'Valkyrie' Reviews: Tom Cruise A 'Bit Stiff,' Film 'Coolly Efficient'

The first official reviews of Tom Cruise's Nazi thriller Valkyrie are out. The movie opens on Christmas Day. The reviews are modest but good, kind to the acting the production values but disappointed in the lack of suspense, as the ending is a known bad outcome.

Variety's Valkyrie review:

After a long takeoff, "Valkyrie" finally takes flight as a thriller in its second half but never soars very high. Bryan Singer's long-awaited account of the near-miss assassination of Adolf Hitler by a ring of rebel German army officers on July 20, 1944, has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense. This second production from Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner at United Artists will do better than the first, "Lions for Lambs," but is a decidedly odd choice for Christmas Day release, and looks destined for just so-so commercial returns.

Cruise himself is a bit stiff but still adequate as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the handsome, aristocratic officer whose disenchantment with Nazism, the Fuehrer and the war finds sympathetic ears among a sizable number of military bigwigs at a time when the tide has turned against Germany in the East and an Allied invasion is expected imminently in the West.

Variety did not have a problem with Cruise's American accent:

The star's neutral Yank accent contrasts with the British voices that surround him but, truth be told, it is more the Anglo intonations coming out of the German characters that sound oddly disconcerting.

From The Hollywood Reporter's Valkyrie review:

Bottom Line: Well-crafted historical thriller boasts fine performances but fails to probe the motives behind the plot to kill Hitler.

After keeping "Valkyrie" under wraps for months and moving its release date four times, MGM has finally pulled back the curtains on its Tom Cruise historical thriller to reveal a coolly efficient, entertaining and straightforward tale about the last of 15 known assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler.

Working against the known outcome of this plot, director Bryan Singer -- reunited with his "The Usual Suspects" screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and his writing partner Nathan Alexander -- manages to maintain suspense and involvement in the unfolding conspiracy...

All details are convincing and presumably well researched. The film has a documentary-like authenticity yet remains a sleek thriller filled with flawed heroes and catastrophic missteps.

Singer has crafted a fine film. One just wishes for greater details -- and a different ending.

WATCH THE TRAILER:

Comments

[miamia]

People are just obsessed with Cruise.

[sc92705]

I applaud and thank Tom Cruise, Kevin Branaugh, and the rest of the cast and crew for simply making this movie; its a story that needed to be told just like Holacaust movies. There is the danger that WW 2 will be sanitized with time; this helps keep the truth alive.

Kevin Branaugh made an HBO movie a few years ago that detailed the keep meeting to plan the "Final Solution". Its not a popular movie but that story definitely needed to be told on the screen.
I put "Valkyrie" in the same category.

[cursesucks]

Tom Cruise sucks as an actor. If you want to ruin a movie let Tom Cruise star in it. I would not waste my time with this movie.

[strength]

you are just bitter that he is making it out of his tough times! He was great in Tropic thunder and he has some projects that will bring him back to the forefront, I bet Him and WS are planning a huge movie for the final chapter of the comeback. Cruise still rocks, even if he is a little weird, but arent we all, i mean there is someone on this board with the call sign cursesucks...hmm

totally joking here, sorta

[ENK727]

It's probably not a bad movie, but we already know the outcome. No offense to Tom, but it would be hard for me to watch him in this movie. Sometimes seeing really famous people in certain parts ruins the movie for me because they are so over exposed. I wonder how many people will want to go watch a movie like this on Christmas Day when it opens.

[westreal]

I want to see this movie. Not a huge Cruise fan but he makes good movies. They're worth the money.

[InternationalObserver]

Any chance they can change the ending and then distribute free copies on DVD to all and sundry in Zimbabwe?

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

"The reviews are modest but good, kind to the acting the production values but disappointed in the lack of suspense, as the ending is a known bad outcome." Well, as the "ending is a known bad outcome," why didn't they just change the ending? By the way, how did the quoted sentence get past the editors?

[kidflash]

change the ending? you are kidding right? this was history.

[PaleMail]

Lukewarm reviews from Variety and Hollywood Reporter = very bad movie.

[WilliamBudd]

This movie will be box office magic.
Watch it disappear before our eyes.

[SkuddGobang]

I'm about as interested in seeing that movie as I am in deep frying my face.

[falls1105]

All right I changed my mind .I wached the trailer, itsn't bad I like mindless thriller.

[CatladyLinda]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I find the remark that Tom Cruise's acting was "a bit stiff" kind of strange given that he is playing the part of a German Nazi. Isn't that the very definition of "stiff"? I would say he must have nailed it.

[falls1105]

Penn is an actors actor ,simply GOOD

[mechadave]

This is a strange tale, not heroic at all. Most of the conspirators were either committed Nazis or otherwise supported Hitler until it was obvious that Germany was losing the war. In fact, it is worth wondering, "what if they had killed Hitler?" Would they have surrendered unconditionally, or would the new masters of Nazi Germany have offered to join Britain and the USA in fighting the USSR? I doubt that Hitler's demise would have ended the war at that time given the desperation of the Germans.
A strange vehicle for a Cruise heroic role. Perhaps he is so brainwashed from his cult that Nazis can seem virtuous to him?
Cruise is a joke. A bad actor and kind of dumb.

[kidflash]

Interesting comments Dave. A successful assassination of Hitler may have actually backfired on the allies. Hitler was not a very good military strategist. Had he been assassinated he probably would have been replaced by one of his generals who actually was much more competent. I believe this is why the British ceased in their attempts to kill him. I am interested in this period so will probably see the movie.

[QueenOfViolets]

This story sounds morally confusing so far. Why root for a Nazi at all? Eeeew. Just because someone wants to kill Hitler doesn't mean he's a good person. Maybe he was mad at Hitler for failing to win the war. That would make him even more evil than Hitler IMO.

I can recommend something better -- the drama "God on Trial" which ran on PBS under the banner Masterpiece Contemporary. A group of prisoners in Auschwitz decide to put God on trial for breaking his covenant with the Jewish people.

Gets into the soul. Worth watching.