Walküre

Nazis! Conspiracies! Cruise! Rejoice! 'cause Valkyrie has all three. Though they don't come together as they one could have hoped, Bryan Singer has succeeded in bringing something a little less Superman Returns and a little more The Usual Suspects. 

This is not a war movie, it's not about the horrific nature of the Third Reich or its controllers, the Nazis (or their awesome leather trench coats). All these are merely the backdrop to tell a story of the heroic acts of a courageous few that stood up to what they knew as evil. 

And evil Hitler was. Singer made sure to keep him out of direct lens focus to ensure the diabolical puppeteer behind the scenes to stay true to our image of the Fuhrer. David Bamber performed the role as it should have been. Another stand out was Clarice van Houten, Stauffenberg's wife. It was unfortunate she was given such a small role as not only was she the only one with an authentic German accent, she's a phenominal actress. The acting of all others involved was equally fitting. 

Where they all succeeded, they all equally failed. Near every actor, regardless of birthplace, threw all regard for authenticity to the dogs and gave their character an English accent. Even as these supposed Nazis are scheming against the Brits, they speak their evil doings in proper English. Tom Cruise apparently decided not to stoop so low and brought in nothing but his gold, ol' fashioned American tongue for most of the film. In the prologue, he speaks in German. If the entire movie was done in this way, it would have been far more historical and believable. Why Mr. Singer chose to allow so many different forms of English or the English language in general is beyond me. In any case, this mess of cross cultural Nazi slander gave Valkyrie even less credibility; it seemed these Nazi freedom fighters weren't German at all, but in fact Allied soldiers dressed up in swastikas.

Valkyrie is based on a true story and it stayed very close to fact; near all events portrayed in the film are as they were 54 years ago. I would recommend reading up on the historical events that actually happened, they're quite fascinating. If not, just take my word for it, Valkyrie is near dead on. Though slow in some areas and unbelievable in others, for the shere historical value, Valkyrie should be on your list of films to see, it exemplifies the bravery and heroism of individuals needed then and now.