NunianVonFuch

Well actually, I haven't made any comment about the quality or otherwise of Bolle's movies. For all I know, they may well be terrible, but I haven't seen them. I thought I made that very clear from the outset.

What I have commented on here though, is the tireless Bolle-bashing from gamers, above and beyond all sense and reason. That's something I've seen a lot of, on Kotaku and elsewhere, so I feel perfectly able to speak on that subject.

kiigan

See there you go, that's precisely the same sort of behaviour that I'm talking about. There's no need for personal insults - I've tried to keep my posts reasoned and civil and you'll note the people who posted in agreement with me have done the same.

It's the same with the Uwe Bolle issue... if you dislike the movies and care enough (for some inexplicable reason) then by all means criticize all you want. Knock yourself out. The problem is though, insecure gaming zealots feel compelled to make things personal with endless personal insults and threats directed at Bolle himself. Frankly, if gamers were SO concerned about the way our hobby is perceived (and the reaction to that misinformed internet nobody talking about the nonexistent "porn" in Mass Effect appears to have proven that) then we could start by getting our house in order and you know, acting like grown-ups instead of validating every "gamer nerd" stereotype that we'd ordinarily take exception to.

Yes the internet is full of dicks and that is not news to anyone, but to be honest I expect a better level of debate at Kotaku.

kiigan

p.s. There are people mass poor-commenting detractors of uwe on youtube. It goes both ways.

rdj

Holy shit did some Kotakuites judge something as offensive and criticise it without viewing it first? I would never expect you guys to do something like that.

Seriously, nice hypocrisy guys. A+

elevenoverzero

I'll be seeing it and most likely laughing my arse off.

elevenoverzero

The Holocaust is a very sensitive subject for many, same with 9/11. Uwe might get a huge earful for taking on both of those subjects in an insulting way.

If Uwe were to ever make a film on a video game like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, maybe he'd be liked a bit more.

kylo4

Ninja-Z

NunianVonFuch

NunianVonFuch

Honestly? I kinda like the guy. He makes movies with the money he has and everything he makes seems to make him and his benefactors enough money around the world to keep him going. He's a film maker and lately he's rarely OUT of work, and everyone gives him no end of grief for the work he does. The fact that he stands up and stands behind his films regardless of the mountains of flak he gets is commendable. I'm looking forward to Postal and will be seeing it in the theatre.

The nature of film and theatre throughout history has been to push the edge and occasionally cross it. It doesn't need to do anything but make a point, but something tells me I'll get a couple chuckles along the way.

Cerif27

Tulkamir

You're dumb if you thought that Bloodrayne or House of the Dead could have actually been made into good movies. It's not like he's screwing with System Shock or Half-Life.

Tony Bullard

system11

That must be a drag not having any sense of humor...

Delano_J

Overall, if you were able to enjoy Borat, you'll enjoy Postal.

Guizzy

Uh... no one was forced into the Nazi Party. The German Army, yes... Germans =/= Nazis. Nazis party membership was entirely voluntary.

Tsaketh

No? Well, you are talking out of your ass.

Thank you.

Guizzy

HowardC

QuickPick

That intro was awesome! I think Uwe Boll has "found his calling" in absolute tastelessness." They've got my $12.25.

Hey he's not meant to be taken seriously, he's probably smarter than we think he is. After all he can get funding for this stuff right?

SuperMekman

Ashurahori

"The idiocy behind this movie is the fact that it's so focused on being "controversial" that it has fooled itself into believing itself to be relevant."

Extremely well put.

Groodle

dowingba

The idiocy behind this movie is the fact that it's so focused on being "controversial" that it has fooled itself into believing itself to be relevant. Controversy and controversial comedy for the sake of it (or for the sake of money) is worthless.

gaming_otaku

I will concede though that money, not opinion, determines what comedy is churned out. I do not intend to change the world of humor with what I say, though; I am simply offering a different viewpoint on what Uwe Boll is trying to do with Postal, which is pretty much to take everything controversial and exaggerate it ten times. I personally think that there are better ways of being controversial, but that's just my opinion. Other people have the right to enjoy the movie, though, and I won't stop them.

Ninja-Z

I've seen Postal at a film festival.

It's actually very good; very funny.

Guizzy

Absent Blue

I think we understand each other now...

And I am all for the opinion that certain humor shouldn't exist, but in the end none of us should do anything to stop it from existing. Who knows when something we enjoy might be viewed in a similar light by someone from an opposite end of the spectrum.

I think that better sums up my feeling on the thing.

Groodle

Gray665

Seiryuu

amazinglarry

And by the way, just because other people "understand" this type of humor, it doesn't mean it should exist...

Again, thanks for clearing up, and sorry if I misunderstood you.

gaming_otaku

One set of people are voicing their uninformed opinion about a movie, or the director of a movie.

The other set of people are blaming a particular medium for destroying social morality.

Your illustration makes more sense if someone claims that all games developed by Rare are inferior and there's no way they could produce anything of quality.

While I agree that people should often be given the benefit of the doubt, I have to side with the people who are simply fed up with Boll's hyperbole and arrogant assumptions that he is God's gift to both Hollywood and the game industry all rolled up in one package.

Wei

I don't review things without seeing first myself, but...

What's worse - assuming a movie will be bad when it's from a director who's only ever made bad movies, or...
Directing move than a half dozen movies based on things you've never even bothered to check out (or decide to throw out 90% of?)

fuchikoma

Don't twist my words, friend. Your comment was about how you, personally, couldn't understand why anyone would find such things funny, implying that things like this shouldn't exist.

My point was, it doesn't matter whether you understand it or not, people can do and say what they want. If you or I don't like it, we're more than free to ignore it.

Groodle

I think you are presenting a double-standard, as you mentioned. I'll give you an example:

A young man of 17 in Germany during WWII would have been required to be in the army. Some of these men, who were against Hitler's policies and beliefs - but wanted to remain living - were forced to suppress their own opinions and beliefs and either fight, or do some other job in the army.

Now,in the year 2008 in America, it's perfectly acceptable to joke about and verbally crucify 'Nazis' - but what about those young men who were forced to be a part of such a terrifying and destructive group, simply so they could continue living and not have their families murdered or worse?

Double standard, indeed.

The bottom line is: When it comes to entertainment, your money talks. Not your opinions on allowable humor. and everything goes.

You, meaning all of us.

Groodle

CaptainMurphy

CaptainMurphy

gaming_otaku

Fyren

Ninja-Z

rizeup

brent_w

mthrndr

I haven't seen Postal yet, so I can't vouch for the entire movie, but based upon that one clip posted up on Youtube (The one with the argument about virgins in heaven as the Arabs are flying the plane towards the World Trade Center), the part with all the passengers storming into the cockpit and causing the crash was a bit sickening. Maybe it had something to do with how they were all fat, incapable of saying anything but multiple variants of "fuck," and painted as causing their own death. Call this double standards, but I was perfectly content with the humor in the first half of the scene which actually had a good target (the ultimate goal extremists have in dying). Then Uwe Boll just degenerated into bashing the victims in the worst, least funniest way possible.

It might be different for the rest of the movie, but based on the trailers shown thus far (and Boll's own holier-than-thou attitude), I have my doubts.

Ninja-Z

Also, and I don't know how, but even the monkeys seemed tacked on. Monkeys can usually solve everything, but I didn't like them there. Oh God, this is going to be terrible.

-Sam

CSUSam

PissedPS3Fan

Has Boll ever made a real comedy (other than his other movies)? I mean, I actually laughed.

I feel so... dirty (4th time someone has said it. and yes I counted).

Black_Ops_19

NotSoCool

NotSoCool

Mosaab

Oh, and for all you Naruto fans, there's also that old 4chan chestnut of a macro with a picture of a bunch of holocaust corpses stacked like firewood are captioned with "Kage Bunshin NO JEWtsu!". The first time I saw that, I couldn't stop laughing because I had just gotten done watching some Naruto for the first time. Then I just felt really, really, really dirty about it.

Tsaketh

MasterOfPastures

How many jews can you fit in a Volkswagen? Two in the front, three in the back, and sixteen in the ashtray!

What's the difference between a Jew and a Pizza? It's a bad thing when the Pizza burns in the oven!

See-- there are plenty of holocaust jokes. The first time I heard that first one, it was delivered so well that I collapsed laughing and lost my clan a Counterstrike match...

Tasteful, no. Funny? Maybe. By the way, I'm talking holocaust jokes, not Uwe Boll movies. Postal's gonna suck worse than a cheap secretary.

Tsaketh

Bluecell

fuchikoma

Really guy, I'm really not of fan of him, I tried to watch Bloodrayne but couldn't, really I just wished I could throwup on myself while watching it. but this one seriously kicks major ass.

Give him a try and think about what is the game about. it's based on a normal guy who tries to lives his normal life but on a normal day he goes postal and start shooting up things, that's what the game is about. Add a lot of black comedy, lots of explosion and you got yourself Postal the movie.
And that's what Uwe did here, he mashed all the good thing about it in a can, added a funny to hell storyline and filmed it. And so, everybody's hating him for doing it. If I can remember correctly, everyone was shouting to kill that game when it came out because all the gameplay wasn't so great, pissing on old-tranny and firing up little children wasn't all that funny.

I just wish you all could stop crying about how hard this movie is going to suck because I saw it and really it's a funny-to-hell-comedy.

Ultrajosua

Gray665

bysty

prmononoke

fronsacqc

Overlord44

Sloopydrew

I'd imagine he's just some emo kid who sees himself as a "rebel" for going against the grain and defending a guy everyone is bashing (for good reason) even though he knows absolutely nothing about Uwe Boll's "films" (I use the term film very loosely here).

Daiden

AwShucks

zenpoet

stillstyle

I think you're being rather generous to the leagues of idiot gamers who insist on flooding every thread regarding Uwe Bolle with abuse... by suggesting they are die-hard movie buffs who are simply offended by his tatty films!

I totally disagree with you. Look at the most recent Kotaku articles on Uwe Bolle and you'll find lots of gamers just hurling about personal abuse directed towards the guy - it has nothing to do with the quality of the movies as such (very few appear to have seen any of them) and has more to do with any old excuse to moan about something and defend their hobby. How DARE he make bad movies about videogames!

There are many bad movies being made all the time. There are many bad directors out there too. But instead of just ignoring the bad movies, gamers have singled out Uwe Bolle and taken his work as a personal affront, entirely because of the videogame licenses. All I'm saying is, I'm tired of the faux wounded pride, I'm sick of gamers being so insecure about their little hobby that they have to defend it so rabidly. There are lots of movies that deserve criticism and contempt, but hysterical gamers aren't interested in that - this thread alone has a comment calling for Bolle to be castrated for goodness sake. Chill out, ignore the guy's movies if they are so terrible. Stop treating videogames like they are the fucking prophet Muhammed, and stop treating bad movie directors like they're English school teachers asking their pupils to name a teddy-bear.

kiigan

Ryadic

jx1

MASOCHIST187

Gray665

Melonfodder

BOMxAgonyxScenex

I'm not defending anything. I'm just saying gamers could try being less precious about their beloved subject matter. If someone makes a bad movie about a videogame you quite like - so what? Don't lose any sleep over it. Bolle isn't dancing up and down on your granny's grave, he's making (reportedly) bad movies that (arguably) don't merit the attention, ire and indignant anger they receive from gamers who could do with taking things a bit less seriously. In my humble opinion.

kiigan

SuperMekman

I can't believe I am about to sound like I'm defending this piece of garbage movie.

I echo what KIIGAN says - Humor is one of the most subjective things on the planet, and the things you may find funny AND innocuous aren't necessarily either one of those things to anyone else.

Humor is the best reflection we have of free speech in our daily lives. If some of it is acceptable, it all has to be.

Groodle

It really isn't hard at all. His movies may well be rubbish, and I'm not claiming otherwise. But bloody hell, gamers need to change the record. You cannot convince me that the majority of self-righteous gamers moaning about Uwe Bolle have actually seen his films either, for that matter.

kiigan

I guess you don't understand humour then. Pretty much any subject you can imagine is a potential source of comedy. Bad taste jokes can be funny too - not necessarily the sort of thing I'd laugh at, but when it comes to humour everything should be fair game, I think. Wait until you hear the joke before deciding if it is funny or not.

Though admittedly I can't think of any funny jokes relating to the Holocaust off the top of my head.

kiigan

Non-gamer's often think of his films as the level at which gamers enjoy culture. He literally cannot direct or write ... somehow, he can produce and always gets funding. We're trashing the guy because the guy contsantly, perpetually trashes something we like.

jayntampa

zoesch

Dude, the guy exploited a German tax loophole to make himself rich by buying inexpensive video game licenses and purposefully making the worst movies possible so they bomb and he makes more money for himself. I think he has earned the trashing he receives from gamers and film critics alike. He is not Ed Wood, there is no defense for this guy's terrible movies. He knows what he is doing and I give him credit for making himself rich, but this isnt a case of gamers being "whingers" or anything like that.

Gray665

"an equal opportunity offender, lampooning religious extremists, minorities, bureaucrats, immigrants, cops, women, the Holocaust, gun nuts and more with evenhanded abandon."

I can't see how can it EVER be funny to perpetuate sexual discrimination and/or have fun with one of the greatest crimes against humanity of all time.

gaming_otaku

homelessvagrant

I will download the movie at best.

Valaris

kiigan

uwe boll and verne troyer in the same project.. *shudder*

geekgrrl

Oh btw, no pee jokes? That ain't Postal

BLiNk

ConfuciusMax

Kyle81

Can we really call his movies... film? I'd prefer cinematic abortions.

Risky+Safety

KillerBee

zenpoet

ChiZ_MacT

jayntampa

I've got nothing more to say on any of this.

sadkermit - soon to be banned for standing up to the ummm nazi.