A Couple Good Movies

Caught up on some of the holiday releases the past couple days.

Valkyrie

I enjoyed this one a lot. Tom Cruise, despite all the negative publicity he's been getting, did just fine as Colonel Stauffenberg, the main instigator of the plot to assassinate Hitler. The movie manages to generate some suspense even though you know in the end that (spoiler alert) Hitler wasn't assassinated. Okay, if you didn't know that, then I can't help you. The movie made what was probably a wise decision in allowing the actors to keep their American accents so you didn't have them trying to speak in a fake German accent, which sometimes can border on parody. The movie didn't seem to play loose with the facts but kept everything historically accurate.

A nice companion movie to this one is the excellent "Downfall" from a few years ago. This one is subtitled but is far and away the best portrayal of Hitler's final days I've ever seen. The fact that it is in German gives it an extra layer of realism. If you ever see this, you'll recognize one of the co-conspirators from "Valkyrie" as one of the lead characters (don't know the actor's name, but it's the bald guy).

There was a preview to a movie called "Defiance," a fact-based story about Jewish resistance in WW II starring Daniel Craig. It looks like it will be really good.

Bedtime Stories

Took the whole family to see this one. Allie slept through the entire movie, much to the happiness of some movie-going folks like Steve and Pam who would have cringed at the sight of a baby carrier being brought into the theatre (as would I, but we timed it so she would have just eaten and it was nap time).

This one starred Adam Sandler who's going more the family-friendly route now. Basically, he has to watch his nephew and niece as his sister is out of town and the bedtime stories he tells them start coming true. It is all very well done and the kind of family movie I truly enjoy and not just tolerate. Nothing objectionable at all and we all enjoyed this one very much.