Rampage

I saw this at the Candian premiere at DEDfest and honest to god vowed to sit through some of Uwe Boll's other atrocious films to try and catch the exact moment when he became competent. From House of the Dead to Seed to Rampage his next film could well be a bona fide masterpiece! Granted there were some problems but most films have problems and compared to the complete trash he's produced in years past this was his Shawshank Redemption. Brendan Fletcher really keeps this movie up and his eerily dopey presence adds all the more to the ensuing violence. Smart but not too smart somewhat believable. One scene however stands heads and shoulders above the rest and it involves old people and bingo. enough said. Thoroughly enjoyable not too much film school editing and slick over all. If you only ever watch one Boll film let it be Rampage.

This movie was rather interesting and surprisingly so. I had expected a mediocre movie at best, so I was pleasantly surprised.

What made this movie have a big impact, is the fact that things similar to the events in the story actually do happen from time to time in our messed up society. Just take the school shootings from USA or Finland for example. Uwe Boll played his cards well in this movie, and delivered somewhat of a social and political heavy set movie here.

The acting was sparse, and wasn't really needed in a movie of this type. But the lead role played by Brendan Fletcher was remarkable. He put on a stunning performance with his psycho role.

Now, the only thing that kind of irritated me in this movie was the hand-held camera stuff. That was horrible. Had Uwe Boll decided to go with a steady cam instead, the movie would have been just that much more cool. Sure, hand-held cams are nice as well, but it was just a tad too much in this movie. Every single shot was shaking back and forth, often to a degree where you started to pull your hair and scream "keep it still, for the love of Hollywood gods!" But looking past the camera issue, then this movie rocked phenomenally.

This is most definitely a movie to check out. It is packed with action and at the same time taking on the gloves to punch our sick society in the face.

I've read the criticisms of Uwe Boll, heck I've seen House of the Dead and it was brutally bad. This movie, on the other hand, was all too good. Uwe Boll shoots and scores on this movie.

I'm not a camera guru, but the movie is shot with a home video feel to it. The picture was a touch grainy and not all that crisp like you'd expect from a feature film. That didn't detract from the movie at all.

Rampage is, unfortunately, a very familiar story in this day and age. From Columbine to Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and, as of a few weeks ago, Isla Vista, and as of a few days ago, Seattle. A young man, just out of high school, is fed up with his life and people in general. So, he deals with it the way some young people have decided to do in recent history; he goes on a shooting spree.

The movie does a brilliant job to tear at you much like the movie Falling Down. In other words, in no way would the average person condone random killings, but you are shown the frustrating events that occur to the young man to put him in a violent frame of mind. Ultimately, you can draw your own conclusions about the young man. Maybe some are enthralled by his actions while I know many would be absolutely mortified by his actions. The excellence of this movie was in the developing of this young man/monster.

Uwe Boll is compared to Ed Wood and I think it is justified, he has a lot of very annoying habits as a director, his aesthetic sense and/or his skills at cutting movies are off.

And I think these bad habits are still present in "Rampage" (for example, in my opinion the movie would look better and have more tension without all the foreshadowing in the beginning).

However Boll managed to minimize his annoying directorial habits to an acceptable level and create a good movie with its own style. The movie shocks with its nihilistic sensibility and I think it is a biggest sign of the theme being treated in a non-stereotypical way.

This movie has a very non-pretentious style, but actually I think it treats the subject matter of mass murder more non-stereotypically then a more "highbrow" movie like "Elephant".

The actors are good, especially Brendan Fletcher who plays the everyman psycho protagonists, reminds me of young Christian Slater.

I recommend this movie and will check out other higher-rated Boll movies,

The ratings would be much higher, if this movie had another directors name on it. But since it's a Boll-Movie, it can't be good, right? Rampage is basically a movie about a guy on a killing spree, but Boll really managed to add depth to it. Believe it or not: this is a pretty clever flick. There is no black and white, no good or bad. Society is just f****d up in general and everybody seems to deal with that differently.

So it's not a nihilistic vision of our society. It's not dragging you down like a depressing Larry Clark- or Lars Von Trier-flick. It's not torture porn and it's not pseudo-artsy. It's simply a good movie, with great actors and a surprising twist in the end.

The editing and the cinematography were a bit wonky, though.