American & Brit actors play Soviets & Germans. Duh!

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2001)

Excellent production talent provides a gritty war-torn backdrop reminiscent of "Saving Private Ryan" for this weak story and poor historical account of the Battle for Stalingrad, a pivotal fight in the WWII European theater. The film tells of a Soviet war hero and sniper (Law) who squares off against a dogged adversary and top German sniper (Harris) providing the suspense and intrigue. The love story is played out like a clumsy after-thought and the use of big name stars for box office bucks when many good European actors could have added realism to the film was a typically self-serving Hollywood decision. Hoskins playing Khrushchev with his limey accent was laughable not to mention Harris as a German or Law as a Soviet and no attempt to fake an accent by anyone. A typical could-have-been-better flick which will entertain the masses and make the money mongers of filmdom happy while movie purists grumble.