Pia Quarterly: Valkyrie (In Which We Discuss the Genius of Tom Cruise)

Look, Tom Cruise is out of his gourd. We know that. So what? There is a thin line between madness and genius. Like a Weeble Wobble, Tommy Tom-Tom vacillates between the two, and we here at PQ love him for it. We also love his upcoming movie, Valkyrie. We saw the trailer for it this weekend. It's genius, folks.

Here's the plot, as per the Wikipedia entry:

During World War II, German Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) is severely wounded in Africa and returns home to Nazi Germany. Stauffenberg helps conceive Operation Valkyrie, a plan approved by Adolf Hitler which, in order to manage turmoil within Germany, would implement a shadow government in the event of the Nazi Führer's death. The Colonel eventually joins the German Resistance and becomes part of the July 20 plot, a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and execute Valkyrie in order to take control of the country and make peace with the Allies. Stauffenberg finds himself taking on not only the responsibility of leading the coup, but also the task to assassinate Hitler himself.

Does Tom bother with a German accent? Egads, no! Do some of the other actors sport a British accent. Why, yes — yes, they do! Are they all supposed to be Germans? Well, yes. But who cares?! This! is! Valkyrie!

There are so many little delicious moments in the trailer, that it's only fair to let you see it for yourself. So, we've embedded the YouTube version at the bottom of the post.

Back to Tommy Tom-Tom and his madness ... what you must realize is that Tommy is the consummate actor of the universe right now. Dare you scoff? Naysayer, I submit this to you: other actors are only "acting" when the cameras are on; Tommy is acting all the time! There is no break in character because the character IS Tom Cruise. Sometimes he does what we here at PQ call meta-acting, in which he takes on another character on top of the Tom Cruise meme. Who else is that dedicated? Think about it, people.

Anyway, we welcome Tom Cruise back to the big screen. Valkyrie, you had us at hallo!