Well, I’ll be. In what appears to be Tom Cruise Week in showbiz newsland, the most surprising development is the return of the long-suffering “Valkyrie” to the 2008 release slate. Bryan Singer’s WWII thriller, a project that has been maligned virtually from the get-go, will now bow on US screens on 26 December.
That will go some way towards raising public and critical expectations for the film – which honestly couldn’t have been any lower after MGM shifted it to the February graveyard shift months ago. However, I wonder whether it can be saved. As Kris has pointed out before, the script isn’t much to write home about (regrettably so, since Chris McQuarrie can be a hell of a writer) and that trailer that mysteriously started doing the rounds in April or so didn’t really set many pulses racing.
Most of all, I think Tom Cruise may ironically be the film’s trickiest selling-point – I simply have no idea how many people out there will pay to see him carry a film these days. There’s no denying he’s a massive media presence (as the “Tropic Thunder” hoopla has made abundantly clear), but there comes a point sometimes where the roles of celebrity and movie star are no longer synonymous. Of course, he could turn it all around if he and the film are actually – gasp – good, but he could just as easily be on the cusp of becoming the Michael Jackson of screen acting. “Valkyrie” will be an interesting litmus test to see if audiences still want to see him as someone else.
Why the scheduling change, incidentally? The studio seems to be playing the gosh-darn-ingenuous card there, with sources saying it’s a “purely commercial” decision made after positive test screenings. The awards season is “not a factor,” apparently. Actually, I believe them – though I wonder if that isn’t a hint of an admission that the film isn’t award-worthy. We shall see.
Finally, I had to chuckle at the other stated motivation for the move: that MGM believes the film to be a “holiday pic.” Nothing says Christmas like Nazis, right?
Comments
8 responses to “‘Valkyrie’ changes tack”
Perhaps they do smell Oscar now…
I doubt it somehow – 26 December is a rather late date for that anyhow.
Don’t underestimate Tom Cruise. He still has what it takes to win an Oscar. He is long overdue.
Not for this he doesn’t. “Nobody knows anything” and all, but I’d bet my house on that.
I think he’s an underrated actor, but I’m not sure I’d call him overdue – “Magnolia” is the only award-calibre performance he’s given IMO.
Plus, Valkyrie has strong contenders in that season… The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett), Revolutionary Road (Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet), Defiance (Daniel Craig) and Seven Pounds (Will Smith-Now the No. 1 Star in Hollywood).
I believe Valkyrie gets a few technical nomintions (Art Direction, costume, Sound) and maybe Supporting Actress for Van Houten-Because the Supporting Category is a little bit weak this year. But I have the resemblance of Elizabeth: TGA; the test screeners of that film were positive and we know the rest of the story.
I also don’t think Cruise is overdue actor. For me, with the exception of Magnolia, since Born of the 4th of July, he looks the same character. In this season we have a lot of real overdue actors (Winslet, Moore, Streep, Langhella, Mortensen, jenkins, Leo)
What about Jerry Maguire, Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, Eyes Wide Shut, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Interview with the Vampire, Magnolia, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds? Tom has a very impressive body of work. He is one of the most underrated actors today.
Sorry, Mimi, but unleast my perception, (jerry maguire, Born on the July 4th, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, The firm) he’s always the same guy, same voice, actitudes, manerisms and even faces, he’s an A-B actor. In Interview with the Vampire he’s awful; in The Last Samurai he’s miscast and overshadow by his costars (In decent but not great films). Magnolia, for the other hand, he’s outstading and completelly diferent for his range.
No denying there are a couple of good performances in that list, Mimi (he was particularly underappreciated in Rain Man and Collateral, in both of which I think he bested his co-star). But he’s in over his head in “Vampire,” blown off the screen by Kidman in “Eyes Wide Shut,” and just plain awful in “War of the Worlds.”
I do quite like him as an actor, but for me, he’s only been spectacular once.