Two hours of my life I'll never get back

Rating: 3/10 (3 April 2001)

This movie totally failed to engage me. The director (Jean Jacques Annaud) got himself into a confused mess when trying to make this good versus evil movie - he's comfortable depicting all Nazis as bad but he can't depict all Soviets as good and tries instead to portray a complex grey area. Unfortunately, he fails. The two characters who are battling it out (Jude Law and Ed Harris) raised no empathy with me and about halfway through the movie I realised I actually didn't care which one won provided one of them did and I could leave. The movie is also full of cliches (a love triangle, a young boy, a cold-eyed enemy, supporting characters early deaths - some of which you'll be grateful for!) and this does nothing to increase the enjoyment. Men might want to see this for Rachel Weisz as the beautiful young soldier girl and women will inevitably want to see Jude Law but find them in other films and maybe you'll be treated to a plot which you can enjoy. The only good thing about the movie is Bob Hoskins - and if that isn't a sentence to scare the living daylights out of you then you deserve this movie!