on January 5 Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks have expressed their grief to devastated couple John Travolta and Kelly Preston, who lost their son on January 2.

The grieving parents 16-year-old Jett was found unconscious in a bathroom, where he had apparently fallen and hit his head following a seizure, in the familys holiday home in the Bahamas.

Jett, who began suffering from seizures at the age of two and was a toddler when he was diagnosed with rare Kawasaki disease, had later been taken to Rand Memorial Hospital, Freeport, where he was pronounced dead.

Mike Ossi, the familys lawyer, revealed that all celebrity friends had made it known that they were with the stars during their hard times.

“Everybody has reached out. It seems like the world has reached out and feels the pain that John and Kelly are going through, Contactmusic quoted Ossi as telling U.S. TV show Entertainment Tonight.

Thousands and thousands of phone calls have been received. Oprah has called. You name it, they”ve called, he added.

(source:thaindian)

Connor Antony Cruise recently made his big-screen debut in the Will Smith film Seven Pounds, and while Will and Connor’s dad Tom Cruise are good friends, no favors were called in on the 13 ½-year-old’s behalf. So said Tom during a recent interview with The Insider. “They have to earn it,” Tom explained. “They’ve grown up in it, but there’s a point where there is the difference of watching [the film industry] and, ‘Do you want to do it? Do you really want to do it?’” Like any other actor with no experience, Connor auditioned for the part while Will and Tom — also dad to 16-year-old Isabella Jane and 2 ½-year-old Suri — waited outside.

“We’re standing out in the hall, we were kind of nervous, looking at our watches, saying, ‘What’s going on in there?’”

The process was an enjoyable one for Connor, who remains undecided on whether or not he’ll pursue a career in acting full-time. “He still likes sports, he likes to read, so we’ll see ultimately what he wants to do,” Tom, 46, said. “It’s his decision…Whatever they want to do, we’re there [for them].” That much is evident when Tom was asked if he’d support a career in acting or modeling for Suri. “Whatever she wants,” he replied, adding,

“I love being an actor and all my kids have grown up on movie sets. They’re always there. And Kate is an actress and she will carry Suri around on stage while she’s with the other actors running lines. No matter what, just like when we were kids, they’re going to do whatever they want to do.”

(source:the insider)

NEW YORK, New York —
After the reasonably strong box office performance of “Valkyrie” over the weekend, skeptics were robbed of the chance to declare “Flop!”

The Tom Cruise WWII thriller earned $21.5 million over the weekend, with a four-day haul of $30 million since it opened on Christmas Day.

That was a solid and better than expected box-office draw for “Valkyrie,” which cost a reported $90 million to produce (director Bryan Singer has pegged it at closer to $75 million) and perhaps more than half that to market it.

“This totally robs the nay-sayers of their ability to deem it a flop, because it’s not,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “It does show the renewed star power of Tom Cruise.”

Dergarabedian credited Cruise’s comic (and Golden Globe nominated) performance in the summer’s “Tropic Thunder” in helping audiences again embrace the actor.

He also noted that a film about Nazis wouldn’t have earned nearly as much without Cruise’s star power and a savvy marketing campaign. That campaign — which positioned “Valkyrie” as a historical thriller and led to an audience that MGM said skewed 55 percent male — helped turn back earlier bad publicity.

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BERLIN (AFP) — US actor Tom Cruise was “deeply moved” by playing the would-be assassin of Adolf Hitler in the movie “Valkyrie,” he said in an interview with a German magazine released on Tuesday.

“All I can say is that I was deeply moved by the experience,” Cruise told Bunte magazine in comments translated into German.

In the film, which premiered in the United States on December 25 and opens in much of Europe next month, Cruise plays Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, a Prussian aristocrat who played a key role in a July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler.

Von Stauffenberg placed a bomb under a table in Hitler’s eastern headquarters in East Prussia, in modern day Poland, but the German leader escaped with slight injuries because the briefcase was behind a solid leg of the oak table.

Von Stauffenberg and other conspirators were rounded up and executed by firing squad — a fate which Cruise said saddened but also inspired him. He also said it was one of his most challenging parts.

The filming of the movie caused unease in Germany because of fears of how Hollywood would treat the episode and because of Cruise’s membership of the Church of Scientology.

Authorities initially denied the makers of “Valkyrie” permission to film at the Bendlerblock, a complex of buildings in Berlin where Operation Valkyrie was planned and where von Stauffenberg and other conspirators were executed.

(Source: AFP)

Tom Cruise will visit Korea for the first time in seven years as part of a promotional tour for his upcoming movie, “Valkyrie.’’

The 46-year-old actor will arrive with filmmaker Bryan Singer and stay for two days, appearing at a red carpet event, Jan. 17 and at a press conference at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Jan. 18. According to 20th Century Fox Korea, Korea is the only Asian country the two figures will visit during their tour.

Based on a true story, “Valkyrie,’’ is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and tells the story of Tom Cruise will visit Korea for the first time in seven years as part of a promotional tour for his upcoming movie, “Valkyrie.’’

The 46-year-old actor will arrive with filmmaker Bryan Singer and stay for two days, appearing at a red carpet event, Jan. 17 and at a press conference at the Grand Hyatt Seoul, Jan. 18. According to 20th Century Fox Korea, Korea is the only Asian country the two figures will visit during their tour.

Based on a true story, “Valkyrie,’’ is set in Nazi Germany during World War II and tells the story of German officers scheming to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Cruise plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters in the film.

The star of hit movies “Mission Impossible’’ (1996) and “Jerry Maguire’’ (1996), Cruise has visited Korea three times to promote “Interview with the Vampire’’ (1994), “Mission Impossible 2’’ (2000) and “Vanilla Sky’’ (2001).

He recently received rave reviews for his comic performance in the film “Tropic Thunder,’’ which also gained him a Golden Globe nomination.

While Cruise will be meeting local fans for the fourth time, it is the first visit to Korea for Singer, who has a large fan base among science fiction and comic book fans for the hit movies “The Usual Suspects’’ (1995), “X-Men’’ (2000) and “Superman Returns’’ (2006).

Valkyrie will be in local theaters, Jan. 22.

Tom & Kate are one Access Hollywood’s top 5 couples of 2008. They have the #4 spot, with Brad & Angelina, Will & Jada and David & Victoria Beckham on the numbers 1 to 3. The #5 spot is for Barack & Michelle Obama.

If you want to watch Access Hollywood’s video about these couples, click here.

“I want 10 children,” the 46-year-old said.

“I love kids. I feel really fortunate to have the teenagers and a 2 1/2-year-old. It’s a great dynamic.”

The actor has a daughter, Suri, 2 1/2, and his two adopted children, Isabella, 16, and Connor, 13.

Cruise also had some kind words for his wife, Katie Holmes, 30, who has moved the family to New York City for her Broadway debut in All My Sons.

“I feel lucky to have Kate as my wife,” he said.

“She’s an extraordinary woman. She is funny and smart and she likes the same things that I do.

“She’s a very strong, gracious woman, and a great comedian.”

(Source: Herald Sun)

Showbiz Spy has published more quotes from Tom on his lovely wife Kate:

Tom Cruise: ‘Katie Holmes is an Extraordinary Woman’

Cruise has nothing but kind words for the former Dawson’s Creek actress.

He says, “Married life is very good, very lovely. I feel lucky to have Kate as my wife. She’s an extraordinary woman. She is funny and smart and she likes the same things that I do.

“She’s a very strong, gracious woman, and a great comedian.

“I like doing romantic things, such as bringing flowers and surprising her with things. I love candlelit evenings with nice music.

“If I’m worried about anything, it’s if she can keep up with me. I’m very active.

“A couple of hours after meeting her, I thought, ‘I’m going to marry this woman.’ I just knew.”

(Source: Showbiz spy)

Director Bryan Singer has succeeded in bringing out an appreciable fusion of history and conspiracy in this thriller. An appealing dramatization of a historic episode and exceptional performances by the international cast, supporting Cruise - Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh - has resulted in a story that would fascinate the audiences!

(Source: TopNews)

The tight World War II thriller “Valkyrie” lugs a steamer trunk full of undeserved baggage: producer/star Tom Cruise’s celebrity meltdown, chatter about a rough production, speculation about accents. There’s also the ridiculous cultural expectation that every WWII movie since “Saving Private Ryan” has to be some kind of Oscar-baiting Important Statement About War.

I hope gossip-choked moviegoers can see past all that because it has nothing to do with what matters: the story onscreen. “Valkyrie” works as intended: as a taut, unpretentious and unapologetically old-school WWII flick where the accents are all over the place and you’re too caught up to notice.

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High stakes, high tension: Riveting WWII thriller a must for history buffs

“Valkyrie” pits Tom Cruise against Adolf Hitler in what at first blush sounds like a particularly surreal title bout in MTV’s claymation smackdown series, “Celebrity Deathmatch.”

Casting the Tominator as Count Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the German army officer who led a near-miss plot to assassinate Der Führer in July 1944, was almost enough to sink a production that was rife with public troubles — many stemming from Cruise’s affiliation with Scientology, which gives the German government major heartburn.

In the end, director Bryan Singer delivers an impressive final product: crisp, sharp cinematography; digitally juiced sound that you feel in your bones; taut performances; and a driving script that keeps the tension rising in a steady upward arc.

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‘Valkyrie’ is called “the biggest surprise of the season” in this review. “It’s a history lesson, but told with passion, style and action. And with so many holiday films proving to be such a downer, the strong message conveyed in this film is surprisingly positive and serves as a nice parable of the current world (and politics) we live in.” Read the review here:

The X-Men director Bryan Singer and Tom Cruise team up for great new thriller that surprises at every turn

The assassination of Adolf Hitler during World War II is the crux of Valkyrie, a real-life tale transformed into a crackerjack thriller under the helm of Bryan Singer and his The Usual Suspects cohort Christopher McQuarrie (who co-writes here with Nathan Alexander).

There’s fine attention paid to detail as the story slowly unravels showcasing several German officers plotting to get rid of Hitler and then stage an expertly planned coup to eliminate his cronies and their philosophies from continuing to be in power.

Spearheading the operation is Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) whose loyalties for Nazi Germany was fading on the battlefield, which ultimately took his hand, eye and dignity.

He has a pretty smart plan of how to take Hitler’s own contingency plan “Project Valkyrie” and use it against him – which results in some excellent suspense set pieces and taut pacing.

What could have been a muddied exercise in convoluted thriller plotting, turns into a very streamlined and sleek film. It doesn’t mess around much with too much characterization, not does it go further than face-value politics which makes the story easy for anyone to grasp.

The acting is top notch with Cruise giving a solid performance as Von Stauffenberg. The supporting cast is just as game with Nighy and Wilkinson in particular standing out.

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“The film’s final half-hour achieves maximum dramatic heft as conflicting reports of Hitler’s fate present the characters with difficult choices. The fact that the audience already knows which option will lead to their downfall hardly matters. If anything, the knowledge the viewer brings to the film enhances the drama.”
The supporting cast is altogether excellent”, “Kenneth Branagh makes a strong impression”, “Cruise practically shakes with intensity but doesn’t upset the careful balance of the ensemble piece”.
‘Valkyrie’ is “a slick slice of historical intrigue — one that manages to keep the viewer engaged from start to inevitable finish.” Read the entire review here:

The makers of Valkyrie seemingly faced a mission impossible: create suspense out of a failed plot (spoiler!) to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

And yet the glossy Hollywood product works like gangbusters — a historical thriller loaded with tension and paced like a Messerschmitt.

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“I bet many critics had their snarky comments already written on the way to the screening. But Valkyrie is a very good film, far more serious than it’s being given it credit for. It’s historically accurate, well acted and intelligent. Best of all, it’s surprisingly entertaining”, it’s “the most suspenseful movie we’ve been to this year” and “Cruise deserves a lot of credit for pushing Valkyrie in the face of public scorn at the very notion” is the conclusion of this movie critic. Read the review here:

“Why didn’t I know about that?” a man asked his buddy as they left a screening of Valkyrie, the World War II conspiracy drama starring Tom Cruise as Count Claus von Stauffenberg, the dashing aristocratic German army officer who came closest to killing Hitler.
Why, indeed? It’s a great, even inspiring story that anyone interested in World War II history should know.

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Businesses at the nation’s shopping malls were probably grateful for the crowds of potential customers that anchor-tenant multiplexes attracted over the Christmas holiday weekend.

Attendance was reportedly up nearly 8 percent over the same weekend a year ago, as several of the top films exceeded analysts’ expectations — by a lot. “It’s a very strong finish to the year,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers, told the Associated Press.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Marley & Me led with an astonishing $51.7 million for the four-day holiday and $37.0 million between Friday and Sunday, according to studio estimates.

Paramount’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button came in second for the four-day weekend with about $39 million and $27.0 million for the three-day weekend.

Disney’s Bedtime Stories finished third with 38.6 million from Thursday to Sunday and $28.1 million from Friday to Sunday.

Yet another surprise was the solid ticket sales for MGM-UA’s Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise, which several analysts had predicted would bomb. Instead it raked in $30.0 million for the holiday and $21.5 million for the weekend.

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BERLIN (Reuters) – Tom Cruise has defied expectations and won favorable reviews from German critics for his portrayal of a Prussian army officer who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 in the Hollywood film “Valkyrie.”

German reviewers who were initially highly suspicious have warmed to the film, describing it as a serious work, and Cruise has overcome unease about his suitability for the role.

“‘Valkyrie’ is neither scandalously bad nor the event of the century. Neither is it the action thriller we feared, but it is a well-made and serious film,” said public broadcaster ZDF.
“Cruise plays his part decisively, coolly — a solid performance, though he won’t have a sniff at an Oscar.”

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LOS ANGELES — An unusual alignment of top stars brightened Hollywood’s holiday box office as Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Adam Sandler, as well as Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and a dog, pushed new movies to strong openings. (…)

Still, the weekend’s most significant victory may have been scored by Tom Cruise, the director Bryan Singer and the distributor MGM with their “Valkyrie,” which for the last year has been chewed over as one of the most difficult bets in the movie marketplace.

The film, in which Mr. Cruise plays a German officer who tried to kill Hitler, placed fourth for the holiday with $21.5 million in sales for the three days and about $30 million since opening on Christmas.

“We’re really happy here,” said Erik Lomis, who oversees worldwide film distribution for MGM. Mr. Lomis said the film, currently playing in about 2,700 theaters, will probably add locations this week as it capitalizes on strength in midsize markets where Mr. Cruise’s star power is helping it keep pace with films for which prospects seemed brighter. (…)

(Source: NY Times)

MGM performed a Christmas miracle this weekend. The studio took what was long considered a surefire flop anchored by a star on the decline and turned it around and into a big hit. That film, Tom Cruise’s war drama Valkyrie, debuted in fourth place with an estimated $21.5M over the weekend and a terrific $30M since its Thursday launch. Invading 2,711 venues, the thriller about a plot to assassinate Hitler averaged a sturdy $7,942.Valkyrie’s debut was in the same vicinity as other Cruise pics like Collateral ($24.7M opening) and The Last Samurai ($24.3M) although those films opened on Fridays during non-holiday frames.

Valkyrie took advantage of a void in the marketplace and seized the opportunity. Emotional dramas like Marley and Button skewed female and Bedtime appealed more to kids leaving adult men with very few films to be excited about. Studio research showed that the PG-13 film pulled in an audience that was 55% male and 66% over 25. Backed by decent reviews, the World War II flick now has a shot at becoming yet another $100M hit for Cruise capping off a major comeback year for Suri’s old man who also delivered one of the summer’s most memorable performances with his Golden Globe-nominated turn in Tropic Thunder.

(Source: Rotten Tomatoes)

Bryan Singer has directed all sorts of movies, from the surprise-ending The Usual Suspects to such big-budget blockbusters as X-Men and Superman Returns.

But he had never directed Tom Cruise - until now.

Singer made Valkyrie, about an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler by the German army, with Cruise. There were rumors aplenty, and the film’s release date was moved several times, adding fuel to the fire. Cruise’s practice of Scientology also caused a flap in the German media, and the production was first denied permission to shoot at the Benderblock, where some of the plotters were executed (permission was later granted).

Singer spoke recently about the film, which opened Thursday, about gossip and buzz and what it’s like hanging around with big stars.

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Most World War II buffs know about some high-ranking Germans’ attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in July 1944. But not-so-well-informed history geeks — like me — should learn a lot from Valkyrie, Bryan Singer’s data-rich procedural about the close-but-no-cigar coup attempt.

A surprisingly suspenseful thriller, considering we know how it ends from the start, Valkyrie was painstakingly put together by “the usual suspects” team of director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie (Nathan Alexander also worked on this script). Light on military action — it’s mostly a series of high-risk deceptions, close calls and miscommunications — the film develops increasing tension through straightforward plot unraveling. Though inevitably talky, it benefits from a hushed, matter-of-fact tone that, while not the most dynamic way to tell a tale, certainly seems apt for the conspiratorial business at hand.

Individuals’ motives and contradictions could have been better-explored, but then the Third Reich was falling apart and Nazis were still Nazis. So what else do we really need to know about some sensible Germans’ rationales for trying to stop the carnage sooner rather than too late?

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An unfussy, adult and stoic Tom Cruise anchors the World War II thriller ” Valkyrie.” In a compact performance of nerve and rare glimpses of emotion, Cruise is a leading man who takes us through a complex story, and ennobles and personalizes events that have almost faded into history.

This Bryan Singer film is about the most famous attempt by Germans to kill the Führer who led the world into war and Germany into horror. And it is about the man at the center of that conspiracy, Claus von Stauffenberg. He was an army officer from German nobility, that rare man with the resolve, “tenacity and determination,” historian Roger Moorhouse says in his book “Killing Hitler,” to carry out an attempted coup to “save Germany.”

“Valkyrie” introduces the principals — civilians struggling to find a way to seize control of the government, from a military dictatorship, Wehrmacht officers appalled by the “stain” the mass murderer Hitler had brought to their army.

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In “Valkyrie,” the latest Hollywood film to delve into Nazi Germany, the Jews are almost entirely absent. There is a brief mention of the concentration camps, and that’s about it. A moralist might find this an outrage, but a moviegoer, especially one exhausted by grim dramas about the Holocaust, may feel relief.

Based on a true story, “Valkyrie” aims to be a thriller, not an issues movie, and it succeeds. Tom Cruise, sporting an eyepatch and an aristocratic curl in his forelocks, plays Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an officer who discovers he’s not the only one with thoughts of eliminating Der Führer. With the backing of an expansive web of resisters - from typists to generals - Stauffenberg hatches a plan to take Germany by coup. Step one: Bring a briefcase full of explosives to a meeting with Hitler.

It’s probably no spoiler to say the plan doesn’t work. The fun, if that’s the right word, lies in seeing how tantalizingly close the dominoes come to falling in just the right way.

Thanks to crisp direction from Bryan Singer and a terse, efficient script from Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, “Valkyrie” recalls one of Shakespeare’s wonkier plays - say, “Richard II” - as the best-laid plans of high-placed men lead inevitably to disaster. And the impeccable supporting cast, particularly Tom Wilkinson as a careerist general who cleverly hedges his bets, breathes life into numerous small but important roles.

As Stauffenberg, Cruise makes for a good-looking martyr, but it’s the larger story that fascinates. Here is a parallel group of Nazis-within-the-Nazis, operating almost openly while others nervously turn a blind eye. “Valkyrie” includes no sermons about genocide or anti-Semitism; these resisters are concerned with the fate of the Fatherland. In that aspect, they’re underdogs worth rooting for.

BOTTOM LINE An engaging dramatization of one of history’s footnotes, with excellent performances from the supporting cast.

(Source: Newsday)

Tom “delivers”, is “convincing” and gives an “impressive performance.” “The picture is essentially a requiem for a lost cause.”

‘Valkyrie’: Desperate Measures, By Kurt Loder

Tom Cruise delivers.

Turning the true story of a 1944 attempt by German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler into a movie presents one considerable problem: The attempt failed, and everybody knows it. Conversely, “The Day of the Jackal,” the 1973 film about an attempt to assassinate French president Charles DeGaulle, worked because the story was fiction — the movie was really a straightforward thriller that derived its tension from the cat-and-mouse interplay between a wily assassin and an intrepid police inspector. The German scenario, being rooted in real life, is less tidy. It involved a large cast of conspirators and a certain amount of muddling bureaucratic complexity. However, it also offers a real hero around which to construct a film — a handsome young colonel named Claus von Stauffenberg, who coordinated the assassination attempt and might have pulled it off had it not been for the intrusion of, well, real life.

Tom Cruise is probably not the first actor who would spring to most people’s minds in connection with this role. And yet it’s Cruise who has managed to get the movie made. And the surprise — for those who were expecting a train wreck — is how convincing he is. “Valkyrie,” directed with admirable restraint by Bryan Singer, is an exceedingly well-crafted movie, and an educational one, too. (It’s unusually faithful to the historical record.) And Cruise, somewhat encumbered as an actor by an eyepatch and an empty sleeve (Stauffenberg was maimed in combat in 1943), puts himself entirely at the service of the character — his trademark boyish grin is nowhere in evidence. It’s an impressive performance.

The film’s problem is inherent in the material. This is a movie about a confusingly numerous group of men with names like Fellgiebel, Goerdeler and von Haeften gathering in rooms to discuss secrets and strategies in an attempt to eliminate Hitler and invoke Operation Valkyrie — an emergency plan, sanctioned by Hitler himself, to allow an army element based in Berlin to take control of the civil government in case of a destabilizing enemy attack. The conspirators’ intention was to terminate Hitler with a bomb, seize control of all communications, arrest the Nazi political leaders and SS goons, and begin negotiating the terms of an acceptable surrender with the Allied forces that were pressing in on Germany from the West. If their plot failed, they purportedly hoped that its attempt would at least demonstrate to the world that not all Germans supported the odious regime. (Anti-Hitler plots had been festering in the high command of the German army for years.) The movie’s script, by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander, is sleek and clearly constructed, but this is still a lot to take in.

The supporting cast is first-rate. Among the plotters are Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Bill Nighy and Kevin McNally; among their antagonists, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hollander and — portraying Hitler as a fading old man — David Bamber. Cruise inserts himself comfortably among these British actors by use of a strictly neutral American delivery and carefully controlled deportment. And he brings some welcome warmth to the picture in conveying Stauffenberg’s quiet torment over the possibility of what his treasonous actions could mean for his wife and children. (If the conspiracy should fail, they will likely be executed along with him.)

Although there’s a combat scene at the beginning of the film and, unavoidably, a firing squad at its conclusion, “Valkyrie” is not an action movie (although it does build quite a bit of tension once the conspiracy gets underway). You can occasionally feel Singer trying to kick things along with acrobatic camera angles, but the picture is essentially a requiem for a lost cause. “I’m a soldier,” Cruise’s Stauffenberg says. “I serve my country. But this is not my country.”

(Source: MTV)

NEW YORK, Dec. 26 (UPI) — U.S. director Bryan Singer says he decided not to have the international cast of “Valkyrie” speak with German accents because it would be distracting.

The World War II-set movie about a plot to kill Adolf Hitler stars Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, Northern Irish star Kenneth Branagh and British thespians Eddie Izzard, Bill Nighy, Terence Stamp and Tom Wilkinson.

“We didn’t want that to be what the movie was about,” Singer told reporters in New York recently when asked why the German characters in his film didn’t speak with German accents.

“It’s a thriller,” Singer explained. “It should be exciting and the audience should be taken on a ride through the film. And the actors speak wonderfully the way they do in their current dialects and the characters are all supposed to be German any way. … We have an international cast — American actors, Dutch, German, British. To have everyone approximating German accents when, in reality, they’re supposed to be speaking German, which, I promise after the first 20 minutes, you’d be sick of it. It would ultimately sound silly. And it would distract from the drive of the plot. So, the decision was made pretty quickly.”

Singer said he had no doubt his actors could’ve adopted the German accent, if it was required.

“They could do it. (Cruise is) speaking German at the beginning of the movie, that’s Tom,” Singer said. “But, it would ultimately be not as fun for the audience.”

Another review on Valkyrie: Tom’s acting is called “good” and “top rate”, his “most mature work to date” and more, read the review! More phrases: “intense journey”, “impressively choreographic” direction, “thrilling to observe the quick-thinking team in action”, a “great thriller”. “We are glued to the screen unable to look away”, “terrific in supporting roles” but “Cruise is the standout. He’s outdone himself”. Read the review!

After all our collective Tom Cruise bashing, he’s turned the tables on us. And he ain’t kidding. He’s good.

His work in Valkyrie and the film itself are top rate. He is restrained and grimly Not Tom as Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg in his most mature work to date.

There are none of the histrionics and mugging sometimes associated with his work. It’s plain, straight forward and effective, a selfless performance.

Cruise says he was inspired to play the Nazi officer who led a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler when he noticed facial similarities in a portrait. Films have been launched on less than that.

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