What a stupid movie (MILD SPOILERS)

Rating: 2/10 (2 October 2001)

Stupid is maybe the wrong way to describe it. But after hearing SO much about it and reading here that it´s the "best war movie ever", I was sorely disappointed.
First of all, the "great exciting 30 minutes" beginning nearly gave me an epileptic seizure with all that jerky camera movement. I´m glad I watched this on DVD and not in the cinema, because I could turn on the subtitles, otherwise I wouldn´t have understood a word of what the characters were saying because of all that BANG! BOOM! EXPLOSION!
The plot. Well, the ridiculous plot has been discussed to death here by many others, so I won´t get into it. The "great surprise ending"? I saw that coming from the beginning, but maybe that´s because the movie isn´t called "Saving Private Ryan", but "Der Soldat James Ryan" over here. That reminds me, the Germans, when they were speaking german, were pretty horrible (I watched the original english version) - I doubt those were authentic Germans, which is strange because Spielberg usually thrives on authenticy.
Finally, there was too much comedy (especially that "Here, I am James Ryan" thing, that was so weak) for a serious war movie. I can do with the bickering of the soldiers among each other, but this movie was a bit overdoing it - it´s cool in an Indiana Jones movie, because hey, Indy´s an action COMEDY, but here, it didn´t work.