interesting yet tedious

Rating: 5/10 (10 March 2002)

This is a good movie but one that is a bit long. The love story between Jude Law and Rachel Weisz distracts from telling the mostly true story of Vassili Zaitsev, Russia's greatest sniper during WWII. The duel between Law and german Major Konig, played by Ed Harris, is long but still manages to be tense. Harris and Law's scenes are the best parts of the movie, everything else is just filler. Bob Hoskins turns in a good performance as the future premier of the USSR, Mikhail Krushchev. I wasn't as impressed by this movie as I thought I would be. While the scope of this movie and the battle scenes are quite impressive, this film ends up being somewhat bogged down by the ponderous love story that was made up by the producers to attract a larger female demographic. Bottom Line: Check this movie out, but rent before you buy.