Valkyrie (2008)

"Valkyrie" is as dramatically deep as your average brownie and contains a myriad of accents that are, for the most part, not even close to German. But this Tom Cruise-starring dramatization of the failed July 1944 assassination attempt on Adolph Hitler is in line with the great WWII thrillers from the 1950s and 1960s that starred Gregory Peck, William Holden or Richard Burton.

The miracle here is that director Bryan Singer and co-writers Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander make us want the would-be assassins to succeed despite a minimum of action and a known outcome. (If you're remotely shocked at this "spoiler," turn off the Internet and pick up a friggin' history book.)

Cruise stars as Claus von Stauffenberg, the severely wounded Nazi army colonel who sees his Fuhrer for what he is -- evil incarnate -- and decides to stop him. Through a casual comment here and a few chance encounters, Stauffenberg meets with like-minded German men and the murder-by-bomb plot is on. Cruise, one eye covered by a patch and without the use of his right hand or most of his left hand, is a great Hollywood hero. He never digs deeps into the role as he did in "Born on the Fourth of July" or even "Tropic Thunder," but he's nonetheless solid.

I wish the script presented us with a crisis of conscious or eureka moment for Stauffenberg, but the character is against Hitler as the opening credits roll. It's a big disappointment in an otherwise good film.

Where some people see the lack of German accents as a minus, I take it as a plus. No one tries on a voice they can't carry. Cruise sounds exactly like Cruise, the same with the supporting players Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard and Kenneth Branagh. Why is that good? Think of Kevin Costner trying for Brit in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and try not to wince. Singer ("The Usual Suspects") made a wise choice. B+