DVD Pick: Valkyrie

This new release stars Tom Cruise as Claus Von Stauffenberg, who happened to be the leader of a group trying to kill Adolf Hitler. Kenneth Branagh and Terence Stamp are two of the people that are part of this group. They go through a lot in their attempt at assassinating Hitler, with Cruise trying to get as close as possible to him in order to achieve this goal. When believing to have killed Hitler, Von Stauffenberg returns to his group and relays the message to his group, that he saw it happened, and that Valkyrie must be instated. Valkyrie being a document that is signed by a higher up in Hitler's command, stating that in the chance of his death, that this would take over, thus creating an almost chaos with a new regime taking power. One of the many attempts at his life, obviously unsuccessful, it was still interesting to see to what lengths people would go to achieve this. Cruise is believable in his role, as are all the other actors and actresses.

3.5 out of 5

Thor Has Been Cast

Chris Hemsworth will carry Mjolnir and the heavy burden of the Marvel comic adaptation of Thor on his shoulders. Not a big name in North America, Hemsworth gained most of his fame for his 171 episodes of Home and Away and recently played George Kirk, the father of James Kirk at the beginning the new Star Trek film.

Screenwriter Mark Protosevich has developed a script for the live-action Thor film. Described his plans for it "to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It's the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god". In December 2008, Kenneth Branagh confirmed that he has been hired to direct the film. Branagh stated that he hopes to begin filming in January 2010. The film has a scheduled release date of May 20, 2011.