Special Review
This review was requested by Discord user Rogue, Internet Man. If you'd like to join the server or subscribe to Rogue's YouTube channel, click the buttons below. Visit DiscordRogue on YouTubeGerman filmmaker Uwe Boll is considered to be one of the worst directors in the past few decades. After making a splash with Blackwoods and Heart of America in 2002, Boll started making movies based on video games. His first video game film was 2003’s House of the Dead, which is considered one of the worst films ever. Since then, he’s gone on to make movies based on Alone in the Dark, Bloodrayne, and Dungeon Siege. Each of the films received generally negative reviews and lost money at the box office, but he still found work. According to Boll, he was approached with doing an adaptation of the controversial game Postal, and he was intrigued. He got the backing of developer Running With Scissors and amassed a budget of $15 million to produce the film. Originally set for a 2007 release, Postal got a very limited release in May 2008.
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Rating
Synopsis
Life is tough for The Postal Dude (Zach Ward), after being mocked at an interview, denied welfare, and cheated on. Wanting to move out of town, he teams up with his Uncle Dave (Dave Foley), who’s organized a religious cult. Turns out Uncle Dave owes tons of money to the IRS, so he and Postal Dude devise a plan. There are 2,000 Krotchy Dolls, which are considered extremely rare, being sold at a local amusement part called Little Germany. Unbeknownst to them, the Taliban are also after the dolls as they plan to put Bird Flu vials in them. Postal Dude, Uncle Dave, and his right-hand man Richie (Chris Coppola) steal the dolls after a shootout breaks out. However, Richie kills Uncle Dave as he plans to use the dolls to bring about the end of the world. Also, Verne Troyer, Osama Bin Laden, and George W. Bush are there.
Review
Going into this, I had only seen clips of Boll’s movies and heard about how bad his films were. Admittedly, the only one of his films I had seen before this was 2009’s Rampage, which I thought was alright. As far as Postal goes, it’s technically not a good movie, but it’s an interesting one to put it lightly. In terms of Uwe Boll’s direction, it’s pretty flat, with almost every scene having an unusually orangish tint to it. Also, there are so many scenes where the camera doesn’t stay still that it becomes irritating. Acting-wise, it’s clear that everyone knew what kind of movie they were in and decided to just go for it. Zach Ward makes for a decent lead, and Dave Foley has some funny moments, though Chris Coppola can get obnoxious. Also, I feel like Verne Troyer probably regretted doing The Love Guru more than this.
Further adding to how not good this film is, several subplots go absolutely nowhere and are dropped almost immediately. I had to exclude the vast majority of them from this review because of how utterly pointless they were. Boll clearly meant for this to be some sort of sociopolitical satire, but he’s as subtle as an atomic bomb. However, given Boll’s reputation and his constant criticisms at the time, it’s understandable why he was so vitriolic. This was never meant to be a good movie, but instead an incredibly offensive, politically incorrect, terrible movie. In many ways, he succeeded, and I even found myself laughing at just how absurd the humor was. So while I can’t call this some misunderstood masterpiece, I can commend Boll for succeeding at what he tried doing. Overall, Postal is pretty awful, but then again, maybe that’s the point or something like that.
Buy Postal from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3g19l9C
