Valkyrie was a mostly compelling historical World War II drama starring Tom Cruise

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2009)

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that after the bombing in the beginning of this movie, I fell asleep during the talky sequences during much of the first hour. That said, when the plans of the title went into action, I was riveted for the most part. Tom Cruise is fine as the attempted heroic von Stauffenberg character despite what that real-life person suffered in his attempt at killing Adolf Hitler. And Bryan Singer does provide some suspenseful moments during the last hour. And while I did miss some of Carice van Houten's scenes as Cruise's wife, what I did see were some beautiful frames of her kissing her husband goodbye. Maybe next time I'd give this movie a higher rating but for now I'm giving this a 7.