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First Trailer for Uwe Boll's Film About the Genocide in Darfur

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Dr. Uwe Boll, the notorious filmmaker behind the likes of House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, In the Name of the King: a Dungeon Siege Tale, Alone in the Dark, and Postal, has made a film - a serious one - about the ongoing conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. I imagine you're as surprised as everyone else.

I first heard about the film, titled simply Darfur, about a month ago at the Fantastic Fest Q&A for Boll's man-on-a-killing-spree movie Rampage. The director casually referred to the film as if it was no big deal, though it was obvious that everyone in the room was as stunned as I. When pressed for more information, Boll explained that he felt the world was turning a blind eye to the crimes against humanity that are committed daily in Darfur, and that as an artist, the only way he felt he could make a difference was if he made a film about it.

Now it would be easy to not take the film seriously given who is involved, but I can attest that there was genuine frustration in Boll's voice when he talked about tackling the material. However, the credibility he earned by showing a more noble side than one normally sees in his filmography quickly took a nose dive as Boll explained he used actual Darfur refugees in making the film. That sounds no alarms at first, but he further explained that he had actual rape victims in his cast, victims who were asked to re-enact their rape on camera; because that kind of 'honesty' was the only way he could capture how dire the situation is.

Fantastic Fest Review: Rampage

This is my first time reviewing a film directed by the notorious Uwe Boll (Bloodrayne, Postal), and I am a little disappointed. I'd always heard that Boll provides critics with wonderful opportunities to incorporate the most colorful derogatory phrases possible in reviews, perhaps even creating new metaphors specifically to describe the mediocrity of his films. I was ready to have fun after the movie, rather than while watching it. However, it turns out that Rampage, Boll's latest film, is not at all a bad film. In fact, many people may actually like it, as much as it's possible to like a film about a senseless massacre. What is this world coming to?

Rampage is about Bill (Brendan Fletcher), a college-age guy who's disgusted with everyone and everything around him, from his parents -- with whom he still lives -- to the barista who can't make Bill's favorite drink properly to incompetent fast-food workers. His friend Evan (Shaun Sipos) shares his disgust. Bill assembles a full-body Kevlar suit and decides to go on a rampage (thus the title) of destruction in his small town. Falling Down is Capra-esque in comparison. However, the ending is satisfyingly unpredictable -- I assumed an obvious outcome, and was pleased to be wrong.

Fantastic Fest: Fantastic Debates + Boxing

Fantastic Fest continues to prove itself as the funnest film festival in the entire world, not only by programming weird and amazing movies, but also by hosting events like the "Fantastic Debates." This is where filmmakers, film critics, and even theater owners square off in a debate inside an actual boxing ring. After the opening verbal rounds, the format changes to boxing, with actual headgear, mouthpieces, and boxing gloves.

Sadly, no solid punches were actually thrown over the course of the debate, but the real barbs were exchanged verbally. To put it in perspective, one of the topics was "Michael Bay: Should He Win An Oscar Or Get The Death Penalty?" Even stranger was the fact that the main event pitted Drafthouse owner and Fantastic Fest main man Tim League against crappy video game adaptation director Uwe Boll on "The State of Independent Films."

Check out the gallery below and head beyond the break where you can hear the best debates from the evening. There's a lot of genius in here, including some verbal sparring from our very own Scott Weinberg. Head on through and give them a listen. Just try not to do it while drinking anything, because it'll spew out of your nose.

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Fantastic Fest Five: Our Most Anticipated Titles (Hall Edition)

Fantastic Fest may be in its fifth year as one of the World's Coolest Film Festivals, but as far as I'm concerned this is year one. That's because this is my first crack at the geek mecca held annually in Austin, TX, and since the entire world revolves around me, I think we can all agree to reset the counter. No? Fine. At least indulge these picks for my Top 5 Most Anticipated Films at Fantastic Fest Five.

5. Rampage, Directed by Uwe Boll (Canada)
That's right, out of the 100+ films at Fantastic Fest, one of my top 5 is the latest from House of the Dead and Bloodrayne mastermind Uwe Boll. Never mind the fact that the notorious German is going to be present to do a Rampage Q&A (his appearances are, as legend tells, phenomenal, hilarious, maddening insights into his, uh, talents), I've actually heard very good things about the film.

Programming Description: "Fed up with his dead-end life, Bill constructs a full-body kevlar armor suit and rampages through the streets of his hometown killing everyone in sight, particularly the barista that failed to make him a proper macchiato."

Extent of Exposure: I've only read the description, seen the poster and heard a detail-less thumbs up.

Edward Furlong vuelve a colaborar con el inefable Uwe Boll

Hace apenas un año, Edward Furlong firmó para protagonizar la peli en blanco y negro, llena de vomitos y tortura de Uwe Boll titulada Stoic. Y según lo que publica Variety, parece que Furlong simplemente no ha tenido suficiente ración del cineasta más odiado de los últimos años, porque su próximo proyecto conocido es protagonizar la próxima de Boll: Janjaweed. Pero no sólo él, Variety también ha confirmado a Kristanna Loken y el cada día más calvo, Billy Zane.

Janjaweed va a ser la segunda película en la que Boll se pone serio, si eso es posible, y para ello ha decidido edentrarse en el genocidio de Sudán, centrándose en la figura de los periodistas que tienen que decidir si quieren permanecer para ayudar a las víctimas, o si prefieren poner pies en polvorosa para informar de sus experiencias. Como sucedió en Stoic, la película tiene un tratamiento escrito, pero no un guión, así que casi todo será improvisado durante el rodaje.

Eddie Furlong Grabs a Terminator and Heads Back to Uwe Boll Land

Just a year ago, Edward Furlong signed on for some uber-charming, puke-eating, Uwe Boll torture with Stoic. I guess he just can't get enough of the man, because now he's leading the next Boll feature -- also mentioned in that news piece -- Janjaweed. But he's not only signing on -- he's also bringing a Terminator with him. Variety reports that he's going to star in the film, alongside Kristanna Loken and the bald-headed wonder Billy Zane.

The second Boll flick to get serious, if that's even possible, Janjaweed will look into the world of Sudan genocide, focusing on journalists who have to decide whether they want to stay and help the victims they see, or hit the road and report on their experiences. Like Stoic, the film has a treatment, but no script, so it'll be all improvisation.

A film dealing with the turmoil in Sudan is a good thing, but Boll taking a stab at it is just sad. Considering how he previously bragged about how much time he focused the camera on puke eating, I can't imagine this having any merit whatsoever, beyond another reason to detest the man. Yeah, he wants to enter the arthouse world, but bragging about bile just shows how ridiculous that notion is.

It saddens me that these guys are desperate enough to do "serious" Boll. Especially Zane. Can't anyone give the man something more appealing to act in?

Estreno. 'En el nombre del Rey'

La cinta En el nombre del Rey ,llega a nuestra cartelera con dos años de retraso, y casi nadie se explica por que es así, cuando mucha gente la veía pasar directamente a Dvd, sin pasar por las pantallas.

Esta dirigida por Uwe Boll,un director muy acostumbrado a dirigir versiones de videojuegos y muy accostumbrado a estar en las listas de las peores películas de la historia o en los premios Razzie. (ha dirigido también:The House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark y Bloodrayne)
La película está basada en el videojuego 'Dungeon Siege' ,un afamado juego de rol.

Razzie Awards Honor The Worst of the Year

While Oscar was planning to hand out golden statues to the best films of the year, the 29th Annual Golden Rasberry (Razzie) Awards were being handed out to the year's worst. The big winner (or loser) this year was The Love Guru, which not only took home Worst Picture, but Worst Actor (for Mike Myers) and Worst Screenplay (Mike Myers and Graham Gordy). The Hottie and The Nottie nabbed two Razzies, with star Paris Hilton taking home honors in the Worst Actress category (for Hottie and the Nottie), as well as Worst Supporting Actress (in Repo: The Genetic Opera). Ms. Hilton also shared the spotlight with Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore for Worst Screen Couple.

Indiana Jones' return to the big screen garnered a whole bunch of negative reactions, and the film did little to impress the Razzie voters since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull won the award for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel. Wow, there's a lot of room in that sucker ... and it went to Indy? Let's just say Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jessica Alba both got away with one there. Rounding things out, Uwe Boll won for Worst Director and Worst Career Achievement, with the tagline "Germany's Answer to Ed Wood".

Check out the entire list over here, then let us know what you think they got right or wrong. Was The Love Guru really the worst picture of the year? Did Indy deserve worst sequel/remake/prequel status?

En el nombre del rey

Título castellano: En el nombre del rey

Título original: In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

Duración: 124 minutos

Fecha de estreno: 27-02-2009

Director: Uwe Boll

Reparto: Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, Claire Forlani, Matthew Lillard, John Rhys-Davies, Will Sanderson, Ron Perlman, Brian J. White, Kristanna Loken

Género: Acción

País: EEUU

Año: 2007

Guión: Glenn M. Benest, David Freeman, Doug Taylor (Videojuego)

Fotografía: Mathias Neumann

Música: Henning Lohner

Złote Maliny 2009 - nominacje!

Poznaliśmy już laureatów Złotych Globów, teraz czekamy na nominacje i ceremonię wręczenia Oscarów... Ale każdy kinomaniak wie, że pomiędzy tymi niezwykle ważnymi imprezami odbywa się jeszcze jedna, wcale nie taka mało istotna - Złote Maliny!

The Scary Bits: Dead Set, Voices & the Meat Train

So our good pal Peter Hall was traveling overseas, and this is how you know that "Horror Geeks" is a really awesome fraternity: He bought me a copy of the E4 horror mini-series Dead Set! Created by the insanely clever Charlie Brooker, Dead Set is about the zombie apocalypse as seen through the cameras of a Big Brother broadcast. It's a five-part mini-series that runs about 140 minutes in total -- and man, it's really something special. Knowing a bit about Brooker's snarky ways, I was half-expecting this to be a jokey sort of zombie affair, but no way man: This is full bore horror, and it's one of the best serious zombie movies of the last twenty years. As far as I know, Dead Set is not currently available through a R1 distributor, but if any horror movie is worth the few extra bucks, it's this one. Damn good stuff, well done Charlie, and thanks Pete! (Offical Dead Set website right here!)

Looks like After Dark has chosen their final film for next January's event. It will be a Korean chiller called Voices. The rest of the slate (which includes Weinberg-approved titles like Dying Breed and The Broken) can be perused via Bloody-D's handy new breakdown. And speaking of cool horror flicks I've seen at festivals, the director of Creep and Severance will be doing a dark ages apocalypse story called Black Death. Coooool.

And while I was pleased to see a DVD announcement for The Midnight Meat Train, I got a very nice surprise once I checked out the DVD cover! Cool! Thanks to Twitch, we now have some more details on the R1 Cold Prey (Norwegian slasher flick) DVD. Anchor Bay will be releasing the DVD on January 20. And while the new cover for Ben Rock's Alien Raiders doesn't exactly adhere to the movie ... it's still pretty nifty-looking. Lastly, yikes. Check out the eyeballs on Dorothy Mills!

Ankieta: Najlepsze najgorsze filmy

Lub jak kto woli: najgorsze z najgorszych produkcji. Czasami w jesienny wieczór warto zerknąć na któryś z takich filmów. Nie mówię tutaj o produkcjach z drobnymi wpadkami, lecz o totalnych gniotach. Po pierwsze można się z nich pośmiać, a po drugie - pełnią funkcję terapeutyczną. Zawsze można przecież stwierdzić, że my zrobilibyśmy lepszy film. Oto kilka propozycji.

"In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Sage Tale" - recenzja

"Nazywam sie Farmer. Złe potwory zabiły mi dzieciaka i porwały żonę. No to sie wku***łem, wziołem se miecza i poszedłem ich siekać. Potem okazało siem, żem króla syn, no i żem sam królem został" - film w skrócie.

Nadchodzące ekranizacje gier. Część 1

W najbliższym czasie (perspekywa dwóch lat) pojawi się kilka filmów, które opierają się na grach komputerowych. Jeśli część z nich odniesie sukces, to być może rozpocznie się nowy trend w przemyśle filmowym. Producenci częściej zaczną szukać inspiracji na dyskach komputerów, a nie tylko przy półce z komiksami. Czy nadchodzące tytuły mają szansę zawojować rynek?

Chcemy takiego "Warcrafta"!

Jeśli ktoś twierdzi, że trailery gier komputerowych są gorsze od zwiastunów filmów, to radzę zerknąć na ten spot. Nie miałbym nic przeciwko, gdyby producenci kinowych przebojów brali przykład od specjalistów z Blizzard Entertainment. To, co widzimy w zwiastunie World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King po prostu rządzi! Tymczasem trwają przygotowania do kinowej wersji najpopularniejszej gry MMORPG.

Op een afgelegen eiland...

Grote actiefilms moeten niet altijd van Amerikaanse makelij zijn. Ik denk dan bijvoorbeeld aan het mega geflipte Lola rennt (1998) waarin een roodharige Franka Potente voor haar leven rent op stevige beats. De Duitse regisseur Uwe Boll is nog niet echt succesvol geweest buiten de landgrenzen. Zijn Alone in the Dark (2005) bengelt ergens onder aan de waarderingslijsten.

Boll probeert het nu met de film Far Cry. Het is gebaseerd op het gelijknamig videogame uit 2004. De hoofdrol is voor zijn landgenoot Til Schweiger die de rebelse zoon speelt in King Arthur (2004). Schweiger speelt Jack Carver.

Is Brett Ratner Taking on 'God of War'?

When it comes down to it, Brett Ratner might not be the most hated man in the movie business -- but he's definitely in the top five. In a profile for Ad Age, the director sat down to talk about Brett Ratner Brands, his new consultancy business. But things get interesting right at the end of the article when the journalist dropped the bomb that Ratner might be working on a big-screen version of the best-selling video game, God of War.

For those of you who haven't played it (and I really recommend you do), here is a quick primer: God of War centers on Kratos, a celebrated soldier who is haunted by his past transgressions and his debt to the Gods of Olympus. It could have just been your typical hack and slash game, but the cinematic approach and highly entertaining story line earned it a reputation as one of the best around.

Talk of a feature film surfaced back in 2005, and Universal was the studio named to produce. According to recent reports, the script has already been finished and casting has begun to heat up (some recent buzz has Djimon Hounsou in consideration for the lead). But then fans the world over had to deal with the unpleasant news that Uwe Boll was being considered to direct -- luckily, this never came to be. So I guess Ratner could be considered a step in the right direction. Then again, if you had the misfortune of seeing Rush Hour 3, you would probably disagree.

[via Film Junk]

Uwe Boll Bringing "Arthouse" Pain

I hesitated before writing this post. There's been quite a bit of Uwe Boll on this blog lately, and I share the opinion that Boll-haters have inflated the man's importance out of all proportion. Had this been a story about Boll adapting another stupid video game, I'd have let it alone, but it's at least interesting in a howling, head-clutching sort of way.

Boll is moving away from his stock-in-trade to make two films for a more limited audience. (I snickered a little as I typed that last part.) The first, called Stoic, has already wrapped and is about a 2006 incident in which three German inmates, incarcerated for minor offenses, raped and tortured a cellmate for 10 hours before inducing him to commit suicide. The film stars Edward Furlong, Sam Levinson, and Shaun Sipos, the latter of whom has a scene in which he licks his own vomit off the ground. Boll, speaking like a proud father, explains that "[w]hen the actor licks his puke off the ground, he will be seen eating it for a minute, not just a little bit." The puke Sipos consmes will be fake, but the actor did, apparently, eat a real tube of toothpaste. Though Boll hopes the film will squeak through with an R rating "for [its] social commentary," he suspects it might merit an NC-17 and have to be released unrated.

Review: Postal

(We're re-posting our Postal review from Fantastic Fest in conjunction with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)

There's been a little pre-release buzz on this Postal flick, most of which seems to focus on the assertion that it's either A) Uwe Boll's best film yet, or B) Uwe Boll's first good movie. Well, considering that we're talking about the guy who directed House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne, "best film yet" doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot. And as far as Uwe's "first good movie" is concerned, well, I suppose we'll have to keep on waiting for that one to show up. The only difference between Postal and Boll's other films is that this one tries to be funny on purpose (and fails), whereas the other three try to be serious while delivering huge laughs.

Based on the popular video game, Postal is about a generic schlub who gradually loses his cool and eventually explodes into a violent lunatic. Imagine the Michael Douglas film Falling Down, only the screenplay was done with finger-paints, and that's pretty much what Postal is "about." There's a whole lot of mirthless wheel-spinning that focuses on stolen dolls, goofy terrorists and freaky cults, but nothing that really assumes the mantle of "central plot." Aside from one good gag in the opening scene, a creatively bizarre closing shot, one strong performance and a (very) small collection of slightly amusing (gross-out or shock value) gags, Postal is every bit as awful as Mr. Boll's earlier output.

Theatrical Release of Uwe Boll's 'Postal' Cancelled

Uwe Boll's latest "masterpiece" Postal was scheduled to open next weekend in 1500 theaters, deliberately going up against Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But, according to a story at Cinema Blend, Boll's people issued a release this morning claiming that U.S. distributors have dropped the film and that it will only be released on four screens. An additional source says the film will open in five cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Tucson. Boll claims that he has even tried to rent additional screens, but to no avail.

Typically, the outspoken, outrageous director is calling it a conspiracy, the latest example of everyone being out to get him. He also says, "Theatrical distributors are boycotting 'Postal' because of its political content. We were prepared to open on 1500 screens all across America on May 23rd. Any multiplex in the U.S. should have space for us, but they're afraid."

Frankly, that's highly unlikely, just as it's unlikely that the film is being canceled because it's bad. The most likely reason is that none of Boll's films have ever turned a profit, unlike films by bad directors like Michael Bay, Eli Roth and Brett Ratner, who are moneymaking machines, despite their ineptitude. Postal stars Zack Ward as "Dude," who teams up with his cult leader uncle (Dave Foley) to heist an amusement park. Unfortunately, the Taliban(!) has the same idea at the same time. Of course, George W. Bush (Brent Mendenhall) and Osama bin Laden (Larry Thomas) also appear. Like Boll's other films, it's based on a video game.