Rampage - Sniper en liberté

Saw this on the web last night and couldn't have been more impressed. Everything about it was top notch which was a huge surprise considering it's a Uwe Boll film.

Brendan Fletcher was absolutely excellent in the very difficult role of portraying a brutal mass murderer who also happens to be a very sympathetic character. At several points in the film, he reminded me of a young Christian Slater, the Slater who used to pour everything he had into a role.

Kudos also to Shaun Sipos who, oddly enough, reminded me of a young Brad Pitt from Twelve Monkeys, especially in the chicken restaurant scene with Fletcher. I hope both these guys get much more acting work as a result of what they accomplished in Rampage.

My only question is how on earth did Uwe Boll pull this brilliant movie out of his ass after a career full of crap I wouldn't want my worst enemy to have to watch?

In any event, this film, as shocking as it is, is a warning that the worst is yet to come. In fact, Columbine and the Virginia Tech mass murders may soon pale in comparison to what the next "Bill" ends up doing with a rage that can't be quenched.

The ratings would be much higher, if this movie had another directors name on it. But since it's a Boll-Movie, it can't be good, right? Rampage is basically a movie about a guy on a killing spree, but Boll really managed to add depth to it. Believe it or not: this is a pretty clever flick. There is no black and white, no good or bad. Society is just f****d up in general and everybody seems to deal with that differently.

So it's not a nihilistic vision of our society. It's not dragging you down like a depressing Larry Clark- or Lars Von Trier-flick. It's not torture porn and it's not pseudo-artsy. It's simply a good movie, with great actors and a surprising twist in the end.

The editing and the cinematography were a bit wonky, though.

I've read the criticisms of Uwe Boll, heck I've seen House of the Dead and it was brutally bad. This movie, on the other hand, was all too good. Uwe Boll shoots and scores on this movie.

I'm not a camera guru, but the movie is shot with a home video feel to it. The picture was a touch grainy and not all that crisp like you'd expect from a feature film. That didn't detract from the movie at all.

Rampage is, unfortunately, a very familiar story in this day and age. From Columbine to Virginia Tech to Sandy Hook and, as of a few weeks ago, Isla Vista, and as of a few days ago, Seattle. A young man, just out of high school, is fed up with his life and people in general. So, he deals with it the way some young people have decided to do in recent history; he goes on a shooting spree.

The movie does a brilliant job to tear at you much like the movie Falling Down. In other words, in no way would the average person condone random killings, but you are shown the frustrating events that occur to the young man to put him in a violent frame of mind. Ultimately, you can draw your own conclusions about the young man. Maybe some are enthralled by his actions while I know many would be absolutely mortified by his actions. The excellence of this movie was in the developing of this young man/monster.

Everyone has their opinion of Uwe. The man's made some horrible, horrible movies. But it seems like when he's working with his own material (i.e. not a video game) he can do some good work. Look no further than Postal (which, granted, is based on a game but is mostly original) to see that he is capable of doing good stuff that is criminally underrated just because he's Uwe Boll. I fear that may happen with Rampage as well.

The story itself isn't terribly in depth. It's basically just a frustrated young guy who's kind of a loser in the eyes of his small town who straps on a suit of full body armor, grabs some serious firepower, and mows down everyone he sees (mostly). I'd love to tell you that it's a serious look at the troubled mind of a small town guy who's pushed over the edge, but it's really not. It is, however, still quite good. Some people will probably get tired of a guy walking through town shooting random people, but I think it serves it's purpose to further the story and isn't completely mindless killing. What little story is there is pretty solid which is a hell of a lot more than you can say for a lot of Boll's work.

When all is said and done, I'd definitely recommend it.

The only movie I had seen from Boll was House Of The Dead. It was a lot of fun because it was so bad. I read reviews of other movies he made, and I suspect they weren't much better. I was infuriated with what he did with the Alone In The Dark franchise, with guns and bimbo scientist and all.

I went to see Rampage (at the L'Etrange Festival) with a smirk on my face. I missed the 15 first minutes and I'm almost glad I did: the lousy messages, the jump cuts, the ad lib dialogue were about to get me out of here. But the actors weren't bad, things kept moving, so I played along.

Then started the said "rampage". There is not much to tell about it. It feels like Boll wanted to stick the nose of GTA players into their own *bip*, asking "So you thinks that's funny? See what it's like, is that so much fun anymore?" The movie gets better every minute. By the end of it I also wondered if the beginning was playing on the fact that we expect something stupid, illogical and aimless from his movies.

The logic is not without faults, but nothing that couldn't be discussed, the humour is great, scarce and surprisingly witty, overall, for me it was a success. If you get a chance to watch it, stick with it, at the end you might find yourself surprised at how it got there, from where it started.

As a side comment I would like to add that Mr Boll is a very nice person, on the first day of the festival he stood in the middle of the multiplex for hours (without boxing gloves) just to talk with people. I'm familiar with festivals and you don't see a lot of directors doing that.