Some films are so bad that they have audiences collapsing into collective giggles at their inane dialogue and ridiculous situations. This was the best example of the phenomenon in at least a decade. The film quotes Einstein who said that he didn't know what weapons would be employed in a Third World War, but the Fourth, he thought, would be fought with stones. Here it's snowballs! Roy Scheider is a maverick Vietnam veteran who starts a private grudge war with his Soviet opposite number (Jurgen Prochnow) while they're stationed on the Czech-West German frontier. Events start with a snowball fight (I kid you not) and soon escalate out of control to real weapons. Director John Frankenheimer (Bird Man of Alcatraz/French Connection II) has nothing at all new to say about the futility of war, and the thawing of East-West relations robbed the film of much of its topicality. Best enjoyed with a six-pack of lager and a mountain of crisps.


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