Wow. It was an amazing film, I always thought that Tom Cruise was a hideious actor but now i know that he is brilliant and looks rathers sexy in that uniform. Most people who went to see it was older than me (im only 13) but i thought it was a great film and i will go back to watch over and over again till it comes out on DVD. The critics gave it a really poor reveiw and to be quite frank, theyre not wrong but thats their opinion, and to be honest i dont think it matter if he looks like the german man, he still played the part brilliantly and i support the film 100%.
So, does this film get over the Tom Cruise factor and actually be any good? On balance, I'd say yes, it does. This isn't a great film, by any means, but it is a good one. The story, however, is an important one, one that doesn't get told anywhere near often enough - too few people realise that not everyone under Hitler was with him, that many of his armed forces hated him and everything he stood for, but that only a few of them had the courage to do anything about it. Leaving the story aside for a moment, what else do we have? With a supporting cast like this, you'd expect nothing other than great acting, but it's a bit patchy. Bill Nighy plays General Olbricht like Slartibartfast in a Nazi uniform, and he's awful. Tom Wilkinson does his usual, lumering about like a hungover grizzly, and Izzard is just plain miscast (who's idea was *that*?) The good acting comes from Stamp and Brannagh, but they're not in it anywhere near enough. And what about The Boy Wonder himself? His Cruiseness is relatively subdued here, and he's pretty convincing as Stauffenberg. But the film's main flaw is the fact that the dramatic tension never gets going, and this is only partly down to the Apoloo 13 Factor - the action gets going pretty early on, and there's not enough left to maintain the pacing right to the end. It was probably a good idea to relegate Hitler and his Fellow Nutters to bit parts, though. All in all, a worthy film, and a decent yarn, but I found it lacking.