Mediocre movie, and Cruise is hopelessly miscast as a Germanic aristocrat. He simply cannot pull it off.

Rating: 5/10 (4 January 2009)

The review by Michael Malak in which he tells us how much this movie helps his 9 year old recognize "Good Guys and Bad Guys" is as unhelpful to us as seeing the movie is for his son. The Germanic peoples were not accidentally "roped in" to doing something against their will during World War II. And von Stauffenberg, though admittedly brave--as were all the plotters--was not a hero. (People who undertake extremely dangerous and risky schemes have to have courage, but that is different from heroism.)You have to remember that Germany started the war on September 1, 1939. The plot in this film came about after almost five years of atrocities and aggression. The whole idea popped into Stauffenberg's head not for "humanitarian" concerns or "moral" consciousness, but because the war was going very badly for the Germans. If Germany had been winning the war hands down, he never would have contemplated this. I worry that the Germans today, what with their monument to him and other plotters and such, are not inventing "heroes" so as to avoid the real lessons of history. The movie is also mediocre at best. 2 - 2½ stars.