Great disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (27 February 2009)

Why is it all bad "A-films" get a much better score than they deserve? It seems people are happy as long as it has a valid subject matter, high production values and big names, behind and in front of the camera. It is a disgrace this movie has a 7.4 score, although I'm certain it will drop gradually, as movies tend to have a initial high, and subsequently decreasing, score at IMDb. I guess it has something to do with expectations. Plus the fact that people who catches a flick early, loves to hype it. Well back to this movie. For me this was an overwhelmingly unconvincing experience, in terms of acting, dialogue and plot. The dialogue is cancerous with clichés. The amplifying factor for this is the dreaded use of English with heavy eastern-European accents, not only making them prone to weak pronunciation, but also to weak language, making it sound like they are not speaking their mother tongue.
At some points, despite the serious subject matter, it all deteriorates into parody, as Liev Schreiber seemingly sustains more damage from banging his head into a tree a couple of times than from multiple gunshots to his body. The latter incident meant certain death I thought for sure, but the next day he had his arm in sling, and that was that! In a later scene, the Germans are right on their heels after an attack on their camp. However, they mysteriously choose to have a coffee break while our protagonist jews are pausing, pondering whether to cross a swamp. Besides being pompous in tone, the movies is filled with these inconsistencies, and in addition it is 2 hours and 15 minutes. I was surprised to see it was directed by Ed Swick, a prominent maker of historical war movies, when the credits rolled. All I can say on the positive side, was that it was prettily shot and the battle scenes were decent, but come on; that goes without saying. Making a good film takes more than production value.