Rampage: Capital Punishment

Who is Uwe Boll really? Is he like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez (stuck in adolescence, has a mindless gore-fest fetish, indulges in shock value) without the talent, vision or innovation? Is he smarter than we give him credit for, using just a few dollars to crank out movies that can actually be seen in theaters? Has he simply risen to the level of his own incompetence? The fact that he cannot be ignored, that he refuses to crumble under the weight of his own perversion and badness (in fact, thrives on it) and keeps getting produced over and over and over and over again (and we keep watching) makes me believe I am missing something. Something that maybe, just maybe, just might be good (that is, of cultural value). He is in a way the trashy pulp fiction of movie directors (and holds a doctorate in literature) who surprisingly churns out a pretty good piece of celluloid every now and then. There is so much crap though (such as the BloodRayne series), and yet...we need him. He's like a crime scene clean up guy. Nobody wants that job, but somebody has to do it. Not many want to dedicate their life to making movies about how depraved, sadistic and evil humanity can be, but we still need them. We need them to help us not to forget (Auschwitz for example--if you though Schindler's List was horrifying, think again). Also, unlike the vast majority of Hollywood directors and producers, Boll, love him or hate him, is authentic. He does not cower behind the pen, but confronts his critics head on (even inviting them to box him). And he is absolutely passionate about making movies. I doubt a scene goes where he isn't actually creaming his tightie whities. But the maddening thing is, Boll refuses to learn, refuses to integrate feedback, and this is why his films never get better (sometimes Narcissism is too much of a good thing), and perhaps could be the reason he so often calls people "retards" (where did he get that doctorate again?). He refuses to back down, to conform...to be Michael Bay. And I hate Hollywood just enough to like Boll for that reason alone. In his newest movie, Rampage, Boll shows great courage in exposing atrocity as well as the sickness of corporate greed, manipulation and control. The movie isn't in and of itself that awesome (I liked 2009's Rampage much better) it's still vaguely intriguing and watchable, especially if you are a fan of extreme violence. Like I said, we "need" Boll.

Mr. Boll's first Rampage was a pointless rage against humanity. He spent our precious minutes throwing some swill our way about how humanity was expanding past the point of sustainability, and that the only solution was to kill some people off. And that was the whole of it. Kill people. No justifications and no reason for them. Just kill lots of people.

While I disagreed with the premise, the plot had a simple purity and made for a pretty viciously entertaining movie.

When I heard about a sequel, my first thought was, "Oh please don't ruin it by trying to develop this madman." Unfortunately, Mr. Boll has done just that by opening his big mouth.

Mr. Boll apparently has the social and political comprehension of a child, and he displays his ignorance proudly in this movie, which can best be described as a simple tantrum.

I think he might believe that this second movie expounds upon the "fine points" of the first film, but in reality all it does is drown them in paranoia rhetoric that contradicts itself even as it spews from the mouth of the main actor. Mr. Boll attempts to bury us in just about every politically motivated, paranoid conspiratorial bit of garbage he can dig up from any sort of anarchistic whacko out there.

Far from being convincing, it made me roll my eyes. Oh good grief. I've heard all this ridiculous ranting before, and from the mouths of better men. His ranting contributes very little to the plot of the film, and instead confuses the hell out of the viewer. I pity anyone who listens to this garbage and accepts it on it's face value.

WHAT POINT EXACTLY is Mr. Boll trying to make with this.. art? That democracy is dead and we'll all be better off if we behave like the anti-hero? Shooting people just for fun? Mr. Boll wants us to kill the rich? Sure. As long as Mr. Boll knows that he falls into that proper category. President Bush is evil? Heard this before a million times while he was in office. I'm hearing it more and more now that he's out of office, with the current administration trying to blame the previous president for everything it can't sort out for itself. The U.S. has NO GUN CONTROL?? Mr. Boll, are you completely oblivious?

The protagonist is asked a few times by other actors what solutions he suggests. His answer is repeatedly something along the lines of (I'll paraphrase), "Hey! Don't look at me! I just shoot people." Rather than being interesting, it comes off as merely offensive.

What it comes down to is that Mr. Boll tried to make a "point" with this film, which was a huge mistake. It's convoluted and redundant. The main character's motives, which were so clear and sinister in the first film, have suddenly become a pointless splatter of insipid demagoguery. He should have just stuck with killing people for fun.

It would have made more sense.

I'm still rating the movie a "6" because it was well made, and I'm not so petty that I give poor scores to well made films just because I hate the politics of the writer.

First, I have to admit that this movie kind of excited me when I first heard of it. I thoroughly enjoyed the first film, and if you like "Assault on Wall Street" you'll enjoy this one even more. I liken it to "Fight Club", but just a lesser budget version. There's narration and clips which I feel add to the movie.

Sometimes the film contradicts itself. The star of the film uses an iPhone and guns which he says are part of the problem, (among other things). That said, the message he's conveying isn't all that insane, and it really mimics a lot of the social attitude in the United States today. The message cannot be missed in this movie.

It also has it's usual action and carnage which is exciting. I firmly believe Uwe Boll has learned from past mistakes. It's pretty refreshing to see a director who isn't cranking out the next crappy "Transformers" movie, and isn't afraid to mix things up a bit. This film shows that he's found his footing and is making decent movies. I sincerely hoping Uwe Boll makes a third film. It for sure merits one.

I do not agree with murder in any way, shape or form, and this is the irony of the movie. But you have to admit most of what he is saying is true, and that government and corporations are at the center of evil and corruption in many ways in society and have been for a very long time, for thousands of years. However, for example, Assange and Snowden would never say to go murder people just to get the attention of others or to expose evil. Neither of them did that. The other side of the coin is many people are losing their lives all over the world because of much of what our own government agencies and United Nations has done, and that has actually been proved. These are not just conspiracy theories either. One example he brought out was the 50 children who died by drone for one terrorist who was not even proved a real terrorist. There is something to say about that also from the Obama drone killings. I also know our government is connected to the phony war on terror, which has been connected to the Mossads being the false Al-Qaeda. War is bred from all sides for one order of evil, and this has been seen in history with Rome, Babylon and pretty much everywhere. This movie of course should never be seen as a justification to murder people, as this is clearly wrong, but one reason why things are going sour in a lot of places is what he is talking about, and that is very real. I give it 7 out of 10 for that. Uwe Boll just has some real guts making movies like this considering shootings that have sadly happened, but I can tell you mind control is not far off from that either in connection. We know how to clone, make robots, send out satellites, etc. etc., so how hard is it to think we cannot control a person or groups with any method, especially seeing in the past projects like MK ULtra and the current Project Monarch? Think about that. Dark movie, but good points are made.

I know Uwe Boll gets a lot of hate for his movies and to be honest I quite enjoy his movies, House of the Dead was fun zombie mayhem and Assault on Wall Street was a fairly tense thriller.

I liked the first Rampage and was fairly curious when a sequel was announced, the trailers looked decent and the reviews I heard were actually not bad

So how does "Rampage: Capital Punishment" hold up? Well I must admit I thought it was a decent film, Brendan Fletcher is great once again and the film manages to convey effect tension and fear again. Though this is not a film for everyone, there is a pretty big political message running through out the film and it seems that our lead character believes that killing people is the ultimate solution to all our problems.

Though looking through all that I found the film to be well acted (apart from Uwe Boll's hilarious cameo), well shot and effectively paced

Rampage: Capital Punishment is a fair thriller, worth a rent