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Fantastic Fest 2009: RAMPAGE Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Fantastic Fest 2009

Fantastic Fest 2009: RAMPAGE Review

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Matt’s Take:

I must confess, this is the first Uwe Boll film I’ve ever seen. And if he continues down this path, it may very well be the last.

RAMPAGE is a story about a douchebag kid who’s got a terrible job, is something of a loner, and has no prospects in life. He gets treated like crap at work, at restaurants, and his parents are sick of him living at home. He just can’t get a break… which is why he must go on a RAMPAGE, brutally murdering everyone who has insulted him and finally getting his justified revenge!! Hmm, now that film sounds kind of cool. It perhaps sounds like a Falling Down, but where Michael Douglass is the hero, right? In fact, even Uwe Boll himself compared Rampage to that version of Falling Down, which I must confess, got me very excited for the movie. I’d love to see that movie. Unfortunately RAMPAGE is not that movie.

RAMPAGE is instead the story about a completely unlikeable douchebag terrorist, who decides to kill random people for no reason. (OK, actually he does have a reason, but it’s so lame and unrealistic that it doesn’t count) And to add to that, he doesn’t even kill the people in cool ways! He kills people with machine guns. Machine guns with infinite ammo. This is not interesting. It’s not exciting. In no way is the “hero” ever in any danger whatsoever. Apparently in the Uwe Boll universe, you can blow up a Police Station and then basically never be bothered again by the Police. Hmmm… yeah, I guess if there was only one Police Station in the entire country that might work, right? But forget realism, at least this movie looks cool, doesn’t it?

NO. It doesn’t. This movie looks like it was shot by a cameraman who had Parkinson’s and they forgot to hire a focus puller. I’d say at least 90 percent of the movie was out of focus, even in shots where two actors were sitting motionless at a table!!! I mean, come on, is it too much to ask that we can actually see what the hell is going on? To add to this nonsense, random flash forwards are interjected into the film throughout. These bits add absolutely nothing to the film, except giving away the ending ten minutes in, and annoying the audience. The first half of this movie is so boring, it’s almost hard to comprehend, and sadly the action in the second half isn’t nearly interesting or exciting enough to make this film worthwhile.

Kent’s Take:

Is RAMPAGE a good film? Kinda. Is it a great film? NO FLIPPING WAY! But it is easily the best thing Uwe Boll has made and if you saw it, I doubt you’d guess he had anything to do with it. RAMPAGE is the basic story of a young man that’s just had enough with his mediocre life and how everyone just craps on him. His parents are kicking him out, he can’t even get a simple coffee order made correctly for him, and the disaster that happens at the local fast food joint really sets him over the top. He takes it upon him self to teach his crappy little town a lesson but suiting in a large armor plated battle suit and just blowing everyone in town away.

This is a violent movie with a lot of innocent people getting killed. In fact everyone in the movie is innocent except for the main character Bill played by Brenden Fletcher. Bill’s rampage on his town is enjoyable to watch, or at least it would be if you could see most of what was going on. The biggest problem I had with RAMPAGE is that it’s shot terribly. I enjoyed it’s ideas but I could barely see them half the time because of the terrible cinematography. Uwe Boll is able to shoot a good looking film. Tunnel Rats is decently well shot but here we get a grainy shaky movie that has a hard time focusing on any of it’s most important elements. Why this movie was shot on film and not on HD is beyond me. I think a very shiny glossy look would have been a great contrast to the brutal violence that takes place during Bill’s killing spree.
I can see how some people find this film unwatchable or bad, but I really do think it shows progress in Boll’s sense of direction. Most of the movie is improvised and it does show, especially in Linda Boyd’s performance as Bill’s mom. She stammers so much that it becomes very obvious she has no improvisation skills what so ever. I’ve never heard a movie have a character saying “um” so much. Another big issue with the film is literally the last 30 seconds. It’s a tag onto the film that explains some things that are totally unnecessary. Putting that in almost defeats everything that came before it, especially with the things that are revealed in the last act.

Overall, RAMPAGE should be seen, but by no means should you rush out and see it immediately. It has some solid moments, a lot of morbid, dark humor and a lead character that you’ll cheer on and then when it’s over you’ll hate yourself for it. It’s an interesting movie to be sure. I give Rampage 3 out of 5 stars.