Valkyrie

**** Stars

I've put up with it for years, but now with Valkyrie, this needs to be said to all the Tom Cruise haters out there: STOP.

Stop hating Tom Cruise the actor just because Tom Cruise the person is crazy. Stop hating Tom Cruise the actor because it's the cool thing to do. Stop hating Tom Cruise the actor for thinking that he plays the same role in every movie. Stop hating Tom Cruise the actor because in fact, he hasn't made a bad movie in over a decade and a half. With Valkyrie, Tom Cruise the actor is in top form in one of the best films of the year. 

Tom Cruise is fantastically structured in Bryan Singer's intensifying World War II Nazi Thriller. Playing the infamous man who attempted to kill Hitler, Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg, Cruise plays him with conviction and maturity. However, what ads wonders to the film is the supporting cast behind the star, including Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, and Tom Wilkinson. Even though none speak in a German accent (in fact some are British), they are still fantastic performances. I mean they have to be right? When they are completely convincing as Nazis speaking in the completely wrong accents?

Director Bryan Singer has crafted one of the most taut and tightly built films of the year. The first twenty minutes is electrifying. A small attempt to kill Hitler is acted out by two Germans by putting an explosive in a liquor case that will be shipped on the same plane as Hitler will travel on. After the device fails to go off, the two are forced to retrieve the liquor case back from the plane while all the while the explosive could still be set off. I was on the edge of my seat throughout this scene, and after that, the entire film.

This is the most underrated film of the year. I will leave asking you this question: If Tom Cruise wasn't the star, would you like the movie? If you have to think about it for second, so be it, but just think about that question, and then judge the film objectively.