharacter was turned into a two dimensional being of almost pure actionand decisiveness, when in reality, that poor man must have gone throughemotional distress that few of us could even imagine - I felt the moviecompletely missed out on this very important aspect.7 stars for the storyline and general acting, but the lack likabilityfor the main character brings it down to 6 stars.

t

11 May 2012

expected the worst, loved it

I'll keep it simple, Cruise almost kept me from seeing the film. I am glad I went. Cruise detracted nothing from the film, in fact, he did an excellent though reserved job.Let yourself join the group of main characters, feel their emotions (e.g. from spite to hatred to fear to paranoia) and you'll be lost in the effort the film covers.Not the world's best film but i'm going again.

Erwin Alois

10 May 2012

99.9 Historcially accurate

I think the movie decpits the events around July 20th 1944 with 99.9% accuracy. I am from Germany and studied the German Resistance movement and the plot of July 20th 1944 in detail. There are only minor tweaks to the story that are really irrelevant, such as the fact that General Beck was taken to a different room to shoot himself, he did not shoot himself in the same room that the other conspirators were lined up.I do not like Tom Cruise for various reasons, but I think he did an outstanding job of acting as Oberst i.G. Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. I did not mind the American accent, in the first scene his German was outstanding without any accent.I higly recommedn anybody watching this movie, as the average American has no idea that there were over 10 attempts on Hitler's life.Also an important fact to note, some German Historians estimate the number of members of the German Resistance killed after July 20th 1944 in the thousands. Another fact, if the German heros that tried to eliminate Hitler that day would have succeeded they could have saved millions of lives by ending the war quickly. There were more people killed from July 20th 1944 to May 8th 1945 than in the previous 5 years of war.Erwin A. Raeth

Dan Jolin

07 May 2012

A film more concerned with 'how' than 'why' or 'who', Valkyrie would have benefited from more scrutiny and complexity. Still, once the bomb goes off, the thrills come in spades.

Christopher Tookey

07 May 2012

I was never bored, and the period detail is lovingly observed; but there is a sense of an opportunity missed.

07 May 2012

Valkyrie - a great film

This review is from: Valkyrie (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD) An accurate dramatization of an historical event. "What if?" What if it had succeeded? The war in Europe might have ended sooner and millions of lives saved. But even though the attempt to remove Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy failed it demonstrated for all time that there were some Germans who resisted and paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Jennifer Miller

06 May 2012

Sure, it's complicated to set up the assassination of a lunatic dictator, but does it have to be so boring?