Once upon a time there was a man called Ed Wood. The man was known far and wide as being one of the worst directors in the world. Even today but a few people have managed to surpass his level of suckiness. However, one man is known these days as being the Ed Wood of our time. That man is Uwe Boll.
Over the years he has made himself known to be the one man to set back adaptations for years every time he makes another movie. Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, House of the Dead and Far Cry are all movies that are despised by many and loved only by those that can see the hilarity in how bad these movies are.
In 2007 however, the man made a movie that didn’t suck. This was “In the name of the King: a Dungeon Siege Tale“. It still showed a lot of the sub-par filmmaking that herr Boll is known for, but it had potential to be great. The movie was good, yeah, but completely and utterly forgettable.
The movie Seed followed and it was back to normal for Uwe, by the looks of things. Luckily this movie was followed up by Postal, the first of his movies that was good and entertaining. It was a great movie because this seemed to be the movie where Uwe Boll realized just he was perceived and then turned it back around. The movie was a parody, really, of his filmmaking. It was loud, offensive and oh so horrible. Yet it was hilarious as all hell and the best movie he had ever made up to that point.
Which brings us to Rampage.
The story of Rampage follows a young man called Bill Williamson. He was an outlaw in the wild west, pursued by a former member of his gang, John Marston. At heart, Bill is a real scumbag who … wait, that’s Red Dead Redemption.
Young Bill is a 23 year old citizen of Tenderville U.S.A. Currently unemployed, Bill is working at a garage to scrape up the money so that he can go back to school. Bill is a man who is being exposed to all the wrong things in the world. His town treats him like trash, his parents are basically stabbing him in the back and through his friend and the internet he is exposed to a world that tells him the world is going under because of overpopulation.
At some point, Bill starts to prepare to do his part in fixing the world. He gathers up weapons and creates a body armor suit to protect him. With that, Bill begins a town wide rampage, sparing nobody in his wake.
In the end, the story is very simple and to the point. There are no major twists, no deep character development and nothing more than the premise. It’s an interpretation of Columbine, only on a much larger scale. Yet, even with the lack of all of that, it still works. It’s a good enough vehicle to keep the movie going and it keeps you interested.
Whilst the overall story is rather lacking, it is presented in a good way. The movie starts with Bill’s last two days before the shooting. During this time we get to see many of the reasons why he wants to do it. In between this we see him live out dreams or fantasies about doing the act through edited in clips. Very effective in setting the mood for later on and very well edited altogether.
Although … the scene in the Bingo Hall was so surreal it almost felt out of place, but the movie would actually have been worse off without it.
Unlike previous movies of Herr Boll, the characters are actually written in a competent manner and the actors don’t look like they are fresh out of Acting 101. Dialog runs along smoothly and feels natural to the ear. Sometimes it’s clear that it still needs work, but in the end the script and the characters could be considered to be the best that Boll has ever created.
Bill’s parents in particular are believable. They aren’t perfect in the slightest, as they kick their son out of their home, breaking an arrangement they had made with him. But they try to do their best and the dialog and script do a fantastic job of doing that.
Yes, there are actors that aren’t exactly grade A material … or grade B for that matter, but they aren’t nearly as bad as many acting performances in previous Boll movies.
As much as it shocks me to say this, but Rampage is a movie I would recommend seeing. Not because it is so bad it’s good like BloodRayne, or horrible but good like Postal, but because it is genuinely a good movie. If you can manage to get passed the Uwe Boll name and the ever so present shaky cam, then you will be able to see a competently made movie.
I’m hoping that with this, we will begin to see a change. Sure, we still have BloodRayne 3 coming along, but these movies are so bad they’re good. With Rampage notched on his belt, I’m hoping he likes how he made it and he makes more movies like it. Who knows, maybe people will start to see the genius he really is. I mean, come on! He couldn’t fly over 30 extras to play hookers so he walks down the street from the set and hires 30 actual hookers.
7/10
Over the years he has made himself known to be the one man to set back adaptations for years every time he makes another movie. Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, House of the Dead and Far Cry are all movies that are despised by many and loved only by those that can see the hilarity in how bad these movies are.
In 2007 however, the man made a movie that didn’t suck. This was “In the name of the King: a Dungeon Siege Tale“. It still showed a lot of the sub-par filmmaking that herr Boll is known for, but it had potential to be great. The movie was good, yeah, but completely and utterly forgettable.
The movie Seed followed and it was back to normal for Uwe, by the looks of things. Luckily this movie was followed up by Postal, the first of his movies that was good and entertaining. It was a great movie because this seemed to be the movie where Uwe Boll realized just he was perceived and then turned it back around. The movie was a parody, really, of his filmmaking. It was loud, offensive and oh so horrible. Yet it was hilarious as all hell and the best movie he had ever made up to that point.
Which brings us to Rampage.
The story of Rampage follows a young man called Bill Williamson. He was an outlaw in the wild west, pursued by a former member of his gang, John Marston. At heart, Bill is a real scumbag who … wait, that’s Red Dead Redemption.
Young Bill is a 23 year old citizen of Tenderville U.S.A. Currently unemployed, Bill is working at a garage to scrape up the money so that he can go back to school. Bill is a man who is being exposed to all the wrong things in the world. His town treats him like trash, his parents are basically stabbing him in the back and through his friend and the internet he is exposed to a world that tells him the world is going under because of overpopulation.
At some point, Bill starts to prepare to do his part in fixing the world. He gathers up weapons and creates a body armor suit to protect him. With that, Bill begins a town wide rampage, sparing nobody in his wake.
In the end, the story is very simple and to the point. There are no major twists, no deep character development and nothing more than the premise. It’s an interpretation of Columbine, only on a much larger scale. Yet, even with the lack of all of that, it still works. It’s a good enough vehicle to keep the movie going and it keeps you interested.
Whilst the overall story is rather lacking, it is presented in a good way. The movie starts with Bill’s last two days before the shooting. During this time we get to see many of the reasons why he wants to do it. In between this we see him live out dreams or fantasies about doing the act through edited in clips. Very effective in setting the mood for later on and very well edited altogether.
Although … the scene in the Bingo Hall was so surreal it almost felt out of place, but the movie would actually have been worse off without it.
Unlike previous movies of Herr Boll, the characters are actually written in a competent manner and the actors don’t look like they are fresh out of Acting 101. Dialog runs along smoothly and feels natural to the ear. Sometimes it’s clear that it still needs work, but in the end the script and the characters could be considered to be the best that Boll has ever created.
Bill’s parents in particular are believable. They aren’t perfect in the slightest, as they kick their son out of their home, breaking an arrangement they had made with him. But they try to do their best and the dialog and script do a fantastic job of doing that.
Yes, there are actors that aren’t exactly grade A material … or grade B for that matter, but they aren’t nearly as bad as many acting performances in previous Boll movies.
As much as it shocks me to say this, but Rampage is a movie I would recommend seeing. Not because it is so bad it’s good like BloodRayne, or horrible but good like Postal, but because it is genuinely a good movie. If you can manage to get passed the Uwe Boll name and the ever so present shaky cam, then you will be able to see a competently made movie.
I’m hoping that with this, we will begin to see a change. Sure, we still have BloodRayne 3 coming along, but these movies are so bad they’re good. With Rampage notched on his belt, I’m hoping he likes how he made it and he makes more movies like it. Who knows, maybe people will start to see the genius he really is. I mean, come on! He couldn’t fly over 30 extras to play hookers so he walks down the street from the set and hires 30 actual hookers.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment