Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg [Tom Cruise] has come to the conclusion that to serve Germany and to serve Hitler [David Bamber] is two completely different things. After being injured in Africa Stauffenberg is recruited by General Friedrich Olbricht [Bill Nighy] to become a part of the coup and overthrow Hitler so to end the war and save Germany.

Let me preface this review saying that if you are that one guy/girl [let it not be said that I’m sexist] out there who doesn’t know how Adolf Hitler dies then this review contains spoilers for this movie, and I would love to hear how you [person who doesn’t know] enjoyed this movie. However, if you do know how Hitler dies please proceed and do not fear any spoilers.

I remember listening to the /filmcast, as I do most weeks, and hearing the host David Chen speak of certain conditions that you must obey so as to have a chance of enjoying this movie. I believe movies should all be stand alone pieces – for the most part – otherwise it is more or less a failure of the filmmaker. However, here I think I should blame myself more than the filmmaker for not really enjoying this movie. It is unfortunate that even though before the production of this film was announced I did not know that there was an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler that came this close to succeeding. I know how Hitler dies and this therefore already tells me that the movie is about a failed assassination attempt. So for some reason for the entire span of the movie I sat there wondering, “I know, now give me something to chew on until it’s over”. Unfortunately I don’t think the movie gave me that much to chew on.

Bryan Singer is one of those directors who I find does great movies – X-Men, X2, Superman Returns – but for some reason wasn’t able to translate that style into complete success here. However, there were some great story-telling choices he made that I thought were great. First off, everyone was complaining about the actors all speaking English in a completely German story but in the first few minutes of the movie it is made clear to us that we are in this world as if we are German and therefore it is our minds comprehending the story in English rather than everyone suddenly learned perfect English in the middle of WWII. I loved that even though the trailer plays on the bombing element of the coup, the real moment when the movie turns is all about the other members of this plot and how they act in complete fear.

The film sports an array of great performances with actors such as Eddie Izzard, Tom Wilkinson and Kenneth Branagh. I think that overall the entire cast does a great job of making the movie a great dramatic film to watch. Especially Tom Wilkinson, who I think I’ve mentioned before is one of my favourite actors to watch all around, playing the role of General Friedrich Fromm and Kenneth Branagh who plays the role of Major-General Henning von Tresckow. Tom Cruise also does pretty well in this movie and it doesn’t feel like the all-American actor that he is advertised as.

It is a good movie but suffers the problem of having, what I think is, common historical knowledge spoil the ending of the movie. If the movie had been exactly the same except every character, location and date renamed I think I would’ve been able to enjoy it so much more because I would’ve been able to not be thinking from the get-go that I know how it ends. I think that is my strong suit as a movie reviewer – or critic as some may say – that I am not very good at guessing what is going to happen next while I’m watching movies, so I tend to enjoy them more. So when I know what is going to happen I hope and pray that all the other aspects of the movie can hold me till it’s all over. But in the end this movie wasn’t able to do that for me. So I have to give it a disappointed grading. I can only recommend this one to those who want to see the story that they already know on the screen or are able to block out all those things that I was not able to out of your mind.

IMDB says 7.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 57%

I say 5.5/10

However, I leave this one open for you – the reader – to let me know how you feel on the movie. Comment and let me know what you thought of the movie.