Well made but boring and drawn out.

Rating: Null/10 (18 March 2001)

To help offset the obvious problems with making a two hour movie about two legendary snipers spending untold amounts of time just waiting to surprise the other, the film tries tie it together with a love story, which actually ends up weakening the whole sniper vs sniper, "my muzzle is bigger than your muzzle" macho plot. I also found the film confusing in certain areas where it wasn't clear whether friends of the Russian sniper were stabbing him in the back or actually helping him.
While the idea seemed catchy: two skilled WWII snipers, trying to hunt each other down, I quickly discovered that I cared more about what was happening in the background, and around these two snipers than which one would nail the other first. Ed Harris looked miscast as the Nazi sniper; he just came off looking out of place. His acting was fine but he just did't bring a menacing enough presence to the character.
All in all a worthy effort with some cool sfx, especially the scene with the german fighter planes strafing the boats, and a simple scene where the map of europe is shown (in a cartoon format) to indicate the breadth of the nazi power - I love when they use that old school stuff. It just could have been shortened, with somebody a little meaner to play Ed Harris' role, and less of the love affair sub plot.
7/10.