Movie Review... Valkyrie

Valkyrie is a remake... of a film... about a story... of a real incident during Adolf Hitler's manic obsession with waging World War 2.

Soldiers of the Third Reich took a sacred oath to give unconditional obedience to Hitler. Some took this twisted oath seriously, and some understood their higher duty to save human lives. Some understood that Adolf Hitler was the arch enemy of the world.

Tom Cruise was cast as Col. Stoffenberg, and entered the story in Germany's North Africa front.

It's 1943, and it's evident there are attempts by several factions to assassinate Hitler. One substantial plan takes advantage of Germany's own "Plan B" to use the home guard troops to seize control after an assassination of the Fuehrer. Operation Valkyrie is born.

There's Hitler's private residence, the Burghoff. There's the plan, the bomb, the assemblage of conspirators. There's the Wolf's Lair. Himmler's not at the briefing, and there's the postponement and the reload. There are the gutless conspirators who crippled the brave conspirators. There's the insufficient bomb. Just not enough tonnage... not enough blast pressure.

Nevertheless, now commence Operation Valkyrie, but alas, the Fuehrer is not as dead as the cold pine knot cinder they'd hoped for.

"I want you to take the traitors alive. Col. Stoffenberg, by orders of the Fueher, you are under arrest."

"Make ready... aim... fire."

Valkyrie has shortcomings as dire as the twelve lead slugs in Stoffenberg's liver: Dialogue is lacking in numerous segments. Characters are speaking softly, like Brits... not Germans. These are actors, not passionate soldiers. Soft spoken, not brusque. I sensed thousands of patrons in hundreds of theaters making snoring sounds. My sounds were light and steady.

I kept thinking Tom Cruise was standing on an eight inch platform for all the scenes. None of the drama awoke me from my "short Tom" suspicion. Oh, well, give this slack cob of corn a 4. Don't ask for more.

REVIEWER #2: Well, unfortunately, movies that are made about events that you know the outcome of, are hard to grab audiences. The assassination of Hilter obviously failed, as we all know, but I guess learning about how one was attempted was a bit interesting. On top of that, any true story is always interesting to watch because you know it happened that way.
It was just OK. A little bit interesting, a little bit cool and a little bit Rock and Roll. Hand salute this baby into the books with a solid 6.