Uwe Boll Movie Reviews for Far Cry and 1968 Tunnel Rats

*repost from 03/12/2009
Its so fucking hard to review Uwe Boll films. Most reviews that talk about his movies cant separate the man from the movie. I mean the dude has a petition website for him to retire! I cant remember any director in my lifetime that is so despised as Uwe. I gotta admit I have a soft spot for Uwe the man. Any director that challenges to critics to boxing matches (and wins) will always get a thumbs up in my book. Is the dude that talented? Hell no. Most of his movie are below average as a matter of fact. But I admire his ambition, his funny and candid interviews and I believe he truly loves what he's doing. I originally popped my Uwe cherry about a year ago. I had never seen any of his movies and within a week's time I had watched House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, and Bloodrayne 2. Later on I eventually saw Seed and Postal. Out of all of those the only one I can even recommend to some degree is the original Bloodrayne. It wasnt great art but I had fun watching the action and Michael Madsen hamming it up. As a matter of fact I think his last 3 movies Seed, Postal and Bloodrayne 2 are giant piles of shit. The reason I brought up this back story is because im not a huge Uwe lover and his recent work was crap but despite all of that I was shocked to report I actually am recommending both of his newest movies: Far Cry and 1968 Tunnel Rats.

Far Cry

Directed by Uwe Boll

Starring Til Schweiger, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Michael Pare and Udo Kier.

Available on dvd hopefully soon in the U.S.

This is not a good movie. Im not going to beat around the bush. The action sequences were average, the acting was inconsistent, and some of the humor fell flat. Despite all of that I was still entertained. By far this is his best video game adaption. The look and feel of the movie really reminded me of Far Cry 1 and Far Cry: Instincts. The storyline was basically taken straight from Far Cry Instincts. This has nothing at all to do with the recent Xbox 360 and Ps3 Far Cry 2 video game.

The movie is about this ex special forces agent, Jack Carver (Til Schweiger) is a a boat driver that gets hired to take a news reporter to an island to look for her missing Uncle thats part of an undercover operation. The main baddie leader (Udo Kier) is doing scientific experiments on his own soldiers in an attempt to make the perfect super soldier to sell to the highest bidder. (No not original but it is taken from the video game.) The missing uncle was caught spying, and made into a super soldier. Jack and the chick get caught, then they have to escape while also trying to fight against the band of super soldiers that were accidentally released. The movie is so full of fucking action movie cliches. Jack also meets this fat dude thats just there for comedy relief. Most of it falls super flat but I did manage to laugh a few times. Theres one cool kill at the beginning of the movie and a decent parkour running and death scene towards the end. Im also not 100% sure I was happy with Uwe changing Jacks character from a laid back American to a laid back German. Nothing against Germans but the change threw me off.

All in all this was just a mindless popcorn movie thats good to watch every once in awhile. It did have a cool 80's/early 90's type of action vibe that Universal Soldier, Army of One and other bullshit movies had. Its definitely no worse than those. Just kick back, drink some brew and kill a quick hour and a half. On a scale of 1-10 I give this a-most people wont give it a second chance because Uwe's name is attached to it- 6.2 out of 10.

1968 Tunnel Rats aka Tunnel Rats

Directed by Uwe Boll

Starring Michael Pare and a bunch of no names.

Available on dvd 06/30/2009

This is a good movie. With the exceptions of a few scenes most of the movie has no resemblance to a typical Uwe Boll movie. From the opening wide shot of a helicoptor over Vietnam to the tune of a cool 70's song Ive never heard from before, I was hoping it was a sign of good things to come. It was. This by far Uwe's most mature and complete movie. Im not sure if it was the writing, the above average acting of the ensemble cast, or just the subject matter but everything just felt right.

The movie is about a group of American soldiers led by Sgt Vic Hollowborn (Michael Pare) that come upon a group of underground tunnels used by the North Vietnamese. Im not a war buff but this was supposedly commonplace in the Vietnam War that I found out to be highly interesting. One by one the soldiers either fall into booby traps or are killed brutally by the Vietcong. The movie is not cheesy or melodramatic like so many war movies fall into. The movie also paints a strong picture of both sides as humans, and not just Americans as the "good guys" and the Vietcong as savages that deserved to die. Their are two huge strengths for the movie. The dialogue and chemistry of the cast kicked ass. There's not much dialogue but the quality of it just fit perfectly and made a smile on my face. If there is one big flaw with the movie is that I wanted more of the characters and I wished the movie would have been 20 minutes longer with just more dialogue scenes. The other highlight of the movie was the cinematography. Some cool crane shots and handheld shots that were very effective. All of the tunnel scenes were very cool. They were able to capture the claustrophobic feel to great effect. There is one harrowing scene where this dude is trapped on both sides of the one person size tunnel by dead bodies and he has to cut the VC into pieces just to get to the other side of him. There are several scenes where most directors would have cut away or it was edited to show time passage but Uwe just stays on the scene while it plays out in real time. One thing I was hoping was there wouldnt be any unrealistic fighting, shoot outs or wirefu but luckily Uwe came through again and all the fighting felt natural and realistic. No slo mo deaths or fanciful fighting but quick stabs, shots or grenade kills. War is a bitch and Uwe did an admiral job bringing this particular story to us. Not perfect but damn good. Best war movie Ive seen in awhile. On a scale of 1-10 I give this a "please dont end yet" 8.1 out of 10.

P.S. : ignore the hate for this or any movies by the ratings on imdb. There is a group of people that rate all of his movies a 1 just out of pure spite for the man, even if they have never seen the movie. Look at the breakdown of who rated this movie. Majority of the people either rate it a 1 (the haters) or a perfect 10. Look for yourself: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970462/ratings

Far Cry (light spoilers)


1968 Tunnel Rats (medium spoilers)