Stoic

First off - before I get to the movie itself... I just wanted to speak to the morons who ALWAYS automatically vote 1 for everything Boll does - without even watching the damn movie. Its just a really childish and insanely stupid thing to do.

I personally have really enjoyed his past few films... you just never know what to expect when you sit down and watch a Uwe Boll movie and I commend that! In The Name of the King in particular for its insanely over-the-top obviously made to be laughed at entertainment. I mean really -- KING Burt Reynolds??? (best "last conversation before dying" scene I've ever watched... I laughed for like 15 minutes)... and a Ray Liotta Magi who constantly says the most hilarious stuff throughout the movie. And the choreography of the fight scenes was actually quite commendable (sadly not violent, but its all good) - anyways....

... and then Seed, Postal, Tunnel Rats (best war movie I've seen in years - phenomenal flick) --- all 3 are fantastic movies in their own right. Far Cry was god awful and so was Alone in the Dark 2 (sorry Uwe)

And then we have STOIC! - In the same dark/depressing vein that made Tunnel Rats such a kick ass movie... this thing takes you on a wild ride. A ride NOT for the squeamish to be more precise... and not for people who can only watch "Hollywood blockbuster" crap to be entertained. Thankyou to the other reviewer for this movie; I did not know most the movie was "improv" on the actors part and that's an incredibly awesome move on Bolls part to boot... gave the movie a feeling of reality you don't see much anymore. The last half hour in particular is some seriously intense stuff. The acting was also very good... after watching American History X like 19 times + Animal Factory (highly underrated movie), and of course Detroit Rock City + even Dark Reel was pretty damn entertaining... I've always really liked Furlong -- and I'm really happy to see him again in top form. The other actors too were excellent; especially Sam Levinson as the most sympathetic/remorseful of them all.

So go find this movie and watch it - then find Tunnel Rats and watch that... and then STOP giving this man the automatic 1's he does not deserve (except for maybe Far Cry... dude, that was just BAD)!!!

I speak only in terms of atmosphere, so realistic and unbearable, disgusting but so awfully true atmosphere behind bars. Because the plot itself is certainly closer to BULLY than SCUM, which was more focused on another scheme. Well, this movie is the best of Uwe Boll, a film maker too long underrated, despised, who shows here his real talent, his skills. He is a very gifted film maker, he proves it here in the best way. But, as you can guess, it is not destined to wide audiences. It is such a shame that all Uwe Boll's films did not look like this one, not in terms of story but directing. It belongs, for me, to the best behind bars films ever made, the most underrated too.

After a game of poker takes a turn for the dark side, three inmates find themselves trying to cover up the brutal beating and torture of the fourth inmate in their cell. Stoic, starring Edward Furlong, Shaun Sipos, Sam Levinson, and Steffen Mennekes leads you through the horrible acts, using flashbacks and interview style Q&A with the inmates involved. Stoic is also based on the true story of an inmate from a German juvenile detention center, who was brutalized by fellow cellies.

I had huge doubts going into this movie knowing that it was directed by Uwe Boll, Who's only movies I had been exposed to before this were video game related. The fact that I happen to be a big Edward Furlong fan caused me to give this flick a try. After all, If I was able to sit through the third crow film, I can survive anything. This movie takes every fear a man has about going into the prison system, and rolls it up into one nonstop ride of fear, and uneasiness. The worse case scenario of jail is unfolded in front of you in a very graphic and unforgiving manor. You can really feel the tension rise to higher and higher levels as things continue to spiral further out of control with each passing minute. It's very rare a movie ever makes me truly feel sorry for a victim, because I'm always able to tell myself it's just a movie, it's all in good fun. Stoic does a really impressive job at making you feel for the young man being tortured for no real reason at all.

Now, the things that bothered me about this film, first of all, when in prison, guards check on cells on a pretty frequent time frame, it seemed like a lot of time passed in this movie with no guard in site, beyond when they got food. Of course, that can be overlooked, but there is one scene in the film which I won't spoil just for the sake that some of you may go watch this after reading this, but let's just say huge shenanigans called on the red button incident with no one double checking on the claim made.

With that said I'm shocked, and kind of disturbed to say I enjoyed an Uwe boll movie, and not just because Edward furlong was involved. I was very impressed with the raw, and realistic nature of the film for the most part, and also its ability to make you feel something. I recommend you give it a watch, especially you Netflix users out there, as it is currently viewable via instaqueue.

7/10 - Ritualistic The Liberal Dead http://liberaldead.blogspot.com

I don't really get all the Uwe Boll bashers out there. I don't watch his video game films because, quite frankly, I think if you want to have a video game experience you should PLAY a video game. Call me crazy.

I watched "Stoic" because I loved "Rampage"---I loved the originality of it, I admired it's clarity of vision, and I liked the outlandishness of the piece. Boll's "I-don't-give-a-f***" attitude definitely did show through in that hyper-violent orgasm and it does so again with "Stoic."

What's odd about "Stoic" is that it would almost play better as a stage production. It's based on a real event that occurred in a German prison, where a harmless dare escalated into deadly consequence. It's really pretty simple, as Sam Levinson states in the preamble: "This system doesn't work!" And why should it? You put four guys in one small room, with varying degrees of maladaptive personalities, subject them to endless tedium and little activity---what do you think would happen? There is a reason why most US prisons don't do four-to-a-cell, after all.

The acting is very good for the most part (Levinson gets a bit melodramatic, but it's passable). Furlong is creepily chilling in his passive-aggressiveness. It's not the type of movie that generates a lot of tension (probably why few people like it). It does generate DREAD however and it isn't pleasant to watch even in a sicko-torture-porn type of way...there are no "oh wow" EFX...it's just...degrading. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend it to my parents? Hell no.

Yet, I find myself giving it a relatively high-score. For those interested in how group dynamics tend to obliterate the ability or desire to think for one's self, "Stoic" is an relatively bold statement. One wonders if Boll was thinking of his rubber-stamping detractors when he made it.

Now, I am familiar with the director's questionable reputation and I am aware that Uwe Boll bashing is quite a popular sport on Internet forums (heck, I also agree that most of his movies are utter rubbish), but there are a couple of remarkable things about this man's career that you can't possibly neglect and even have to admire in some strange sort of way. First of all, the man is a hard laborer. Few directors have released an average of four movies per year, especially when they also write and produce their own garbage. Secondly, Boll's repertoire is getting more and more versatile and accessible to wider audiences lately. Initially he specialized in adaptations of gory video games, but recently he made cynical comedies ("Postal") as well as action flicks ("Far Cry") and gritty thrillers ("Seed"). And then last but not least, the man is not ashamed to experiment, innovate and – if necessary – to blunder ingloriously. This newly released movie "Stoic", for example, all things considered it turned out a failure, but nevertheless a mild and intriguing one with still a whole lot of merits and praiseworthy factors. I feel I should start with a warning to the squeamish, as "Stoic" is a deeply unpleasant movie with an unceasingly guttural atmosphere and a large amount of inhumanly barbarous shock sequences. At the Fantastic Film Festival in my native country, where Uwe Boll and lead actor Edward Furlong came to introduce the film themselves, several people walked out of the theater because they couldn't cope with the harshness of certain bits of footage. I realize this works as a recommendation more than as a warning, but be advised this is not a movie for everyone. You'll notice during the opening sequences, or here on the film's website page as well, that nobody is credited for writing "Stoic". That is simply because there isn't a screenplay. Uwe Boll based the concept on true events as they occurred in a German prison in 2006 and only gave the most principal of instructions as his cast of four improvised all their lines and dialogs at the spot. This is obviously a risky undertaking, but admittedly it suits the tone of the film which is primitive and raw. Four petty criminals share a minuscule cell and spend most of their days playing poker and exchanging stories on how bad-ass they are. One day, a game of poker runs out of hand and the mentally weakest of the four – Mitch – loses a bet which ordered him to eat a complete tube of toothpaste. He stubbornly refuses and the other three team up against him. What starts out as a silly macho contest quickly escalates into a sick-spirited and vile series of humiliation, torture, vicious rape, mutilation and eventually inflicted suicide. "Stoic" is imaginatively structured, with interview scenes of the three culprits mixed with the footage of what actually happened inside those four prison walls. Initially the three convicts claim it was an ordinary case of suicide, but the truth gradually comes to the surface as they only want to protect themselves and begin to blame the other ones of having the lead. The main malfunction of this movie is that it actually has no reason of existence. It's an exploitative and unimaginably gratuitous piece of torture-porn without added psychological or socialist value whatsoever. Boll pretends to give an insight in human behavior, but basically only stills his own personal hunger for sleaze and violence. We only know the formula is based on true events, but this film draws its own conclusions that are unquestionably far more sensational and grotesque than what really happened. There clearly went very little research into this production prior to shooting, so it would be immensely hypocritical to label "Stoic" as a dramatic portrait of our modern day prison system. Nevertheless I don't want to criticize Mr. Boll's accomplishment any further, as he definitely improved a great deal when it comes to directorial skills and competence. You can sense that he was in control of his filming set and had the luck of working with four adequate young actors, including Edward Furlong and Sam Levinson. "Stoic" is a mean and uncomfortable film that I don't exactly intend to watch again any time soon, but it's undeniably a memorable and out-of-the-ordinary experience.