Tom Cruise starring in the fact-based story of a plot to kill Hitler by Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg sounds like Oscar bait. It isn't. And the sooner you accept it, the more fun you'll have at this satisfying B movie. Hearing Cruise's American accent is jarring at first. But his British co-stars, including Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson and Eddie Izzard, don't sound German either. No worries. X-Men director Bryan Singer and his Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie will keep you in the game. Operation Valkyrie referred to a shadow government that would control Germany in case the Führer (David Bamber) bit the bullet. Stauffenberg and his cohorts planned to assassinate Hitler, kick in Valkyrie and forge a truce with the Allies. Since he lost his left eye in battle, as well as his right hand and two fingers on his left hand, Cruise wears an eye patch and prosthetics. Nice details, but it's the palm-sweating suspense that counts.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.