Darfur (2009)

Yesterday I watched Renny Harlin's 5 Days of War (you can read my comments at the NinjaDixon tumblr), a good b-action movie disguised as a message-movie disguised as a b-action movie. Everything at once. Today I watched a similar movie, Uwe Boll's Darfur. Now, most idiots out there have seen House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark and decided that everything after that is the same thing. Now, I like these two movies - they are simple entertainment made for a lot less money than shitstorms like the Transformers or Twilight-franchises. What's interesting with Boll as a filmmakers is for every "silly" movie, and with that I mean über-commercial popcorn-movie he makes something totally different. Movies like Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Seed, Max Schmeling etc is very different from House of the Dead. They aren't even "fun" violent movies, they are plain disturbing and says more about humanity than very few other movies. Cynical stories about how humans really are. Darfur is the latest of these dramas, a very, very disturbing account of the genocide in Darfur.

We follow a gang or journalists and photographers on a routine mission in Sudan, together with representatives from an organizations that's there to observe. Only observe. They arrives to a small village and spends some time there interviewing the villagers. When they leave they see a Janjaweed convoy getting close to the village and they decide to go back, to just be there as international journalists - hopefully to stop the warriors from attacking the village. But everything goes very wrong...

Darfur is a very realistic movie. It's improvised by the actors and Boll also takes a documentary-approach in the style. Lots of handheld camera, without getting too shaky, lingering close-ups on sweaty faces and a camera that won't stop filming even when something we don't want to see happens. Some less intelligent reviewers have stated that this is just violent porn, that it's entertainment - but believe me, there's nothing entertaining or funny with what we're seeing in this movie. It's graphic yes, but I've seen worse - its more that first half hour of meeting the villagers that makes it so hard seeing them die from the hands of their enemies.

The acting is also very impressive, and its even more fun that Boll only uses actors like Billy Zane, Matt Frewer, Edward Furlong, Kristianna Loken etc - all who do amazing jobs creating realistic characters. I'm not familiar with the South African actors, but all of them are eerily realistic (some of them are also real victims of the terror in Sudan). I'm happy to say that Darfur is very far from the typical DTV movie and I'm actually quite happy that a lot of people out there probably choked on their pizzas after work watching this drama. They probably expected something very different.

Maybe it should be mandatory for every person involved in Lundin Oil to see this movie, for example our incompetent Minister for Foreign Affairs, Carl Bildt, who was involved in the genocide in Darfur indirectly through his work with Lundin Oil and still goes free. You know, you get a lot of power with important friends and millions on the bank. Here in Sweden we call him The Genocide Millionaire, and it's a quite fitting name for him - and a big shame for Sweden.

Give this movie a chance, read up on Lundin Oil and Carl Bildt, and ignore the real war-porn being produced in Hollywood: Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and the rest of the crap!

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich (2010)

The name Uwe Boll still angers people with no life. Personally I always liked his slightly demented approach to anger the game nerds all over the world, maybe because I feel no connection at all to gaming and everything around it. It just does not matter if he changes everything in a game when he’s turning it into a movie, as long it entertains me. The last couple of years Mr Boll has been doing other movies, not connected to games, and some of them are very impressive: Seed, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Rampage… and hell yeah, even craziest stuff like the first Bloodrayne and Far Cry is worth watching because of their mindless violence.

While the first sequel to Bloodrayne was a good-looking b-movie (and well-made) it lacked the energy and the massive gore that the first movie had. Thankfully Boll tries to give us fans of the red juice a little bit more of that in the second sequel, Bloodrayne: The Third Reich. The movie, which is mostly about Bloodrayne killing Nazis and Michael Paré turning into a nazi-vampire, feels hurried and a bit sloppy. This is quite natural because Boll shot three movies at the same time! A drama-documentary about Auschwitz and a something that looks like Bloodrayne, but a bit chubbier: Blubberella.

I never really cared of focusing on the bad things in a movie, but I need to say that our beloved Clint Howard feels a bit weak in one of the bigger parts as Doctor Mangler. Now, like all of us, I love him – but he’s never been a great actor and tends to mostly read the lines in a mechanical way. He’s in the movie to much, but I think this is because they needed to fill the story more and more with dialogue to make the movie longer (it’s very short now, 75 minutes). The final action scene is not as spectacular as I wanted it to be, but delivers some fun.

The best thing with Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is Michael Paré who became a regular in Boll’s movies over the years. He’s a good heavy and looks fresh and healthy and wears his fangs and vampire make-up perfectly. Natassia Malthe is back as Rayne and I always felt she’s better suited for the part than Kristanna Loken. She’s handling the fighting and sword-wielding a lot better anyway.

As usual, even with a low budget, Boll handles the action good and there’s a lot more blood than in part two. A ripped belly and one graphic decapitation is the only thing we get when it comes to more classic gore, but it’s better than nothing.

I would love to see more WWII action from Uwe, but with a higher budget. His style feels very European and fits the grey eastern block perfectly. Like part two not a masterpiece, but a fun time-waster with some blood and tits. The ending is open for a part 3 and I think that would be a good idea, because that scene teasing Rayne vs Hitler is something I would like to see.

Rampage (2009)

Our dear German doctor Uwe Boll has during the last years become one of my favorite directors. Yes, it's true. I both appreciate his wacky no-brainer popcorn-flicks and his steady work of dark, brutal dramas which often are so cynical that it's hard to understand how he got the guts to release movies with such downbeat endings. In Rampage he deals with something all people seem to fear, and that is happening everywhere - not only the US.

The star is Brendan Fletcher, a fine actor whom you seen in many movies, often small parts, during the 15 years. Even in a few Boll-movie too. Here he play Bill, a slacker, a nobody who still lives with his parents. He's 23 and life is shit. But what no one knows is that he's been doing some planning and preparations for some time. Weapons and a kevlar-suit is now ready in his close and tomorrow it's time for Tenderville (or Centerville, the name changes) to meet it's maker. Armed to the teeth he starts shooting everyone he sees, starting with blowing up the police station. Why? Well, we're not sure because he just don't seem to care about anything. But somewhere in that chaotic mind is a plan, a quite disturbing plan...

I really only have one complaint with Rampage, and it's the first part which is a bit drawn out with a lot of cutting back and forth what's happening right, in his head and in the future. It's to much repeating. But if you'll survive that you're gonna see a very impressive and disturbing little movie which actually surprised me. Shot with a lot of handcamera, improvisations and in a autumnal little American small town (but shot in Canada I guess as usual) this is a moody movie, filled with excellent acting and beautiful cinematography. Boll likes to stay with the actors and lets them talk and talk until there's something good, which he uses and intercuts very good with the rest of the takes. It's a special style, which fans of Dogme might recognize, or of course all the US indies using the same technique.

When Bill finally flips the movie regains it's energy that it somehow lost during it's first act (which not is bad, just a bit to drawn out as I mentioned above - and now I also see purpose with that). With different guns and even a knife he starts killing his way through Centerville, which is a dream for us fans of bloody squibs and general mayhem. It's very violent and it's hard to watch execution after execution, but at the same time we're so focused on Bill persona that we tend to distance ourselves from the violence. We're actually curious what he's up too.

Everything with Rampage is very well made, and together with Doctor Boll's other "serious" movies this is another classic of radical, intelligent, arty and über-violent European cinema set in the US (aka Canada). Guys like Boll is needed in the mainstream cinema because with this one, Seed, Tunnel Rats and Stoic he tries to fuck things up. He don't want us to sit there after the movie feeling good, feeling happy. He wants us to fucking understand that life can be shit, and that some of us is hiding way to far down in our cuddly rabbit-holes.

Is this Uwe Boll and Brigitte Lahaie?

No, it isn't. It's Lars Liljedahl and Saila Quicklund, care managers at Bräcke municipality. It's from this article, and I just can't stop staring at them. The Lahaie-lookalike looks uncanny here, and the Boll-lookalike looks like Uwe's younger goofy brother.

So isn't it weird that two persons that are similar to Brigitte and Uwe are working together in the shithole known as Bräcke (probably the most boring town I've ever been in)? I wonder who's the janitors, Jack Taylor and Til Schweiger?

Uwe Boll making Auschwitz-movie?

"foto from my new movie foto from my new movie auschwitz what i shot parallel to my bloodrayne-the third reich ....its in the tradition of my movies stoic, darfur, rampage, tunnelrats, heart of america...it shows auschwitz as this what it was: a meatplant for humans...a death factory"

This is interesting, if it's not a joke. We few who actually dare to look beyond House of the Dead knows that Uwe has an amazing talent for very hard, brutal and honest movies. Seed, Tunnel Rats and Stoic for example. I've heard good stuff about Rampage too. Uwe seem to like to mix popcorn-movies with heavier stuff, and is not ashamed of that.

During the shooting of Postal he shot Seed, and now when he's making BloodRayne 3 he's making a movie he calls "Auschwitz". BR3 is also set during WW2, so like good old Corman, he's probably using the sets, people and props to make another movie at the same time. To save money.

This also reminds me, before the glory days of internet, how there was people who was upset with Spielberg doing a holocaust-themed movie. I remember how even some people mentioned 1941, and how a director like Spielberg could dare do a serious movie like Shindler's List. Yes, it's true. But I guess everyone forgot about that now ;)

I guess this will upset some people out there, so it will be fun to read the reactions. And by the way, I enjoyed House of the Dead a lot :)

Far Cry (2008)

Okey, let's roll out the cheesy-popcorn-entertainment-movie of the week, Uwe Boll's Far Cry! You know, I'm sure a few of you are very upset about Uwe destroying the legacy of some game here, but I just don't care. At all. Far Cry belongs beside BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark, just wacky unpretentious violent action-movies that have nothing to say except to deliver some explosions, some silly dialogue, gore and slow-motion. And I just love that so fucking much!

Til Schweiger plays Jack Carver, a german ex-soldier working as a captain at some lake in Canada (at least it's shot in Canada). His friend, Max Cardinal (Ralf Moeller) work's nearby at a island, guarded heavily by military. On that island, no one else than Udo Kier experiments to transform ordinary soldiers to super-soldiers, not capable of dying and that can go on killing and fighting without any rest or food. A female journalist, Valerie Cardinal (Emmanuelle Vaugier), the niece of Max, arrives to write a story about the island... and soon she and Jack is trapped on the island, trying to get out alive!

First of all, there's one weak thing with this movie: the comedy. It's a little to much comedy for my taste, but if you ignore that you have a very entertaining and violent action movie - far from the big Hollywood-productions of course - but with three excellent action sequences, some gore and a very high body count. Most of the movie is on this Canadian island, and the location look kinda cheap. Like an Italian action movie from the eighties, at least the outside of the secret lab. The inside is more fancy and echoes Resident Evil and stuff like that. 

The first big action scene is a car chase in the forest, which feels old-fashioned and I'm not ashamed to say that I think it's very good. Explosions, stunts and good editing. The next one is a boat chase, not as intensive but it works damn fine and Uwe makes a lot out of very little. The last 30-40 minutes it's a blast. Some graphic gore, lot's of squibs, people that are thrown around in slow-mo (Uwe never misses to include a cool shot, and that makes this movie so awesome) lot's of action. Don't expect The Matrix though, this might be more for us nerds out there that want's more old style action.

Except the comedy I can't complain so much, it's a fun movie with lots of action and violence. The actors are good and seem to have fun, Udo Kier is good and I hope the open ending leads to a (at least!) DTV-sequel. I want to see more super-soldiers killing people in ultra-rapid!

Crazy, silly, a bit stupid and well made. This is a movie for us that likes our DTV-action juicy and gory.

Tunnel Rats (2008)

I've never made any secret that I like Uwe Boll and already from the beginning understood what he was up to. Hell yes, I even enjoyed House of the Dead - a silly, stupid and 100 % entertaining trash-movie that perfectly knew what it was. What irritates me nowadays is that some critics still complaining about Uwe, just for the sake of it. He could go out there and make a new... Casablanca and they would find something to moan about. Slowly some people out there has started to understand the talent of Uwe and also actually give Seed, Tunnel Rats, Postal, Stoic and the upcoming Rampage good reviews.

When I did some research about Tunnel Rats I read the review at DVD Talk, and it's a positive one... but the reviewer just has to nag about something, and throws in some empty words like this:

"The basic story was sketched out, but the actors developed their own characters and wrote their own dialogue. It explains a lot, and I have to cut the production some slack for a creative choice that is either incredibly gutsy or incredibly lazy." - really, would he even have mention it being lazy if this was Lars Von Trier or De Palma?

"Its as if Boll reached a point where he couldn't contain himself any longer and had to push it over-the-top; unfortunately by doing so, he's spit in the face of every man who served in one of these platoons." - This reviewer haven't watched the movie! Really, those words are just retarded. There's a deep respect for the characters, both Americans and Vietnamese - but I'm sure this person just wanted a mainstream, no criticism-kinda movie.

"...but most revealing is his research into making "Tunnel Rats," which sounds to have been nothing more than reading a few books about the Cû Chi tunnels." - Yeah? What should he have done? Do they really expect a low budget movie to spend money to Vietnam and do research in the actually tunnels? I'm sure a fuckload of movies has been based on research in books.

"The most horrifying aspect of the interview is learning that Boll plans to do at least two more dramas, based on real-events, one about Darfur and one about an incident in a prison regarding rape and torture. Boll explains that the improvised dialogue approach will be utilized in these films as well. I shudder to think of the end result if "Tunnel Rats" is any indication of how he handles real-life." - Okeeeey? The movie is good, the dialogue works fine... so why should it be a bad thing for him to make two more movies in that way?

And so on. This guy think it's a (quite) good movie, but probably afraid of the Boll-bashers out there and a lack of journalistic integrity, he writes a lot of shit that he never would if James Cameron did or said the exactly same things.

Well fuck him. Tunnel Rats is one impressive and very violent Vietnam-movie. It's tells the story of a platoon specialized in cleaning up and destroying the underground tunnels that the Viet Cong uses in the jungle. The ad-libbed dialogues are great, and don't seem forced or weird. The actors are excellent, and with having a strong director leading them the acting is very coherent and fits the story perfect.

It's in South Africa too, which works better than it should. The jungle is slightly different, but the overall feeling gives an eerie illusion of being in an Asian jungle. But the story itself, the action and characters takes away any thoughts on the location. This is a good movie. The action? Well, it's not an action movie by any means, but it has one bigger jungle battle where the gore and blood flows between the trees. Actually, the whole movie is quite brutal and the effects by Olof Ittenbach is really nasty.

But most of the time we spend the story down in the tunnels with the soldiers, both Americans and Vietnamese. It's dark, claustrophobic and violent. In one scene a soldier has to cut up the body in front of him to be able to move forward for example. Great idea, and very unpleasant too. This movie shows no mercy, and there's no happy Hollywood-ending - thanks for that - so prepare to feel slightly uncomfortable after watching this flick.

Okey, sorry for my ramblings about that other review, but I get easily pissed at stupidity - and I can't accept that people have other opinions than me ;)