Wow...that's scary!
I despise Cruise, but this is a good story, so I'll DVD it later.
Valkyrie - Discussion, Grading, Commentary ***SPOILERS***
- Thread starter Captain Craig
- Start date
Wow...that's scary!
I despise Cruise, but this is a good story, so I'll DVD it later.
Tom Cruise's main problem is that he is Tom Cruise.
This superstar overpowers every story he's in no matter the scope. Cruise is a good actor (see Born on the 4th of July) but every movie where he's the main actor becomes a Cruise movie, story is 2nd.
This way Valkyrie is Cruise playing a historical figure who happens to be a central part of a historical event.
I haven't seen the movie yet because i'm a bit of a WW2 history buff and would absolutely despise it if they hollywoodized the story (i still get spasms from U571) but i also know that Cruise makes entertaining movies so i'm a bit torn.
This superstar overpowers every story he's in no matter the scope. Cruise is a good actor (see Born on the 4th of July) but every movie where he's the main actor becomes a Cruise movie, story is 2nd.
This way Valkyrie is Cruise playing a historical figure who happens to be a central part of a historical event.
I haven't seen the movie yet because i'm a bit of a WW2 history buff and would absolutely despise it if they hollywoodized the story (i still get spasms from U571) but i also know that Cruise makes entertaining movies so i'm a bit torn.
In my opinion it would seem very silly for American actors in such a movie to try speaking with German accents; in fact I think it's stupid in any movie where actors are playing characters speaking a language that is not English to have a stereotypical "accent" of native-speakers of that language unless they are actually speaking English in a specific scene.
Either use subtitles or don't. Anything in between is just bad screenwriting/directing imo.
Yeah, I applaud Singer's choice by allowing the actors to just use their regular accents and not becoming overwrought with thick accents. It would become silly.
I'm very, very eager to see Valkyrie but I'm still with family for the holidays and the desire to see a Nazi WWII movie is as high as to jump off the local bridge, so I'm going to have to wait until after the New Year unfortunately to see it.
I'm very, very eager to see Valkyrie but I'm still with family for the holidays and the desire to see a Nazi WWII movie is as high as to jump off the local bridge, so I'm going to have to wait until after the New Year unfortunately to see it.
If everyone is speacking german anyway you have two choices. Either they all speak in english without any clue that they are really speaking german or they all speak german and give us english subtitles.
Well, let's see...I've been to the theaters twice this year, and for the first time since LOTR:TTT in '02. First was Indy IV, and now Valkryie.
Disappointed in BOTH movies.
With Valkryie, I think I could have used a large cup of coffee or something before I went in, because for the first half of the film, as they're building up to the actual assassination attempt, it was fucking boring, and I found myself sort of drifting off and day dreaming a bit.
It did pick up after that and it held my attention a bit better as I wanted to see how the aftermath played out, but as a movie as a whole, I thought it was a C- film at BEST. I don't know where all the critic hype is coming from, because despite the all-star cast, and decent acting, it just wasn't a good movie.
Did anybody notice that one of the officers in the tele-communications office (where all the women on the type-writers were), was one of those guys from Alien 3? (One of the XX prisoners.) That guy's aged quite a bit since then. Of course it's been 15 years.
I'm surprised that I didn't like this movie too much, as I love war films, and especially WWII films. But like Cruise himself said, "This isn't a war movie, it's a thriller that takes place during the war." But for some reason, I didn't feel "thrilled".
Oh, one more thing...going to see this film in theater further cemented by feelings about going to see ANY movie in the theater. The FUCKING PEOPLE in the theater!!! GEEZ!! Can't people just sit and watch a movie???? God, they're constantly getting up and going somewhere beit the concession stand or to the bathroom. It reminds me of my cousin, when he comes over to watch a DVD with me. He smokes and he can't go 30 minutes without going out to take a smoke break. Either that or he falls asleep after 10 minutes. We tried to watch Transformers at last year's Thanksgiving and he was asleep after 10 minutes, and he's the one who really wanted to watch it.
So I don't care if I ever go to a theater again. Got my own home theater system anyway and a library of DVDs.
Oh one last thing, the picture quality at this theater was aweful too...and it's one of the premier theaters in the area. It looked worse than my up-converted DVDs on my 42" LCD. Either their projectors suck or their screen doesn't reflect the image properly. Sound wasn't even that great.
Disappointed in BOTH movies.
With Valkryie, I think I could have used a large cup of coffee or something before I went in, because for the first half of the film, as they're building up to the actual assassination attempt, it was fucking boring, and I found myself sort of drifting off and day dreaming a bit.
It did pick up after that and it held my attention a bit better as I wanted to see how the aftermath played out, but as a movie as a whole, I thought it was a C- film at BEST. I don't know where all the critic hype is coming from, because despite the all-star cast, and decent acting, it just wasn't a good movie.
Did anybody notice that one of the officers in the tele-communications office (where all the women on the type-writers were), was one of those guys from Alien 3? (One of the XX prisoners.) That guy's aged quite a bit since then. Of course it's been 15 years.
I'm surprised that I didn't like this movie too much, as I love war films, and especially WWII films. But like Cruise himself said, "This isn't a war movie, it's a thriller that takes place during the war." But for some reason, I didn't feel "thrilled".
Oh, one more thing...going to see this film in theater further cemented by feelings about going to see ANY movie in the theater. The FUCKING PEOPLE in the theater!!! GEEZ!! Can't people just sit and watch a movie???? God, they're constantly getting up and going somewhere beit the concession stand or to the bathroom. It reminds me of my cousin, when he comes over to watch a DVD with me. He smokes and he can't go 30 minutes without going out to take a smoke break. Either that or he falls asleep after 10 minutes. We tried to watch Transformers at last year's Thanksgiving and he was asleep after 10 minutes, and he's the one who really wanted to watch it.
So I don't care if I ever go to a theater again. Got my own home theater system anyway and a library of DVDs.
Oh one last thing, the picture quality at this theater was aweful too...and it's one of the premier theaters in the area. It looked worse than my up-converted DVDs on my 42" LCD. Either their projectors suck or their screen doesn't reflect the image properly. Sound wasn't even that great.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with that sentiment. First few minutes were good, but then once he got a-plottin' it got boring. But then after the assassination attempt, it was alright.
I just wished Hollywood would do another good WWII movie using this level of production values. ie. using authenic equipment and armor. Those Pz IIIs, PzIVs, and the Spw250 or 251 (couldn't really tell due to camera angles) halftracks there in Africa were great.
Excellent acting, very intense, great true story. Loved it.
Welcome back, Tom Cruise.
Welcome back, Tom Cruise.
It should do about $50 million over the holiday weekend (from Wednesday, December 25th to Monday, December 30th) if estimates hold. That's pretty good, and if word-of-mouth sustains the film, it should do about $100 million domestically and earn back its budget.
Saw it last night and enjoyed the hell out it...enjoyed the flow of the movie. Agree about the begining of the film, once the first ten or so minutes were past it started getting really intense. Love Bryan Singer's attention to detail...especially the shot on the Colonel's wife's ring at the end! I'm going to order the soundtrack online...thought this was a better score for John Ottoman than this Superman Returns score. I'll probably get this when it comes out on DVD.
Agreed. Stupid criticism. Why not have all the actors in the film adopt American accents to match the star's? That would have made as much sense as anything, other than having everyone speak properly accented German with subtitles, the only way of being "accurate."
Definitely below my $50 million weekend estimate. Now I predict it'll likely leave theaters with $60-70 million domestically. Not a huge hit, but a modest one. With a film about a Nazi Tom Cruise, that ain't bad.
If I'm watching a movie about German characters, speaking in German, and then one says something in English for the benefit of someone else IN THE MOVIE, who doesn't understand German, I expect them to speak German accented English.
If I'm watching a movie about German characters, who are meant to be speaking in German to other Germans throughout, without the benefit of subtitles for the audience, I expect them to speak with whatever accent they normally have. Suspension of disbelief tells me that IN THE MOVIE, everyone is speaking German.
At no point does this break down in Valkyrie, which was a great flick. I give it an A. And no one laughed at any point in the packed theatre I was just in. In fact, as unfortunate evidence of America's education system, many people seemed shocked and genuinely saddened by the movie's outcome. *Sigh*
An example of where this DOES break down is the fantastic movie The Hunt for Red October. When the switch over occurs from Russian to English, everything works great, even though everyone but Connery affects a Russian accent unnecessarily.
The problem pops up when the Americans board the Red October and the Russian officers begin to actually speak in English, not for the benefit of the audience, but for the American sailors.
Everyone continues to affect a Russian-accented English, which again, is great -and correct. Sean Connery, on the other hand, continues to speak with a Scottish-accented English.
At that point it is established in the universe of the movie that Captain Marko Ramius, hero of Soviet Russia, speaks with a Scottish-accent in both Russian and English. WTF?
If I'm watching a movie about German characters, who are meant to be speaking in German to other Germans throughout, without the benefit of subtitles for the audience, I expect them to speak with whatever accent they normally have. Suspension of disbelief tells me that IN THE MOVIE, everyone is speaking German.
At no point does this break down in Valkyrie, which was a great flick. I give it an A. And no one laughed at any point in the packed theatre I was just in. In fact, as unfortunate evidence of America's education system, many people seemed shocked and genuinely saddened by the movie's outcome. *Sigh*
An example of where this DOES break down is the fantastic movie The Hunt for Red October. When the switch over occurs from Russian to English, everything works great, even though everyone but Connery affects a Russian accent unnecessarily.
The problem pops up when the Americans board the Red October and the Russian officers begin to actually speak in English, not for the benefit of the audience, but for the American sailors.
Everyone continues to affect a Russian-accented English, which again, is great -and correct. Sean Connery, on the other hand, continues to speak with a Scottish-accented English.
At that point it is established in the universe of the movie that Captain Marko Ramius, hero of Soviet Russia, speaks with a Scottish-accent in both Russian and English. WTF?
The question isn't what made Stauffenberg turn. The real question is what kept the others loyal.
And the question of whether Cruise is still a big star isn't that interesting. It is depressing to reflect that millions of people somehow think Cruise is crazier than other believers.
And the question of whether Cruise is still a big star isn't that interesting. It is depressing to reflect that millions of people somehow think Cruise is crazier than other believers.
