Posts Tagged ‘Uwe Boll’
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I don’t know if you recall, but back in 2006, German director and all around hack Uwe Boll issued a challenge to his harshest critics to step into the ring with him to box. Basically, he was tired of people bashing his painfully bad adaptations of video games like Bloodrayne and Alone in the Dark. I did a comic about it back then, too.
At the time I thought I would include Boll as a regular character. Just someone who would show up and punch Tom for no discernible reason. I kind of forgot about the idea until I heard about In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. Or – as I like to call it – ITNOTK: ADST. Much easier that way.
Looking at the film’s entry on IMDB, I’m kind of surprised by the cast list. Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Ryhs-Davies, Ron Pearlman, Claire Forlani, Kristanna Lokken, Matthew Lillard, Ray Liotta and Burt Reynolds to name a few. Either their unaware of Boll’s poison reputation or they don’t care and are just doing it for the paycheck. But I don’t think anyone was waking into this film expecting it to be the next Lord of the Rings.
I’ve seen a couple of Boll’s movies and I think the reason he gets so much crap – I mean, despite the amateur hand when it comes to staging or shooting a scene – is because he clearly doesn’t have a passion for the video game properties he’s adapting. And when you’re comparing passion against the gamers who make these properties viable, you’d better be right there along with them. You’d better match their passion or they’ll eat you alive. Comic book fans are the same way. But Boll doesn’t seem to care. Not to sound xenophobic, but he comes off like an outsider capitalizing on a trend. A hack whose just in it for the paycheck.
I know a few hard-core gamers that feel strongly that Boll’s films are preventing video games as being seen as a legitimate art form. You’d think they were talking about Jane Fonda setting back the women’s movement 20 years when she started making exercise tapes.
Did I just date myself there?
At any rate, regarding Boll’s challenge. A few internet critics took him up on it. Turns out he was once a semi-pro pugilist. The results are about what you’d expect:
I was going to post my list of Top 10 Films for 2007 to the site today. But I barely got any sleep last night and I don’t think I can articulate myself the way I want. Look for the full list on Friday.
If you want a preview, you can always listen to Monday’s Triple Feature broadcast. I do an overview of my picks 10 through 6 and dig a little deeper on my picks 5 through 1. Plus, you get to hear Gordon and Joe’s picks as well! Everyone wins!
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the site. I hope everyone survives their Wednesday.
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I’ve you’ve spent any time on the internet recently, you might have picked up on this story about schlock-meister Uwe Boll – the director of such fine films as Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne and (most recently) In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale. If you’re not familiar with the name, he’s generally regarded as one of the worst living directors and is a constant target for movie crtics.
In an interview with Fearnet.com, Boll was asked about the online petition asking him to stop making movies. He laughed it and said if the petition got up to a million, he’d stop.
When the interview was posted on April 4, the petition had 18,000 signatures. As the story of Boll’s challenge spreads, it has since climbed to over 175,000 signatures.
I personally haven’t signed the petition. I don’t see the point. I may not like Boll’s films, but I don’t think I have the right to tell him to stop making them. Besides, he provides more entertainment value to me the longer he stays visible to the public. Not with his movies, but with his outrageous attitude. The guy will literally say anything and doesn’t care what you think. I’ve done two comics about him so far. I think you can see how much I appreciate the comedic value he brings to the table.
That said, it makes it hard to defend Boll when he releases videos like this one – his rebuttal to the online petition – where he basically says that Michael Bay and Eli Roth are hacks who churn out the same movie over and over, that he is a genius and that it is the audience’s fault for not recognizing his talent.
It’s very possible that he’s kidding and trying to have a little fun with it. What else can you do when over 175,000 people say that you suck? Then again, he’s German. So if he’s kidding, it’s kind of hard to tell.
I don’t really see the purpose of dragging Michael Bay or Eli Roth into the situation. That just seems petty. Granted, those guys have their critics, but neither of them are going around challenging them to boxing matches.
I mean, is anyone else catching a professional wrestling vibe off this guy, or is it just me? None of this would be circling the movie news sites if Boll wasn’t out there promoting his latest soul-crusher Postal.
All the same, it’s kind of fun to play the game with him a little bit. When I was thinking about the petition, I wondered how many people are currently using the internet. I looked it up and statistics are anywhere between 1.3 to 1.8 billion world-wide. That’s a fun number to play with. Basically, only one thousandth of the global internet community needs to sign this thing to put Boll away.
Do I really think he’ll walk away from movies forever if one million people sign the petition. No, of course not. But at this point, finding out if he’s good to his word is the only thing keeping me interested. If he flakes, it’ll just be another tally in the “Uwe Boll Is A Jerk” column.
It’s very possible this petition could cross that one million mark. Did you read that story about how the Mets allowed their fans to vote for the song the wanted played at the top of the 8th inning through their web site? They left a field open for “Suggest your own song here” and the internet jumped on it, suggesting Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” as their song of choice. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.
SHEA STADIUM GOT RICK ROLL’D!!!
The Internet: We are The Lizard King. We can do anything.
That’s it for me, folks. Have a great weekend and I’ll talk to you again on Monday!
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