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Historical thrillers work if the story, acting and direction can draw you into their world and make you forget about the fact you know how the story’s going to end. Titanic, for me, fails because I kept waiting for the boat to hit the iceberg and sink. Oh – sorry, spoiler warning there. Anyway, the effective historical films I hold up as examples of working well include Changeling and The Last Samurai, and now I’d like to add Valkyrie to that list. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Terrance Stamp, Tom Wilkinson, Thomas Kretschmann and Eddie Izzard.

Valkyrie is the story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and the role he played in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, which took place on 20 July 1944. A war veteran wounded and somewhat mangled in action, Stauffenberg became embittered with the war and the motivation behind it. Contacted by the resistance movement within the Wehrmacht, Stauffenberg becomes one of the key figures in the assassination plot. The conspirators believe that Hitler’s Germany is not the Germany of their fathers, nor is it one they wish to see continue, a sentiment which Stauffenberg shares. He helps in planning the assassination, delivers the explosive device to the meeting with Hitler and his aides and coordinates the resulting coup effort. If you’re at all familiar with history, I think you know how it turns out.

Despite our foreknowledge of how this story ends, Valkyrie is still well presented and provides dramatic tension while fleshing out these historical figures who might otherwise be static images and two-dimensional accounts of their actions. This is due in no small part to director Brian Singer. The man who brought us The Usual Suspects again juggles a talented ensemble cast with great success, employing their skills to slowly build the tension before unleashing it on the audience with an almost blinding fury.

Normally this would be where I rag on Tom Cruise. However, like his performance in The Last Samurai, his personality and the drama surrounding him takes a back seat to the storytelling. Instead of dominating the picture simply by being Tom Cruise, he immerses himself in the role, the time period and the subject matter, which is dark and heroic at the same time. Moments and lines that could easily be blown out of proportion by another actor are handled with aplomb, and I don’t recall Cruise chewing on the scenery once.

What stands out in Valkyrie, in addition to the ensemble storytelling and Cruise’s grounded performance, is Hitler. The images and videos we tend to see is of a ranting madman. We know, in our minds, the atrocities he inflicted upon the world and to millions of innocent people. However, in this film, Hitler neither launches into bombastic diatribes nor cackles with delight at the slaughter of his enemies. Here, in pacing around a planning table or holding discussions with those few men he trusted, Hitler is quiet, seeming to choose his words carefully and evaluating the worth of human beings as if he was sizing up a pair of new shoes. His restraint and stature make him seem all the more menacing. It completes the package of the film, and contributes to its overall success.

If you have any interest in the second World War, the idea of Germans within the Nazi party fighting against the perceived desecration of their country or some extremely good portrayals of historical figures, Valkyrie belongs on your Netflix queue. It’s a powerful story, well-acted and told without much hyperbole. It’s a story for our time and it’s well worth yours.

Oh, and additional spoiler warning: if you’re not a fan of Tom Cruise, you get to see him blown up, strafed, nearly blown up again, wounded in a gunfight and finally executed by firing squad. That alone might be worth the price of admission.

Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

When it comes to iconic actors who frequently appear in films on crime & punishment, two of the foremost talents are Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. They’re both tough and manly actors with gravitas and grit in their performances, and they have a long history of delivering the dramatic goods. When they’re in the same film, which is a rare occasion, there’s an electric chemistry that can overcome a lot of cinematic blunders. Unfortunately, even this unique power isn’t enough to take away the sting of mediocrity that comes from Righteous Kill. The film stars… well, DeNiro and Pacino, mostly, but also features John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, Donnie Wahlberg, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The film seems to be reliant on DeNiro and Pacino to hold the audience’s interest. This is probably due to a story so thin I suspect it was written on rice paper. It’s a plodding, straight-forward affair about long-time partners who are fed up with criminals managing to escape justice by one means or another. Rather than gather evidence and interrogate suspects Law & Order style, they resolve the situation by giving the perpetrators a lethal case of lead poisoning. It tries to be a character study on the origins and extent of a given person’s thirst for revenge or justice, but the effort comes off as unoriginal. This is a story we’ve seen before, and it lacks the indy edge of The Boondock Saints or the over-the-top dark comic grittiness of The Punisher. It’s procedural in more ways than one, and instead of interesting forensics or riveting plot twists, the writers put the responsibility of the story’s motion on the shoulders of the cinema veterans.

This isn’t to say that our two leading manly men aren’t good. They do the best with their material, and considering who we’re talking about, that’s not insignificant. But there just isn’t enough decent story for them to work with, and more than once they come off as uninterested in their own emotions and motivations. The same could be said for most of the supporting cast, as well, who are all talented but mostly turn in forgettable performances. They’re not just phoning it in, here; they’re phoning it in with a couple of tin cans tied together with string. The overall effect is a film that looks very appealing from the outset, but once it gets underway the viewer will more than likely find themselves waiting for it to end, provided they’re not impatient enough to reach for the remote and hit “Stop.”

Have you ever bitten into a strudel or Twinkie or other filled confection only to find somebody at the factory was asleep at the switch and there’s only about half as much filling in the treat as there should be? And it’s all on one side due to how it was shipped, leaving most of it empty and a little on the dry side? That’s Righteous Kill. I spent most of the movie thinking, “I could be watching Heat instead of this!” Indeed, if I were to recommend anything here, it’d be to find something else to occupy your time other than Righteous Kill. For example, you could catch up on old episodes of “NCIS” or “Law & Order: SVU”. Or read a book. Or do the laundry…

Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.