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Despite all my skepticism, I recently went to see Enemy at the Gates,
a movie about a cat and mouse duel between two expert snipers, one Russian,
one German, set in the hell-on-earth battleground of 1943 Stalingrad. Aside
from the excellent photography and frighteningly convincing scenarios, the
film quickly revealed itself to be the typical Hollywood cheese I had feared
it would be. And Hollywood being Hollywood, they ruined what could have been
a decent war flick/battle of wills thriller by tossing in a predictable and
totally unrealistic love story where it's completely inappropriate. I can't
even begin to count how many times my friend and I starting laughing in the
theatre at the unintentional humour spewed throughout the pic. To make
matters worse, the plot was so formulaic that I was able to predict exactly
what was going to happen virtually from scene to scene. One scene that was
actually embarrassing to watch was when our Russian hero (well, did you
actually think the German would be??) was making out with his new found
"love" in a pile of rubble during this titanic on going battle while pouring
romance novel tripe out of his mouth, all the while knowing full well that
the German sniper (who's skills are vastly superior) is tracking him down at
every possible moment. The clincher was how the film ended: after spending
the whole film meticulously preparing every detail on how to vanquish the
Russian sniper by carefully tracking him and employing numerous ploys to
snare him into his web, the German plainly walks into the open and suddenly
the Russian sniper is standing behind him, his trench coat flapping in the
wind like Clint Eastwood's poncho. After exchanging one last dramatic glance,
the Russian blows the German's head off. Oh yay. The unwashed comrade has
scored a victory against the uppity imperialist swine.
The film is awash in cliches...as usual in Hollywood films, the Germans are
this faceless, cold, emotionless evil, and everyone else is shown in a much
happier, more human light. The love story is ridiculous, the dialogue is
funny when it shouldn't be, Bob Hoskin's portrayal of Nikita Krushchev is
destined to be parodied on a future Simpson's episode, and the rest of the
acting is stiff as an erection. And the Russian's all have British accents!
Come on!
3 out of 10
review by roland
April 25th, 2001
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