Tom Cruise in his absolute best performance

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2009)

Although, you can say a lot about Tom Cruise that doesn't always sound flattering, you can not deny that he is more than just a former teen idol who rested on his laurels.
After going through the 80s and 90s seeing him in such dismal efforts as Cocktail and Days of Thunder, (Not Top Gun, since far from being the most brilliant film, it is pretty cool), where he pretty much played the same character, he actually keeps his character affectation-free.
It was a wise choice not to attempt to give the characters German accents as well because that always lead to unintentional hilarity (think Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove). Apart from Cruise, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson are also first rate. Eddie Izzard is especially good in a pivotal role and is almost unrecognizable.
The director, Bryan Singer is a master at creating tension at the right moments, causing the mystery to be not that easy to figure out as might expected. The ending is a bit drawn out but overall you get kind of swept up in a story, you basically know how will end.