Leave it to Tom Cruise to giddily prove his arch-nemesis -- the liberal media elite, not Brooke Shields -- wrong. Despite providing fodder by way of a scary eyepatch and his generally manic mien, it seems Cruise is having the last cackle now. With its $20 million box office haul this past weekend, Valkyrie has been minted a certified non-flop. Mind you, that's not exactly a hit. So while this isn't a just cause to dish out the Scientology party favors, news of his renewed appeal in Germany should be, especially considering the lengths the Germans went to obstruct production of the film. While Germany's approval of the kooky thesp's portrayal of Colonel Claus Von Stauffenberg may earn Cruise's handlers a few extra zeroes on their paychecks, being branded "Germany's hope" by director of this 2007 Oscar winner will no bring on the waterworks during the obligatory champagne toast at the Cruise-Beckham residence.

If you're like me, then you're writhing in expectation of the first reviews of Valkyrie. No, Tom Cruise's career does not hang in the balance, but it's a pretty crucial moment nevertheless. The Cruise critiques have finally begun, and they're ... well, critical. Variety calls Tommy "a bit stiff but still adequate" as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg. As for his jarring American accent (Cruise plays a German), the trade does find it out of place, but not compared to the British twang of his costars, which sounds "oddly disconcerting."

Notorious for playing heroes in just about every film he's been in, Tom Cruise is facing quite the kampf in his new role as a failed hitman hired to off Hitler in the Bryan Singer-helmed Valkyrie. So what's the problem with Tom Cruise -- who's saved the world again and again -- donning full military regalia and kicking some Nazi ass? That would be his eyepatch.

I thought we, as a people, had collectively pushed past this ridiculous notion that Tom Cruise is no longer a bankable movie star. Why not? Because he hopped a couch and made a video? I know Valkyrie's long hard road to a release date had many people wondering if the man whose movies have grossed $6.5 billion worldwide was all of a sudden a kiss of box-office death. Today, the New York Times published a lengthy piece on how the studio is trying to divert attention away from Cruise's starring role, and what Valkyrie's performance means for the future of Cruise's career -- implying that if it doesn't break bank, Tom's career will no longer be in cruise control.