Lots of exploding heads and Jude Law looking beautiful.

Rating: 4/10 (30 April 2001)

I'm surprised by the high user rating for this movie: I saw this with a (female) friend and we both came out of it saying, "what a stupid movie". Once all of the characters had been introduced, everything became heavy handed and predictable.
Jude Law does a good job of looking beautiful, but didn't convince me an innocent peasant. Joseph Fiennes was a bit over intense, but fit the role of a stereotyped Jewish shyster surprisingly well. Rachel Weisz's character ends up the typical push-over action movie romantic lead. After appearing tough as nails, she proves completely useless at the films climax.
The underlying story actually had some real potential: A peasant who is elevated as a hero at a low point in the war for the Soviets. However, by turning him into a super-hero, adding lots of graphic violence (lots of close-ups of being people shot in the head) and mixing in the love story, they cheapen his story.