Vietnam Rats

It is very easy to hate on anything that Uwe Boll does, and it is clear that most people here are taking this path of least resistance and jumping that same wagon. However, it takes a greater person to admit when they were wrong and give credit when it is due, and it most certainly due. If one really wanted to, they could pick apart the historical accuracy of the film, or the tactics, or the costuming, or the geography; I am sure that such people could easily find some justification for condemning this film.

On the other hand, what would follow would be a trite listing of errors and complaints, tarted up with clever comments and sealed with some witty remark. Is that what proper film critique is about? It doesn't take much in the way of intelligence to attack and destroy what you see before you. That is why people do it so easily and without thought. In a way, this film touches on that very human failing. So many film goers and critics (professional and armchair) are going to dismiss this film as if it is some plague carrier, and only because of the name that goes with it. I feel sorry for those people because they will miss out on a great many interesting and even inspiring film experiences in their life time.

Tunnel Rats is one such experience. It is a small production and done very succinctly and without much extraneous posturing. From the first scene, the film gets right down to business and doesn't really let up until the gripping and downright mortifying ending. Perhaps it is the small size of the production that has kept Boll honest somewhat. I can imagine that when contracted to make Hollywood films, there is a lot of pressure to appeal to the attention deficit audiences out there, often the very ones that hate him, and therefore he aims too far above his mark.

In this film he hits the mark very confidently and professionally. It is worth seeing this film, and doing so without preconception or judgment. Boll is just the director and a film is a sum of its parts, even though Boll directed this film, there were dozens of earnest and hardworking actors and crew members putting in their all to make this film. It is the hight of arrogance to laugh at their efforts and belittle what they made when truly there is nothing really wrong with it.

I hope that enough people are see this film so that Boll can keep doing what he enjoys and sharing it with people. Every film, when made earnestly, has something worthwhile to show us. Stay free of the popularist hate for Uwe Boll and see films for what they are.

First of all, I am no Boll-Fan nor Boll-Basher but some year back I heard about him and his awful movie adaptions of Videogames. I saw "Alone In The Dark" (first Boll Flick for me) and after it was finished i thought the movie could have been better, the worst thing is that the way the movie was cut together was just bad, in all Actionscenes i thought "What the Hell". Sometimes I couldn't even tell what was going on or what the director tried to say with his scene. Second one I saw was "Postal" much better than "Alone In The Dark" better cut together and even some good laughs, but still, Postal is a bit strange too.

Then yesterday I watched "Tunnel Rats". I always thought that Vietnam was the most interesting war for warmovies and I loved the PC-Game "Vietcong" with the Underground-Tunnel Levels. If I would have to go in such a narrow tunnel with traps, I would probably die of Fear. The Scenes in the Tunnels are mostly Dark, which I hate about Movies, but in this one I was okay with these many dark scenes. The hole time i feared with the soldiers in the Tunnels. Some Actionscenes above Ground are still a bit strange cut and don't look to good but i absolutely loved the moments in the Tunnels, and the most time they are in the Tunnels. I NEVER would have thought it but Uwe made a Movie i really liked. The Tunnels Scenes are suspense, full with terror and very brutal but realistic. I would really like to shake your hand Herr Boll and I hope you will improve even more!

I Bet if this movie would have been a Secret Project and no one would know if it was a Boll Movie, much more Cinemas would have played it and the Rating would bet at least 5.5-6.0 Stars! 65% of the Ratings given to Boll Movies are from Bashers and Fools who just rate 1 because they "know" the movies must be bad! I saw two Boll movies and agreed: Bad Director not the right feeling for Cuts etc. but I gave him another chance, and so should you. THIS MOVIE IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE 4.2 STARS SHOWN.

One of the more unique aspects of the Vietnam War was the manner in which the Viet Cong had built a series of long tunnels in certain areas of the country with the most famous being in the Cu-Chi district just outside of Saigon. So when I saw a film that was based on this feature of the war I was instantly drawn to it. Unfortunately, I really shouldn't have bothered as this film was extremely disappointing in a number of ways. For starters, the size of the soldiers featured in this movie is all wrong as none of them fit the parameters necessary to be a tunnel rat. The fact was that the normal Viet Cong soldier was typically short and thin and the tunnels were deliberately made to barely accommodate them. So in order to be a tunnel rat one generally had to be-short and thin. Another strange scene involved the manner in which the base camp was set right in the middle of the jungle with no clearing, concertina wire, machine gun posts, claymore mines or anybody apparently guarding the perimeter. Again, that isn't how the American Army operated. Speaking of machine guns, in one particular scene one of the soldiers is firing an M60 from his hip while standing in the open. Well, maybe that's how Rambo might have done it but generally the first thing an American soldier is trained to do is to immediately find cover or concealment when under attack and the M60 machine gun is typically fired from the prone position. That's why it has a bipod. Be that as it may, there are plenty of other errors within this film but the main thing I didn't care for was the overall story itself as it didn't seem to have a point. Yes, war is hell. But it wasn't necessary to use 96 minutes to convey that message. At least, I didn't think so and for the reasons just mentioned I have rated this film accordingly. Below average.

If you're looking for an intricate plot, look elsewhere. If you're looking for feel-good, shoot-em-up action, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the latest sugar-pill rom-com with Sandra Bullock, why are you even reading this? In Uwe Boll's stunning "Tunnel Rats," the increasingly interesting (but still no less maligned) German director has made what essentially amounts to a chronicle of the madness of war told in a confined, claustrophobic, and frighteningly intimate way. The concept and plot (a platoon of American soldiers uncovering underground tunnels built by the Viet Cong to stage ambushes) are one and the same; and the metaphors paralleling confined spaces to the erosion of sanity are strong--hysteria is very viscerally believable here. While the character introductions and subsequent dialogs may strike notes of familiarity to the seasoned connoisseur of cinematic warfare, it's the unfamiliarity of the cast (with Boll regular Michael Pare being the only 'name' actor present) that makes it all stick; the lack of name actors only heightens the suspense, especially after they've earned our sympathy. To see these young men trapped in confined, booby-trapped spaces (with nothing but a revolver and a flashlight) is the stuff of nightmares, even more so than "The Descent" a few years back. The film maintains a bleak, free-form nihilism throughout, its plot (much like the war it's invoking) a jagged sequence of events rather than a simple matter of connect-the-dots conflict resolution. Tough, hypnotic, and refreshingly free of contrived stylistic symbolism, "Tunnel Rats" could very well be Uwe Boll's masterpiece.

7.5 out of 10

I understand we're to suspend belief and all artistic license with movies .... However..... As a period war drama you have to maintain a minimal veil of reality.

I can only guess the people that rated this movie highly weren't adults during the actual war.

Tunnel rats were handpicked short stature soliders. Half the cast looks like they play basketball. 36 tunnel rats died during the entire war. Apparently a third of them died in this one tunnel alone!

The firebase is set up like a weekend campsite with no perimeter defense. Absurd. Almost absurd as the soliders that defend the base by standing as tall as they can and running around until they get shot in the head.

Sorry. As a war movie it just doesn't make it.