Boll rages as US cinemas block Postal

By Robert Purchese Published 19 May, 2008

"It's fun kicking a guy while he's down."

Uwe Boll has hit out at critics for paying too much attention to films like the new Indiana Jones while ignoring his own efforts, such as the big screen version of Postal.

He was speaking after hundreds of cinemas across the US decided not to air Postal this Friday, which left just four screens to air his controversial anti-Bush creation.

"To all of you writing now about me and the fact that Postal is not getting screens: it's okay; it's fun kicking a guy non-stop who is on the ground. You are all not getting it that I'm the guy who made it against the big Hollywood system and you are busy [trying to] destroy me and finish me up," said Boll on the official Postal website.

"Postal makes some very important points, but you don't want to see that Bush used September 11 to start a war against a country that had nothing to do with Bin Laden etc. But this doesn't matter because you are all too busy thinking that Indiana Jones or Narnia are important movies, but really they are empty shells from an industry that wants to make money and keep you watching escape movies with nothing in them.

"In between they put some controversial movies out to show they can do also important movies, but these are not really critical and only support the system and don't show the big picture. And Postal shows the big picture; it nails the absurd situation with all the stupid religions, races and nations we live in. Postal is not accepting bullsh*t politics," added Boll.

Postal is an adaptation of the 2003 videogame by Running With Scissors. It was controversial because of the high levels of violence you could use to obtain one of your many goals; getting milk could be as simple as killing everyone in the shop, for example - the choice was yours.

It also contained plenty of references to Al-Qaeda, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Osama Bin Laden and lots of other terrorism-linked content - something Boll clearly picked up on for his interpretation.

The Postal film has no UK release date, but is already out in Boll's home turf, Germany.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Laika #1 4 years ago

    Hehehe...

    Whaddafool.

  • Prodigy_BE #2 4 years ago

    That's what you get when you beat up movie reviewers, Uwe.

  • drxym #3 4 years ago

    Hmm, let's see... if I were a cinema would I purchase a deliberately awful piece of trash at the start of summer blockbuster season? Not that I think Boll even tried to get it widely distributed. I thought the whole point of his scheme is to lose as much money as possible by producing guaranteed flops for tax writeoff purposes.

    Eurogamer, you're meant to be a serious outlet so why do giving this jerk the oxygen of publicity? He is the Paris Hilton of gaming generating one pointless news item after another. He probably collects them as "proof" to the German taxman of his attempts to publicize his flops. Set an editorial policy - no more Uwe Boll stories except where they are legitimately newsworthy.
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/08 @ 10:07

  • Steroyd #4 4 years ago

    Is this guy REALLY dogging on Indiana Jones!? WTF!?

  • the_dudefather #5 4 years ago

    "Postal is an adaptation of the 2003 videogame by Running With Scissors. It was controversial because of the high levels of violence you could use to obtain one of your many goals; getting milk could be as simple as killing everyone in the shop, for example - the choice was yours."

    yes yes I know how much everyone loves to say this about postal, how 'violence is only an option' and its the players choice etc, but that lasts about 10 minutes in the game before you are trapped in a church with an angry Osama army trying to kill you, its like saying killing people in half-life 2 is optional to finishing the game

  • jonbwfc #6 4 years ago

    "To all of you writing now about me and the fact that Postal is not getting screens: it's okay; it's fun kicking a guy non-stop who is on the ground."

    Not only is it fun , when it's Uwe Boll it's a public service.

  • Laika #7 4 years ago

    "Shut the fark up if you're only talking about Boll on the strength of his previous movies, not this one."

    Every prediction for the future is based on past evidence. That's the way the world works. Otherwise there'd be no way to predict anything.

    It's completely rational to predict that Postal will be shit, just like House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne were shit. And yes, I have seen them if only to see how bad they really are. Yes, they are as bad as everyone says.

    However just because something is predicted does not make it the truth. Postal could turn out to be a really good film, just as Boll says. It's unlikely but possible.

  • CheesecakeBobby #8 4 years ago

    From what I've heard, the film is pretty bad, but not as dire as some of his other releases. Now, I assume some of those other releases weren't straight to DVD and actually made it out into more than 4 cinemas across the United States. So the fact the film is bad can't be the reason, or at least not the only reason, why cinemas are rejecting it. Maybe if it sucked Bush's and the hollywood industry's balls more they wouldn't care that it was barely better than Bloodrayne.

  • Wolfos #9 4 years ago

    Does anyone else find it ironic that he made the choice of making his "Anti-Bush" properganda film via a video game movie about someone having a very bad day leading to a mental breakdown?

    It is indeed fun to kick a guy while he's down if that guy talks out his rear so much that its now starting to get him into trouble but i guess he can't take the hint yet.

  • Rowlsten #10 4 years ago

    I bet Boll drinks a lot of coffee......

    Fair play for him fighting (literally) for 'art' (apparently).... but someone needs to put him down just to be safe...

  • BiscuitBase #11 4 years ago

    Dear Uwe Boll. Your films are shit. Stop whining.

  • Olemak #12 4 years ago

    The problem with Uwe Boll is that he thinks someone else is responsible for everything that happens to him. Granted, he is the laughing stock the entire gaming industry, and pretty much of the movie industry as well. But he has done it all to himself.

    Maybe he's mutated into an interesting film-maker somehow, I don't know. But after years and years of zombie trash, I have no interest in this director at all. And he has himself to thank for that.

    Would Postal do well if someone else directed it? I seriously doubt it, and I have zero interest in finding out.

    RIP, Boll.

  • Laika #13 4 years ago

    I don't think so, Olemak. You know how some things are so bad that they're good? Like really cheesy dialog and live-action sequences in games? Uwe Boll is just this side of the crossover point. He's as bad as it's possible to be without it being funny.

  • Muddtallica #14 4 years ago

    Postal is an important movie that shows the big picture, is it? The same Postal that features Verne Troyer from Austin Powers being raped to death by chimps? If that's "the big picture", I'll stick with the small one, thanks.

    Oh, and yes, Uwe, it is fun kicking a guy while he's down, especially when that guy is you.
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/08 @ 10:40

  • Lemming81 #15 4 years ago

    The guy is known for some of the worst shit ever, still gets movies made when most of us would kill our gran to have access to that kind of opportunity, and he thinks he's hard done by.

    Fuck you, Uwe.

  • dazzaman #16 4 years ago

    Perhaps he should write a book instead of making films, that particular industry probably hasn't heard of him yet. Might have some success!

  • Amon_Amarth #17 4 years ago

    Postal was good

  • NickD7 #18 4 years ago

    Postal makes some very important points, but you don't want to see that Bush used September 11 to start a war against a country that had nothing to do with Bin Laden etc. But this doesn't matter because you are all too busy thinking that Indiana Jones or Narnia are important movies, but really they are empty shells from an industry that wants to make money and keep you watching escape movies with nothing in them.

    He's spot on, most people are just retards who will sit their like zombies watching eastenders every night, or go watch shit like Narnia and let our so called leaders flush this planet down the toilet while we do nothing about it. You can cuss this guy all you like but he speaks more sense than you video game addicts who will never ammount to anything or challenge the system in any way.

    Just carry on being a sheep, a puppet, don't worry about the world and its problems, go back to eastenders and Mario Galaxy and pretend everything is perfect in care bear land, or as I call it planet earth.

  • penhalion #19 4 years ago

    Postal is actually a funny and controversial movie. For once I think Boll is not actually talking out of the wrong end.

  • reality_cheque #20 4 years ago

    I would actually prefer news articles on Paris Hilton. At least she's got a game out (even if she forgot what it was called)

  • CallousB #21 4 years ago

    I wasn't keen on the first trailer....but I thought the preview clip on the Postal site wasn't bad to be honest.
    It may do ok on DVD.

  • Charlie_Miso #22 4 years ago

    that article made no sense to me.

    none of it.

  • bloodflowers #23 4 years ago

    Hope it gets a UK release, I actually wanted to see this one - some reviewers have said it's pretty funny in places.

  • StanleyPointLarge #24 4 years ago

    I wish someone would go postal on him

  • M83J01P97 #25 4 years ago

    Some reviews have also said it's a diabolical waste of celluloid that is offensive just for the sake of being offensive.

    I know which I am more likely to believe...

  • tnomad #26 4 years ago

    It's a flawed but generally very funny movie. And his other movie Seed is quite good, nicely dark and brutal.

    I know most of you won't believe it because I hate all of his other stuff too and was really expecting them both to be absolutely dire.

  • Malazan #27 4 years ago

    House of the Dead was horrendous but I still want to see this. It's a rental!

  • Grim... #28 4 years ago

    Do you know... I actually agree with him.

  • bitesize #29 4 years ago

    "Postal makes some very important points, but you don't want to see that Bush used September 11 to start a war against a country that had nothing to do with Bin Laden etc."

    yeah right, cos you're the first person ever to make that point uwe... we're all just scared of your deep political insight...

  • RazorObsession #30 4 years ago

    I'm with you Boll mate. fight the machine!

  • nailerr #31 4 years ago

    It's not that I think he is right exactly, but it's hard to deny he also has a fair point about the industry on the whole. What did he expect though?

    All the same I do really want to see this film. As a massive Postal 2 fan (one who can use grammar at that!) I really have no interest in the track record of Herr Boll and in fact have not seen any of his previous outings, they do not interest me. Postal, though, is all about being absurd and I crave it.

  • nailerr #32 4 years ago

    Incidentally I have finished Postal 2 with zero kills. Any person who likes to harp on about how it was never a real option just never tried.

    There are a lot of those people.

  • RazorObsession #33 4 years ago

    @nailerr: all due respect to you dude for accomplishing that, and lord knows i tried and failed, but jeez, that must have been boring as hell.

  • Hamflank #34 4 years ago

    Uwe should make a movie about clowns.

  • hobo57 #35 4 years ago

    message to EG - stick to the articles about games not the shiite covered in this article... fast losing repect and interest.

  • espibara #36 4 years ago

    Its fun kicking a guy when hes down!

    In Bolls case put him ina fucking sack, beat him with baseball bats and bricks, reverse over him in a 10000 tonne lorry and then send him off a rocky cliff into a river of hungry mutated crocs.

  • smelly #37 4 years ago

    Ive not enjoyed a single one of his movies.. but i'm on his side.

    I'm all for supporting the independent movie maker going against the big man (Hollywood)..

  • dsmx #38 4 years ago

    Simple question you have a choice between seeing Iron Man, Indiana Jones and postal which would you rather see?

  • bdc #39 4 years ago

    We're gonna keep kicking your fucking head in, you stupid piece of shit 'director'.

  • MisterFalseName #40 4 years ago

    Am I wrong, or was it Postal 2 that was released in 2003? I think the original Postal was in the 90s, right?

    Didn't play either, but that description sounded like the second.

  • nailerr #41 4 years ago

    Would I rather see Postal than Iron Man or Indiana Jones 4? Yes, without question.

    I'm not fascinated with special effects and comic book stories, that puts Iron Man out of my spectrum of interest. And since I love Indiana Jones 1, 2 & 3 so much I have little intention of watching it get ruined in 4.

    Postal I at least expect to be somewhat amusing, and that makes it my choice.

  • stoopidgreg #42 4 years ago

    "Postal makes some very important points, but you don't want to see that Bush used September 11 to start a war against a country that had nothing to do with Bin Laden etc"

    wow are you serious?? why was i not informed?!

  • M83J01P97 #43 4 years ago

    @nailerr

    I take it you haven't seen/read the incredibly positive reviews of Indy 4 from the premier yesterday then?

  • nailerr #44 4 years ago

    No, but then I'm never really one to trust them. I wait for friends to tell me, or at least a reviewer who has a record of coinciding with my tastes.

  • anomagnus #45 4 years ago

    The film has opened in two countries. It opened at number 27 in the German box office, taking in $79,353 from 48 screens and has banked $133,568 as of November 11. In Austria it ended its box office run after two weeks with $5,165. As of December 9, the worldwide gross stands at $141,783.

    even the Germans don't like it, and they're not bushes biggest mates

  • Gartt #46 4 years ago

    This is pretty much a business decision by cinemas I reckon, in the US House of the Dead grossed $10m, Alone in the Dark grossed $5m, Bloodrayne only managed $2.4m, Dungeon Siege only managed $4.5m. Looking at these figures why would cinemas want to put Postal on screens when its pretty much guaranteed to flop, it would only be a wasted screen in which they could show Indiana Jones (one of the biggest films of the year) and fill more seats.
    Its his own fault. Simple as.

  • JDub #47 4 years ago

    Just went to the site and watched the preview. Although in bad taste, it wasn't the worst clip of a movie I'd ever seen. It was pretty funny. It is meant to be a comedy, right?

  • MightyMouse #48 4 years ago

    The problem with using the lack of success of his previous films to say that this will be bad, is that those films weren't really shown anywhere so of course they weren't going to gross much. Not saying he's great, but he is pretty much correct about the film industry.

  • captain-future #49 4 years ago

    I saw POSTAL a few months back and I've to say the movie does what Boll promises, it PISSES EVERYBODY OFF... so if you can stand this kind of absolutely trash-funny-as-hell-really-trashy-something you're invited.

    I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, probably nobody should see... just like South Park. ^^

  • oupe #50 4 years ago

    Only watch this if you can handle germans dressed up as nazis with codenames like Anne Frank and a busload of children getting mowed down with machineguns (with follow-up jokes)

    I don't recommend it either. nudge nudge, wink wink.
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/08 @ 23:02

  • Gartt #51 4 years ago

    "The problem with using the lack of success of his previous films to say that this will be bad, is that those films weren't really shown anywhere so of course they weren't going to gross much. Not saying he's great, but he is pretty much correct about the film industry."

    Umm, Alone in the Dak - 2000+ screens, House of the Dead - 1500 screens, dungeon siege - 1600 screens. Fair enough thats not the 3000+ screens that you would get for blockbuster films like Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean but thats still a sizeable amount of screens.
    Edited by 1 at 19/05/08 @ 23:46

  • subtlesnake #52 4 years ago

    "yes yes I know how much everyone loves to say this about postal, how 'violence is only an option' and its the players choice etc, but that lasts about 10 minutes in the game before you are trapped in a church with an angry Osama army trying to kill you, its like saying killing people in half-life 2 is optional to finishing the game"

    Yeah, but that's killing people in self-defence.

  • bonker #53 4 years ago

    IMDB on Boll:

    Trivia

    All four of the films he has directed that were based upon video games, House of the Dead (2003), Alone in the Dark (2005), BloodRayne (2005) and BloodRayne II: Deliverance (2007) are listed on the IMDb Bottom 100. Most of the other films he's directed, including Heart of America (2003), Blackwoods (2002) and Erste Semester, Das (1997) are not widely available in America, but have received similarly low ratings among those who have seen them. Having directed 14 movies up to 2008 Boll reached an average IMDb rating of 2,4 (2.44 to be precise).

    His favorite console is the SNES.

    He's not all bad then :D

  • Daymare #54 4 years ago

    As he's clearly good with raising money, he should only be a producer and let people with actual talent direct.

  • FTM #55 4 years ago

    he's gone mad hasnt he...

  • momomo66 #56 4 years ago

    Okay... I'm just going to say this -- I think all of Uwe's previous films (that I saw) were total disasters, BUT I saw Postal last week (where Uwe talked before and after), and I suddenly have a lot more respect for the guy. It's actually a pretty funny movie... much funnier than most Hollywood garbage that gets passed off as "comedy" these days. It's surprising, fresh, shocking... he actually takes risks. Is it brilliant? No.. is it kind of hilarious? Yes. Go see it before you give the guy a hard time about this one... and I agree with him that the market is being unfair to him. The annual storm of blockbusters is coming and it's going to a long three months full of retreads and profiteering... do yourself a favor and see something new.

  • the0distance #57 4 years ago

    Well it doesn't help that Ewe Boll is the worst freaking director of loads of crappy movies! Boll, for the love of all, stop making films!