Valkyrie
United Artists | Release Date: December 25, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
16
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie works like a clock. A few minor quibbles aside (the casting of Hitler, for instance), Valkyrie is a highly intelligent and deeply engrossing historical drama and, frame for frame, the year's most suspenseful nail-biter. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
The film is a minor Christmas miracle: It succeeds on its own terms, despite the gossip hounds' best blood-sniffing efforts, and dares to be an entertainment rather than a statement. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
A taut suspense flick for grown-ups. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Tom Cruise is perfectly satisfactory, if not electrifying, in the leading role. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The mechanics of the actual plot are pretty amazing. Singer has assembled a top-notch international cast. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Valkyrie, despite being a more straightforward thriller, is less gripping than "Downfall," the most recent film in which Hitler had significant screen time. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The result is a fairly co-ordinated effort that, despite a few miscues, yields a consistently watchable film. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Singer has crafted a fine film. One just wishes for greater details -- and a different ending. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense. Read full review
70
Film ThreatScott Mendelson
Valkyrie just misses out on being a great film (it’s no Black Book), but it easily merits mention as a good one. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
Once Singer dispenses with the introductory pathos and gets to the nuts and bolts of Stauffenberg's plan, Valkyrie becomes an admirably modest and compact suspense thriller. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A perfectly acceptable motion picture. The only thing that keeps it from even greater accomplishments may be inherent in the story itself. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
As a suspense movie, this works pretty well: director Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects) maintains a crisp pace as the plotters set out to kill the fuhrer with a briefcase bomb, and the historical details of the botched coup, which exploited one of Hitler's own contingency plans to mobilize the army reserves and disarm the SS, are inherently interesting. Read full review
70
Washington PostPhilip Kennicott
A brutally efficient bit of storytelling, and it makes no unforced errors. It is admirably free of any Spielbergian effort to squeeze sentimentality or inspirational lessons out of what is a complicated and morally complex story. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Once the plotters plunge into action, though, Valkyrie becomes both an exciting thriller and a useful history lesson. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Tom Cruise starring in the fact-based story of a plot to kill Hitler by Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg sounds like Oscar bait. It isn't. And the sooner you accept it, the more fun you'll have at this satisfying B movie. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's a procedural, often absorbing, rarely surprising, about a briefcase bomb and a near-miss. Yet there's no question the film feels dodgy and vague when it comes to the personalities and ideology of the men onscreen. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy Burr
It's a smooth, compelling, almost suspenseful (more on that in a bit), and slightly hollow Hollywood period piece. Read full review
63
PremiereJenni Miller
Marketed as a combination of a popcorn-munching actioner, but that's somewhat misleading -- it's also a well-researched historical thriller. Unfortunately, it ends up not succeeding as either. Read full review
60
EmpireDan Jolin
A film more concerned with 'how' than 'why' or 'who', Valkyrie would have benefited from more scrutiny and complexity. Still, once the bomb goes off, the thrills come in spades. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
A World War II thriller without enough thrills. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
The film improves once the assassination attempt goes awry, but the audience is never truly invested in the actions of these heroic men. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The history itself is the main appeal here. Read full review
50
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
Valkyrie feels like another installment in the never-ending franchise -- not just the action-movie one, but the Tom Cruise one. Like the operation itself, it's a good idea -- just not well-executed. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Bryan Singer’s solid direction and some flavorful supporting performances from the dependable likes of Bill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, and Tom Wilkinson keep Valkyrie within the realm of handsome mediocrity. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It's slickly executed, handsomely acted for the most part and utterly easy to forget. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
If Mr. Cruise doesn't work in Valkyrie, it's partly because he's too modern, too American and way too Tom Cruise to make sense in the role, but also because what passes for movie realism keeps changing, sometimes faster than even a star can change his brand. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Valkyrie's political and military subjects may have sounded like sure-fire thriller material. Wilkinson alone proves that a suspense film thrives on intriguing characters struggling to survive. Nothing in Valkyrie is as compelling as watching tides of calculation crash across Wilkinson's face. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Neither a masterpiece nor an embarrassment, but a workmanlike picture that sits, inoffensively, in the middling space between. Read full review
50
NPRBob Mondello
As action movies go, Valkyrie is pretty short on action. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Directed by Bryan Singer in a break from his gayish superhero movies, it's a low-key procedural with a dollop of suspense--although perhaps not enough to make up for the foregone conclusion. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
What makes Valkyrie more depressing than exciting is that it forces you to ask, against your judgment, what, exactly, he achieved. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineCammila Albertson
The notorious action star keeps his bombastic persona remarkably reeled in, and the resulting film is earnest, somber, and extremely modest -- almost to a fault. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Sadly, it lacks the classic awfulness that might have lifted it into the pantheon of Truly Bad Movies. Instead, what we have here is a garden variety bad movie, of which there have been all too many lately. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
We all know how it ends, and that foreknowledge dooms Singer's hotly anticipated and much troubled account of the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
If there are Nazis fighting other Nazis in a movie and it's still boring, something's gone wrong. Valkyrie has a coterie of problems, and represents a whole new front in Tom Cruise's public relations war, but first and foremost there's the tedium. Read full review
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