Rampage 2: A Punição

An Uwe Boll movie with a rating over 6 stars (currently anyways)? You must be asking yourself if the planets have aligned just right to give this guy some competence? Is the Armageddon approaching? Don't fear though, even the biggest idiots say something smart at least once in their lifetime right?

I watch Uwe Boll films to have a good laugh, don't we all? This one was a little different (although I did let out a few hardy chortles at Uwe's acting in this film).

Now, this is no masterpiece of film-making, but i'd say it's still worth a watch. I can't believe i'm saying this about a Boll film... I must be losing my mind.

The film has a pretty clear, in your face, kind of message (maybe a little preachy). I think the message can be taken all kinds of ways, and it might alienate some of the audience. However, if you just take it for what it is, and go along for the ride it is pretty fun.

Every single movie has flaws, even critically acclaimed masterpieces. In bad movies it's easy to spot the flaws because you aren't invested in the story. Good movies, with engrossing stories distract you (at least the first time watching) from all the mistakes, minor plot holes, camera-work, and things of that nature.

This movie had me fully invested in the story. I think Brendan Fletcher's performance is what kept me invested. I mean damn, he is a extremely talented actor. It really is thanks to him that this movie was so fun to watch. You can tell he really gave a s*** about his role and put a lot into it. I believed his character every single step of the way. I'd recommend watching it just to see him act.

Now this movie is violent (I mean it's called Rampage for Christ's sake) but it isn't full of gore and it give you a break from the violence every once in awhile.

Again, it's got a pretty clear message and I don't think its really saying anything different or new, but Fletcher's performance does make the message pretty powerful (to me anyways).

Look, Uwe Boll blows dogs for quarters, but he took a break from doing that and actually made something decent. Check it out, even if it's just to watch a very talented actor put a lot of hard work into a performance.

I always appreciate it when you can tell someone really had a lot of passion for their role. That someone actually cared about a vision they were trying to bring to the public. Brendan Fletcher does just that.

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

The first Rampage was a shocker for most people because of its crude violence, as we rarely see these days and was a wind of fresh air for those of us who are tired of a movie industry that is too afraid of doing anything remotely controversial.

Rampage 2 succeeds because it doesn't take the easy route, which will be just to replicate all we already saw in the first movie. Here,we have less killings, but in exchange of that, we are taken into a ride where the main character explain why he thinks that this society is rotten to the core and must be cleansed. Bill essentially deems every political party and corporation as responsible for the injustice in the world. Topics as censorship, corruption, religion and invasion of privacy are constantly brought up by the main character as prime examples of how decadent the society is in his eyes.

Regarding the action scenes, they are more or less on the same level that we saw on the original, nobody should expect anything new or ground breaking on this department, but hey, why fix what's not broken is just more of the same but the death toll in this movie is not even close to the one on the first one, mainly because in this movie take place inside a T.V station and is a hostages situation, not a killing spree out in the open.

If you are interested on the character's motivations for his extreme actions, peppered with some good shooting segments, I think you will enjoy this movie, but if you expect a carnage just as big or bigger than the one on Rampage 1, you better start looking for another movie to quench your thirst of blood.

I really don't understand the Boll phenomenon. His movies are greeted with universal mockery and jeer by critics and entertainment seekers alike. Still he is emitting one Boll-work after the other. How does he manage to do that? It defies common logic. Does he have good friends in very high places? Is he a superior being, far beyond the grasp of normal men? It's probably not a good idea to criticize him or his movies.

But "Rampage: Capital Punishment" isn't really a movie, it's something completely different. The heavily armed and armored Bill, Bolls alter ego, takes a dozen hostages at a TV Station and forces the station's boss to broadcast his revolutionary proclamation, which can be summed up with "Kill the rich!". Not Boll-rich, but billionaires. Not TV bosses, but bank bosses. Actually, you can find similar ideas all over the internet, there are quite a few like-minded souls. We are treated with this rant in it's entirety (5 minutes), while the TV station's boss, played by Boll himself, comments: "The guy is totally right, you know?"

While the movie itself is completely forgettable, this stunt elevates it high above similar airtime fillers. It has to be seen to believe it. Instead of forcing TV Stations to broadcast his message, he wraps it up in a little movie, with much talk, some shootouts and explosions and they'll even pay money to send the Boll-manifesto. The nerve of that guy!

"Revolution NOW!" - Jawoll, Herr 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.