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79
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76
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71
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69
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67
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65
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64
Wanted
62
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61
Stop Loss
61
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58
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57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
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41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
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37
Speed Racer
36
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36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
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xx
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xx
Dark Knight, The
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62
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67
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75
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86
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86
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84
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84
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83
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83
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83
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83
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83
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82
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81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
75
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
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71
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70
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70
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70
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70
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69
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69
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69
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68
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68
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68
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67
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66
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66
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64
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64
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64
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64
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64
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63
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63
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63
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62
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62
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62
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62
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61
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61
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60
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60
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60
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59
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57
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56
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56
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56
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55
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55
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55
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55
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55
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54
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53
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52
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52
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52
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52
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51
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51
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51
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49
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47
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45
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38
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37
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34
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33
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29
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Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Enemy at the Gates
Paramount Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong graphic war violence and some sexuality
Starring
Jude Law,
Joseph Fiennes,
Rachel Weisz,
Bob Hoskins,
Ed Harris,
and
Ron Perlman
While the Nazi and Russian armies hurl rank after rank of soldiers at each other and the world fearfully awaits the outcome of the battle of Stalingrad, the celebrated Russian sniper, Vassili Zaitsev (Law) quietly stalks his enemies one man at a time. His fame, however, soon thrusts him into a duel with the Nazi's best sharpshooter, Major Konig (Harris), and the two find themselves waging an intense personal war while the most momentous battle of the age rages around them. (Paramount Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
War
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Jean-Jacques Annaud
Alain Godard
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Jean-Jacques Annaud
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 14, 2001
Video: August 14, 2001
Theatrical: March 16, 2001
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
131 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Germany / USA / UK / Ireland |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
90
Film.com
Gemma Files
Though issues of politics and philosophy are touched upon, this is a film about the people inside the uniforms -- a story of human beings under pressure, forced by circumstance to make choices both impulsive and, on occasion, heroic. It's also the new year's single most satisfying movie experience thus far.

88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
The sniper's life is a lonely one, full of shallow breathing and delayed gratification. Solitary as it is, Jude Law manages to get a little action in the bunkers of wartime Stalingrad in the ambitious but sometimes inadvertently silly Enemy at the Gates.

80
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
This is spectacle cinema made with individual flair; maybe someone in Hollywood will notice that it's still possible.

80
Mr. Showbiz
Larry Terenzi
Marred by an unconvincing love triangle and an insincere dénouement, it's a story that nonetheless resonates as much as "Saving Private Ryan does."
80
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Any flaws in execution pale against those moments when the film brings history to vital life.

75
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
Developing late in the film, the romantic subplot has the effect of retarding the war story, stretching it out and adding unnecessary elements of sentimentality and sensationalism.
75
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Keeps its eye on the big picture even when focusing on the small scene.
75
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Enemy at the Gates, is no "Saving Private Ryan" - but thrilling, bravura stretches make it consistently entertaining, if less than profound, filmmaking.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It's remarkable, a war story told as a chess game where the loser not only dies, but goes by necessity to an unmarked grave.

75
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A physically gorgeous production with a strong, clear conflict at its center. It's grueling but also exhilarating. Perhaps its ambitiousness is the film's biggest problem. Trying for dramatic sensitivity, historical scope, touching romance and shocking violence and suspense, it gets stretched too thin.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
It's a sporadically thrilling visual epic and a gruesome reminder that war is hell.

70
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Enemy at the Gates has its deficiencies, but the first-rate cast is not among them.

63
USA Today
Mike Clark
Annaud's epic might have worked better dramatically as a smaller, more focused picture. The best scenes simply involve Law and Harris playing sneaky professional games (less cat-and-mouse than cat-and-cat) with each other.

63
Boston Globe
Jay Carr
It's too circumscribed and polite for the story it's telling, curiously deficient in the unexpected.
60
Time
Richard Corliss
Law, sexy and crafty as ever, and here with a flinty innocence, proves again he has the star-quality goods.
60
LA Weekly
Chuck Wilson
Despite the success of these action sequences, Annaud and his ultraserious cast are so determined (admirably) to keep war from seeming romantic that we are never quite pulled into the movie.

60
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
As long as you focus on the central sniper-versus-sniper story -- and not the dreadful mishmash of jarring accents or the film's unconvincing romantic subplot or any of the personal relationships -- you'll enjoy it.

58
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The one valuable prize for audiences in this war pic Cracker Jack box is Jude Law. Once again the talented Mr. Law makes more of a role than most movies know what to do with.

50
Dallas Observer
Robert Wilonsky
The love story, not to mention plot holes large enough to swallow entire platoons, so bogs down the story that whatever tension the Vassili-Konig confrontation creates disappears every time Weisz appears on-screen; she tears apart comrades--and the movie.

50
Village Voice
Amy Taubin
It does offer Annaud the opportunity to show his directorial muscle in elaborate battle scenes, where many bodies are torn apart and blood flows freely.

50
TV Guide
Frank Lovece
Photographed as harsh spectacle in brown and gray with unfailingly overcast skies, the story is affecting and suspenseful enough when focusing on Vassili, the humble peasant youth, and his patrician adversary playing a chess-like game of cat-and-mouse.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Enemy at the Gates is a disappointment primarily because it seems so rich with possibilities.

50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Steven Rea
War is hell, war is cruelty, war is toil and trouble, war is just a shot away. But is war a snooze? Well, by the time Enemy at the Gates has run its course — it sure seems that way.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
At times, the sight of reserved English actors slapping, hugging and acting all Russian looks bizarre, though one casting choice is prime: Bob Hoskins has the ideal air of impish menace in the featured role of Khrushchev.

50
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Has little to occupy us once its battle scenes recede. One of those goofy movies where devil-may-care Russian soldiers unwind by playing the balalaika far into the night, it takes itself far more seriously than anyone else will be able to manage.

50
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Enemy at the Gates will pique your interest in the Battle of Stalingrad, but it leaves that interest sadly unsated.
50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Still, if the movie is mediocre, the history it represents is not. For that correction to our collective Western amnesia, then, Annaud deserves some special award.

40
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
The actors do a pretty good job, though not good enough to sustain 133 minutes.

30
New York Magazine
Peter Rainer
It's as if an obsessed movie nut had decided to collect every bad war-movie convention on one computer and program it to spit out a script.

30
Variety
Derek Elley
Shows a consistent inability to generate any kind of drama when characters open their mouths.

25
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Add a megadose of bombastic James Horner music and a perfunctory love-affair subplot and you have a movie that's its own worst enemy.

20
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Most of the prime goofiness is given over to Vassili and Konig sharpshooting at each other while the battle rages. The movie's a red elephant.
20
Slate
David Edelstein
He (Annaud) doesn't have a clue how to dramatize the romance. Fiennes, whose eyes are extremely close together, stares with a mixture of rage and longing at Weisz, whose eyes are extremely far apart, and the film turns into "The Dating Game" designed by Picasso.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 24 User Votes
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