Critical Hit - Valkyrie
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An intense thrill ride that left me tired! That’s what Valkyrie did for me but yet…I’m not complaining.
You see, the Nazi’s were so evil that even a small few of them knew that Hitler needed to be killed because he was so crazy. Valkyrie is based upon a true story of a small group of Nazi’s that wanted to kill Hitler so that Germany could go back to being a respectable country again and not a genocidal tyrant on the world.
Let me start by saying that I had my reservations about this film. It’s never easy to do a story that paints Nazi’s in a favorable light. However, Bryan Singer, director, did a fantastic job of keeping close to the real story and making clear who was good and who was bad. In my opinion, Singer has redeemed himself. I’ve never been a fan of his films but Valkyrie has changed my mind. This was a good film. Here’s why.
Tom Cruise is one of the most insane people in the world. I hate the guy. He’s an idiot and I wanted to skip this movie just because of him. I’m glad I didn’t. He really can be a good actor. He isn’t always good but sometimes he is spot on. Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was spot on. Maybe the eye patch helped but when I looked at him, I didn’t see Cruise, I saw Stauffenberg. Another reason I liked the movie was the rest of the actors. Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel and David Bamber as Hitler all impressed me. I’ve seen these guys in other films and while I found myself saying “Hey it’s that guy from Pirates” when I first saw them, after that, they sold me on their characters. Truly this film has some fine acting going on. I have to say that Bamber was a terrific Hitler. He acted like I’ve always imagined him to be a short, quiet, creepy guy with wild outbursts of anger. That is Hitler and that is how Bamber played him.
The story is intense. You know what’s going to happen even if you know nearly nothing about history then you know that Hitler wasn’t assassinated. The plot therefore is a tad predictable since it’s based on a real. However, knowing all of that, my heart was still racing and my breath was short for the second half of the film. That impressed me. I was in the story and really tense that these guys were gonna get caught.
Bottome line? GO SEE VALKYRIE! Take your reservations that you have and throw them out the window. This isn’t a happy feeling film, its not an action film, its an intense story about a group of people trying to do that right thing in a terrible situation and its intense and I thought it was brilliant.
Until next time, be sure to hold on to your orange cards and watch out for those Critical Hits!
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