this movie is awesome

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2008)

this movie has transformed history into a thriller. this in and of itself is somewhat of a work of genius. the camera shots and pacing of Mr singer have all the grip that i felt when watching his x-men....
and i got the same feeling of a human story... Mr singer does not condescend or preach..
the supporting actors are all first rate, absolutely top notch. i have no idea if they are historically accurate.. but the emotions that they chose to portray were entirely and wholly believable to me, as a viewer. namely, the uncertainty about the plot, the doubts, the hesitation, the pondering, and the fear. they were not instant cereal box heroes, many were worried about their own skin, and not pure bred idealists.
tom cruise, will of course be criticized... because of his acting, or because he is a scientologist. but i think his acting here is spot on. he is arrogant, brash, over confident, and a little annoying.. which is exactly what you need to be a coup assassin. let me just ask, who else could have played this role, in this movie, as well as Mr cruise? Mel Gibson? brad Pitt? George clooney? and make no mistake, its a Hollywood movie.. they needed a Hollywood star to make it...
as for Mr cruise' scientology... clearly the man is a professional and did not bring anything to the film set except his dedication to do a good job in this role. i don't like a lot of things the CoS does, then again, i don't like a lot of things that religions do... or atheists for that matter. so give the guy a break. its not like he eats babies (err.. right?)
my only quibble is with the ending. (ok, if it turns out there are horrible historical mistakes, id quibble with that too...but i have to give them as much a break as i would any history based thriller). i wish it would have been a Hollywood ending! yes, the hero dies, we all know its coming. but what about 'saving private Ryan' ending? that was a beautiful ending. what about an ending showing the German resistance memorial, in the modern day? i think it would have been nice to say that dying to stop Hitler, was not such a tragedy... the tragedy would have been if he had not tried to stop Hitler.
and there are some who say 'it was too late in the war... would have made no difference'... but there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, killed in the last 9 months of the European war. and for those who say, these men just wanted power, not to save Europe.... well, this movie clearly shows that angle... as i mentioned above. the actors are brilliant.
i must also praise the set people and photographers, costume and props departments. the scenes of soldiers dashing about various buildings, the plane rides, the wolfs lair... they all add very much to the drama and emotion of the film.. in the best tradition of Hollywood popcorn munching film. yes it might be unnecessary, but it is not unwelcome. i would dare to say, it rather drew me in and helped transport me.
anyways, if you are a neo Nazi, you will probably hate this film.. so go skip it. if you have no interest in politics or history, also skip it. if you want a lot of killing, explosions, and mindless action, skip it. if you are still reading this, after all i have said... then you might like it.