You know you dominate in an area when your name becomes synonymous with the action you’re involved with. For example, instead of saying “search the internet for something”, we now say “google it”. For a long time people said “Xerox it” instead of “photocopy it”. And in the movie world, instead of saying “that guy made a truly horrible horrible steaming pile of garbage movie”…. we just say “He pulled a Uwe Boll”. Yes, Uwe Boll is that bad.
But wait… is it possible… could it be… did Uwe Boll make a good movie? Boll’s new film is called “Postal“, a film in which he goes way over the top… and even goes so far as to make fun of 9/11. Well here’s the skinny… my friend and Movie Blog alumnist Todd Brown, who now runs the amazing foreign film site “Twitch Film” has seen Postal… and says it’s: “A Damn Good Movie”
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, stop the presses! This is why, as tempting as it may be, you do not give up on a film maker. Uwe Boll has made a good movie. This is not a joke. This is not a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is honest to god truth. Postal is not merely competent. It’s not just okay. It is brash, bold, smart when called for and stupid when required and – most importantly – it is frequently and intentionally laugh out loud funny.
Rather than continuing to fight his public and online image Boll has decided to embrace it, intentionally elevating the level of absurdity and shlock here to never before seen levels, all in the name of creating one of the most coarse, vulgar and offensive comedies ever put to celluloid. This is a movie that sees Boll appear on screen gleefully claiming to finance his films with Nazi gold. This is a film that features a frontal nude shot of former Kid in the Hall Dave Foley in its opening minutes. This is a film that features the World Trade Center hijackers attempting to change course because there’s a shortage of virgins in the afterlife. And while it certainly will offend it will do so, perhaps surprisingly, because beneath the madness it features some surprisingly pointed and accurate moments of social satire.
Now what do we make of this? I guess I should start by saying that Todd has a very different taste in movies. I’ve watched a couple of films on his recommendation that I thought were total and complete crap… BUT… he is also the man who turned me onto Shaolin Soccer, Infernal Affairs (my all time favorite cop movie now) and the amazing Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Verno”. Todd has an eye to catch films that most people would miss… sometimes it would have been better if he missed them too… but sometimes he catches total gold that we would never have even heard of otherwise. So in my opinion, even though I think he’s way off sometimes (but aren’t we all?), I still think when Todd says to check something out… it’s AT LEAST worth checking out.
But a Uwe Boll movie? REALLY?!?!?! Could it be that his expectations were just SOOOO rock bottom that anything would have impressed him? Could it be that Uwe sent 40 virgins to his place to orally stimulate his tender areas? Or could the movie really be.. you know…. GOOD?
I have a hard time believing that last option. But who knows right? It COULD happen. I’m curious to see it now, and that’s a LOT more than I could have said yesterday.
