FUNside

I consider myself a cinephile and would never compare Ed Wood with a filmmaker of our time if I hadn’t come across the most peculiar persona – Uwe Boll – and his latest film called Postal.

Now I was actually happy to hear that Uwe Boll was quiting making high-profile movies a few months back and was even one of the people that signed the online petition to make him stop making movies.

Who can blame me? I hated how he salvaged the game licenses to make his movies and wrecked one game franchise after the other. How can I ever go back to playing “Alone in the Dark” without remembering his stupid version of the story?

But all this started to change after I saw his latest movie release:

At first I thought to myself “This guy will never stop, will he?”. But almost at the same time, the images of such surrealism brought me to mind Ed Wood’s work (anyone recalls his aliens and vampires mash-up?). I’m not yet ready to “crown” Uwe Boll as a phenomenon of same magnitude as Ed Wood is today but I’ll be looking into his future work with this point of view from now on.

If I could dare a comparison between the two, I’d say that:
- both were focused on low budget special effects to excite people
- that “different” element they wanted to bring to cinema was simply awkwardness
- a quality storyline was beyond them

Actually, I think you can do the comparison effortlessly as Uwe seems to be walking on his predecessors footsteps.

Can he be so persistent against what everyone says as to becoming the next big thing in cult cinema? Will he continue to release movies so bad you can only appreciate them for the craft of making them so bad?

I must admit this sounds intriguing and I can only hope my prediction comes true. Uwe Boll, you’ve made a fan out of me

Wow, now this is a true comeback for Mr. Christian Slater. When talented people decide to create real art it’s one of the most wonderful things in this world. The storyline, the performances, the direction – everything will stick in your mind forever.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760311/

I always hate it though when movie critics try to compare films and say something like “it’s like that movie but without that characteristic, and like the other movie without some other characteristic – a blend of all these movies put together…” (and I’m just saying that because I just read a review like that for this movie on IMDB)

Let me be specific: it’s NOT like “Office space” and it’s NOT like “Fight club”. It’s like nothing and meant to resemble nothing. It’s a unique piece of art and every cinefil should percieve it this way.

Enjoy it!

I feel almost compelled to write about this movie.

First because of Jared Leto’s phenomenal performance. I’ve been noticing his work since "American Psycho" and although he’s had his ups and downs, this is perhaps the movie that will elevate him among the best actors of Hollywood. He knew this movie was dependent solely on his performance and that it would make or break his career. Thankfully he has given his heart and soul to make this character a real believable person.

(it’s always touching when you see stars prove they know what life is really made of…)

And secondly because of the controversial subject of the film. OK, so it’s about the assassination of John Lennon. That only makes the story more important.

There are even "official" protests to ban the movie all together. I mean gee, these reactions almost seem from another age…

I don’t know if the creators have even found a distributor to release the movie broadly to the public. But I urge you to search for it and see it. And if you are a true cinefil you will appreciate it’s ingenious concept and delivery.

Trivia: I found out that the actor playing John Lennon in the movie is coincidently called Mark Chapman – like his assassin in the real story. Wow, that’s dizzy stuff

Links: IMDB, Wikipedia

I saw a late night movie the other day with that title and as every good film it made me think, and allowed me to put things under a different perspective…

IMDB info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0400434/

To give an insight about the story, it begins like this:

“When I was on the streets, and hanged around there every day, some people thought I was part of the brick wall. They think we’re lowlifes capable of nothing – they think we’re finished people.”
- 19-year-old street kid

Many people have stood on the details, degrading the content because it was done under a low budget or simply accusing the teenagers of being lazy rather than underprivileged. I for one need to stand out of the crowd and say that I do support this film as a movie fan.

You don’t need to be poor or a junkie to feel left out. And a LOT of people are left out in our “civilized” days. Young people all over the world are freaking out, even committing suicide because their life is a dead end.

This movie is a wake up call for all of us that have it all and yet have the nerve to complain that “the steak wasn’t medium rare”.

Cinema isn’t just entertainment. Otherwise it wouldn’t be considered an art form. This movie is brain food.

To be frank I was kind of surprised that I saw these pictures coming from Australia. It helped me too realize that the same rules apply in every human society.

This is a small review from my perspective. Mainly, I just wanted to say that the show really made a bad critic for this movie.

It is absolutely wrong to see it in a superficial level, give focus on the special effects and the terror, and just discuss whether you liked the monsters or you were scared or not from the movie.

That is not the point!

Even the young gamers know that Silent Hill became a hit as a game because it had a chilling psychological background. Come on, there are tens of horror games out there – you definitely need more than a stupid shoot’ em up theme to leave your mark (as Silent Hill has).

Back to the movie then… I for once was pleased to see that the producers of Silent Hill didn’t make the same mistakes as say Resident Evil. They sticked to the essence of the game, didn’t sell out to a patronizing Hollywood flick and mixed different elements of the games into one new, yet familiar story (for those that played the video games).

The most important thing though, that raises the film into cult status, is the underlying message that is raw and timeless.

!!! SPOILER !!!
(do not read this if you want to see the movie first)

The whole situation with the monsters and the hell transformation is just a metaphor. The people of the town are guilty as hell and they are just running from their guilt! At some point the little girl actually says it all. How could one fail to see it!

This is a stab to small society relations. All the lies and the cover-ups. The deception of being happy and innocent when everyone is sinful and secretive.

Maybe the city people can’t relate to this (which again I doubt) but I have lived many years in a small town and I had come to the same conclusions. People of the outer regions mostly feel isolated and left out, that makes them unhappy and that in turn leads them in doing bad things. Incapable of finding a better solution, the only thing left to do is cover up and pretend nothing happened…

THAT IS WORTH A MOVIE And Silent Hill did it!

!!! END OF SPOILER !!!

To my surprise most cinema fans, even with a certain age and/or experience, failed to see that message. Movie critics degrade it as well by giving it a small rating; one I saw was 1.5 stars! Are they kidding? What would a 5 stars Silent Hill movie look like? I”m sure they’d have absolutely no idea…

It’s a pity because this is a great film that deserves better. But I’m sure it will return to fame as a cult movie.

Cheers