Thursday, December 4, 2008

Valkyrie: A review


Ok so last night i had the distinct pleasure of getting to see a movie well before its release date. Thanks to Alex Kitz, who through his contacts in the biz, scored two sneak preview tickets to Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise. However he couldn't attend due to a previous engagement, so he forwarded the tickets on to myself, and having no significant other to speak of, i invited the man known only as "The Comfort" to be my date.

So we showed up good and early cause apparently they give out more tickets than their are seats to ensure a full house. Mumf rocked a popcorn drink combo, while i chose a more conservative route and went with Glosette Peanuts and a medium Fruitopia strawberry passion awareness. The theatre filled up, 7p.m. hit, and so began Valkyrie.

Now i won't get too in deep in terms of plot or any of that noise. Because i don't want to ruin the movie for anyone. I'll just give a quick little summary of what the movie's about and what i thought of it. For those who don't know, Valyrie refers to "Operation Valkyrie", which was the name of a plan the Germans had in place for the activation of their reserve army in the case of an emergency. Essentially the basic plot, which doesn't ruin anything by the way, revolves around a group of high ranking officials in Germany's army. Many of which are very close to Hitler himself. Their plan is to assassinate Hitler and end all the atrocities being committed against mankind. Basically kill Hitler, seize power, and arrange a truce for the end of the war. Tom Cruise's character, Colonel Schottenhammel or something like that, amazingly i already forget his name. There's a lesson for you kids, don't do drugs. Anyways he is one of the leaders of this plot and it is his responsibility to pull off the assassination. I won't go any further than that.

Overall i'd give the movie an A-. I'm not sure why i don't give it an A. Because you know what, it was damn good. I enjoyed that the Director Brian Singer didn't try and make an overblown action movie out of the story. He didn't fill it full of explosions and gore or shock footage. The story was centred around the plan and strategy of pulling this insane operation off. It always helps when you know something is based on actual events aswell because you can sit there and be amazed that yes, in one form or another, this actually did happen! The acting is really good, and i kind of enjoyed the first scene of the movie, where at first they have everyone speaking in German and subtitles below, and then it morphs into English. Basically it's a weird little trick that says, "yes they are speaking German, but you're going to hear it in English". One thing that seemed a little overdone, was that any time any person was doing something, there would be like silence from everyone else and ominous music playing that suggested everyone knew what was up. Suspicious glances everywhere. Made me feel like if Tom Cruise was taking a pee, he and a guy in the next urinal would be eyeing each other up and down suspiciously wondering if the other one was going to crack him in the face with his dong. But i suppose towards the end of World War II, that was probably everyone's general mood for the most part, suspicious of everyone and everything, so it makes sense.

To finish up, go see Valkyrie, it's worth it for sure, it's not a movie you wait to see on TMN, cause it's a fine film, just don't take Mumford, he doesn't hold hands and refuses to pay for your snacks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

screw tom cruise and screw you.
I'm pretty sure the historical accuracy of this movie is scientological fabrication at it's best. another career move by tom cruise to try and get us to think he's "normal" and not "pro hitler", when in fact, we all know, if tommy matheson III or whatever the hell his real name is, was alive in that period, the nazi party would have been his scientology....unless he's jewish....

Anonymous said...

God bless folks who go to see the flick, sounds like it might even be OK.

Just couldn't look at myself in the mirror if I did.

PS: since I don't have an account, name is Jonathan

Anonymous said...

I expect it to be a good movie too, even though I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan.