<![CDATA[Defamer: Postal]]> http://cache.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/defamer.com.png <![CDATA[Defamer: Postal]]> http://defamer.com/tag/postal http://defamer.com/tag/postal <![CDATA[ Indy's Box-Office Bullwhip Kills Uwe Boll, John Cusack and Rest of Competition ]]>
Defamer Attractions returns today with another round of movie scanning for your Memorial Day weekend. We already know you're planning at least two excursions to view Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (once out of drunken impulse, and once to make sure that really was the ending you saw before blacking out), but Indy alone does not a holiday make! At least one of the poor bastards sharing this opening weekend is bound to tank the worst, and yet another is a fine bit of foreign-language counterprogramming worth your consideration. And of course we've got a few new DVD choices for the agoraphobic, hungover and/or the cheapskates among us. As always, our opinions and projections are A) our own and B) impeccably fail-safe. Where should we start?

WHAT'S NEW: There's a holiday-ready, cruise-control part of us that feels like skipping this part of Defamer Attractions, but again, Indiana Jones 4 is not the only new release demanding attention. That said, with $26 million already in the bank on Thursday, and with the Indiana Jones PlunderWatch Projection Ticker speeding toward $9.5 trillion, we should probably just get it out of the way. It's easily going to win the weekend, but can it displace four-day weekend champ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ($139.7 million) and five-day king Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith ($172 million) as the all-time biggest box-office bow? We doubt it; there's too much cultural competition to overcome the 19-year generation gap. Nevertheless, we're still calling Indy to break $110 million by Sunday and $140 million by Monday, thus promising a fifth installment set in 1967 and pitting our hero and his greaser sidekick/offspring against their toughest adversaries yet: Filthy, filthy hippies.

Also opening: John Cusack's Iraq satire/career nadir War, Inc.; the here-and-gone Jonathan Rhys Meyers drama The Children of Huang Shi; and the acclaimed Vice Magazine-produced doc Heavy Metal in Baghdad.

THE BIG LOSER: Despite early reads positioning Postal in the same critical class as What Happens in Vegas, Speed Racer and Sex and the City, it won't likely be enough to boost Uwe Boll's latest clusterfuck to anything approaching respectable at the box office. Granted, he's on four screens as opposed to, say, Indy 4's 4,200, but if Postal's per-screen average breaks $8,000, we'll volunteer to be the guy eating his own puke in Boll's next film. What? Stoic has already been shot? Whatever. The point is: It will not happen.

THE UNDERDOG: Fatih Akin's 2005 culture-clash stunner Head On captured audiences about as abruptly and unforgettably as its title suggested, and his follow-up, The Edge of Heaven, revisits his volatile Turkish/German roots with no less intensity. Which, considering its scope, is a bit of a marvel: A elderly Turkish man invites a compatriot prostitute into the home he shares with his son in Bremen. It ends... poorly, with the son traveling to Istanbul to find the woman's 20-something daughter. She's embroiled in political actions there, expatriates herself to Germany seeking asylum, falls in love with another young woman, and then — horror of horrors! — is expelled back to prison in Turkey. The interwoven searches and tragedies that follow in Heaven make Babel look like an afterschool special — not for their violence or viciousness (though they have that, too), but for their stoicism and, ultimately, their unalloyed compassion. And in any case, we'd never reject anything featuring both lesbians and Turkish prison.

FOR SHUT-INS: New DVD's this week include National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, the latest terrible George Romero zombie entry Diary of the Dead, the Richard Gere/Claire Danes folly The Flock, and the long, long-awaited complete first season of The Bill Engvall Show.

So are we low-balling Indy's weekend plunder? Are we too generous? And is anybody actually planning to see Postal? Share your own plans, place your own bets and go ahead — tell your boss we said you could take Monday off!

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Fri, 23 May 2008 09:00:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=392993&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ The Critics Speak: 'Postal' May Actually Be Better than 'Sex and the City' ]]> We've been following the bouncing Uwe Boll for what seems like months now, but once the consummate self-promoter and sworn enemy of 279,452 filmgoers (and counting) wound up playing the victim in the Sunday New York Times, the shark was considered jumped. But an eagle-eyed tipster points out one of the more fascinating signs yet of the loathed filmmaker's resurgence: On a week when his new film Postal has reportedly been banned from multiplexes, it's also pulling a better Rotten Tomatoes score (33%) than "mainstream" offerings Made of Honor (12%), What Happens in Vegas (28%) and John Cusack's bomb-to-be War, Inc. (23%). It's also neck-and-neck with Sex and the City and a mere percentage point behind the tentpole Speed Racer, which is still stalled at the gate with 34% positive reviews.

Granted, everything will change as more reviews trickle in — but not necessarily for the worst. In any case, maybe Boll — not Roland Emmerich — is the ideal Euro-hack to helm that forthcoming $200 million Cusack apocalypse flick. At this rate, he may be Sony's only hope with the critics.

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Tue, 20 May 2008 11:30:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=392124&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Uwe Boll 'Confirms' Boxing Match with Michael Bay, Sues Billy Zane For Good Measure ]]> On one hand we're sick to near-death of German provocateur Uwe Boll, whose perverse viral antics have amused us barely enough to keep us watching over the last month. But today the son of a bitch is making actual news: First by suing his Bloodrayne star Billy Zane for misleading him on the film's failed distribution in 2006, and then by actually confirming his proposed boxing match with flaxen fauxteur Michael Bay. So topical! So... angry! Find out where he's coming from (sort of) after the jump.

We don't necessarily believe for a second that Bay has green lit a boxing match with Uwe Boll, but that's kind of the best part: Within a few days we'll either see Boll sued for the unauthorized use of Bay's likeness to promote Postal, or we'll hear Bay is fighting Boll this fall — the culmination of a dream beating we've anticipated since way, way back six days ago. (And Bay will still sue Boll in the interim.) We literally cannot lose.

A natural opportunist, Boll is hedging his bets in the Los Angeles County courts, where he and Zane will also square off in a civil contest seeking restitution for a distribution deal gone bad —

Director Uwe Boll has sued actor Billy Zane in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming he's owed at least $700,000 in revenues from the 2006 boxoffice flop Bloodrayne.

Boll claims in the April 30 filing that Zane was the one who suggested Romar Entertainment handle distribution of the film. Zane and Romar principal James Schramm allegedly promised the film would open in 2,000 theaters and that a $10 million advance from Boll would be used for advertising and promotion. But at least $900,000 was paid out to Zane and Schramm and the movie opened in only 950 theaters, Boll claims.


Wait — a $10 million advance from Boll. A typo, no? This guy was interviewed about pudding yesterday on MTV.com. Either way, we hope that $700,000 offsets the damages he's sure to face once Bay sics his bloodthirsty rottweilers "awesome lawyers" on the case. If anyone has a plan, it's obviously Uwe Boll. ]]>
Thu, 01 May 2008 16:20:40 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=386374&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Please, God, Please, Let These Men Fight to the Death! ]]>
Uwe Boll's 15 minutes of hammy artistic self-defense are just about through, but we find ourselves increasingly won over with his thrashing, language-butchering viral efforts on his own behalf. And while we're pleased to hear he'll be judging that Uwe Boll Movie Challenge we noted here yesterday, we are total suckers for his latest — and ideally his last — publicity stunt before vanishing into fauxter oblivion. Or, in his words: "Boll against Bay":

[I]t's my message to Michael Bay, Michael, in between your pool parties in LA or your casting sessions with the strippers you should start training now. And I'm sure you look good, you look thin. I saw you at the Hollywood Film Festival, I think you're a fit guy and you do like private karate Asia bullshit crap fighting stuff in LA where you think you're super cool that you do that with your 500 bucks per hour trainer.

So let's meet in the ring in September or October. Pay-per-view. Mandalay Bay. Las Vegas. Twelve rounds of boxing. Boll against Bay.

If we're not sick of either man by then, we'll consider attending. Meanwhile, the Uwe Boll Movie Challenge is one step closer to legitimacy this morning as we hear that Boll himself — who classically derided the usage of ketchup, little brothers and "bullshit name[s] out of the Internet" among his haters' own film oeuvres — has signed on to judge short films employing those criteria.

Two days after laying his challenge down, proprietor Matthew Dessem tells Defamer HQ that there are still no prizes, but he's being hard on himself: Think of the distinction of having your work ridiculed by a man whom 224,285 people (and counting) have asked to stop making movies. "This is a big step toward my ultimate goal: becoming a footnote on Uwe Boll's Wikipedia entry," Dessem adds. We're glad to help, Matt! Now if we could just find a little brother, our own filmmaking fantasies could be complete.

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Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:30:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=384051&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ New Contest Entices Amateur Filmmakers to Out-Suck Uwe Boll ]]> Finally! Something constructive has emerged from film culture's ongoing Uwe Boll Career Deathwatch, and it involves all of us. To wit: "The Uwe Boll Movie Challenge," which encourages amateurs to make films using the infamously poor standards Boll has been railing about these last few weeks. Think of it like Be Kind Rewind, but with the guiding light of a German hack as opposed to a French aesthete. Check out the criteria after the jump, and get to work already:

To compete in the Uwe Boll Movie Challenge, you must create a short film that meets the following guidelines:

-It must be made at home.
-You must use ketchup.
-You must use a little brother.
-You must not use some bullshit nickname out of the internet.
-You have until May 16th.

Beyond that, anything goes. You don't have to use Mini-DV. If you don't have a little brother, you can use someone else's. ... The filmmakers Boll has called out (Michael Haneke, Tom Twyker, Gus Van Sant, Steven Spielberg, Eli Roth, George Clooney, and especially Michael Bay) are encouraged to enter.

Naturally, in keeping with the full trajectory of a Uwe Boll enterprise, there are no awards to be won, except maybe an honorary petition to urge the winning filmmakers to stop making movies. Hell, we'd take it.

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Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:25:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=383608&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ The Network That Brought You 'Sunset Tan' Is Counting Down America's Most Shocking Acts of Violence ]]> goingpostal.jpgIn a weirdly media-critical kind of way, it doesn't take long to connect E!'s mission of 24/7 pop culture to this Friday's ill-advised countdown entitled ... God, we can barely write it: Going Postal: 15 Most Shocking Acts of Violence. After all, the news is the longest-running reality show of all, and if OJ Simpson, Phil Spector and Co. are more famous as accused murderers than they are for their respective professional triumphs, then the celebritizing of honest-to-goodness mass murderers — not in CourtTV, true-crime style, but rather between episodes of E! News and The Soup — seems the logical next step in the ever-entertaining canon of watching real innocent people die. Right?

We guess. Grab an antibiotic and follow the jump for the program info.

From the Columbine High School massacre that left an indelible scar across the country to the more recent horrors that occurred at Virginia Tech, we'll explore these terrifying crimes, uncover what provoked them and examine how the world today has changed as a result of these atrocities.

The two-hour special includes interviews from victims' family members and survivors who recount the gripping life-and-death moments. Plus learn about the inspirational stories of those who sacrificed to save others. And hear from experts including psychologists, criminal profilers and key law enforcement personnel as they take you inside the warped minds of the individuals whose behavior shaped, shocked and forever changed our world.

Yes, let's "examine how the world today has changed as a result of these atrocities." For starters, E! can actually find advertisers for a two-hour show interweaving 33 deaths in mere minutes at Virginia Tech with teases for The Girls Next Door and Father Hood (among other programming). Then there's the unapologetic conflation of "shocking violence" with "entertainment" — as in, "Thanks for watching E! News; stay tuned for Going Postal: 15 Most Shocking Acts of Violence. Seacrest out!" We don't take much seriously at Defamer HQ, but, yeah, seriously: Fuck this show.

So anyway, forgive any preachiness perceived herein, BUT: If you happen to run into someone from E! — or if you yourself happen to be from E! — please do your part to sabotage this broadcast. Turn off the satellite. Trip the fire alarm. Piss on the tape. We're close enough to Hell without sprinting breathlessly into its sulphur horizons. And anyway, Joel McHale can't even follow a True Hollywood Story, let alone Seung-Hui Cho.

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Mon, 21 Apr 2008 14:40:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=382324&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Philosophical Uwe Boll Suddenly Knows Why You Hate Him ]]> If it weren't for the petition featuring nearly 168,000 signers calling for his head, we'd probably leave well-enough alone when it comes to genre-hack whipping-boy Uwe Boll. But not even his own targets can resist his thickly accented self-defense, with similarly skill-challenged fauxters Eli Roth and Michael Bay — whom Boll labeled a "fucking retard" in a video released on Wednesday — publicly deflecting Boll's attacks over the last 24 hours. Naturally, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity at stake, Boll came back against all his haters in yet another stream-of-consciousness slam:

I don't even know why you get off on me like crazy because I'm not in the Hollywood system. I'm the opposite basically, and maybe this is the reason that you all hate me so much, because I prove that you can do it outside the system and you can come up with cheap excuse why you never make it. You are not able to make more than your mini-DV video at home with ketchup and your little brother, so I really think you should wake up at one point and you should put your jealous situation away. And if you write me, you don't write me with some bullshit nicknames out of the internet. Write me with your name and address so that I can track you down and rip you apart. Thank you.

No, Dr. Boll, thank you. Thank. You.

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Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:35:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=378489&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Reviled Uwe Boll Makes His Case As "The Only Genius In The Whole Fucking Business" ]]> The breathtaking display of vindictive fanboy rage populist aesthetic taste that is the Stop Uwe Boll Petition has more than doubled its support since we last viewed it, edging the reviled German filmmaker within a mere 860,000 signatures of his million-hater promise to never direct again. While we're optimistic that democracy can take the day by, like, 2012, we're equally devastated by Boll's aggrieved video rebuke/promotional vehicle that appeared online Tuesday:

I want that there's a petition also out there — like a pro-Boll petition — and I expect a million votes pro-Boll. And I hope somebody will set it up and you all start signing it, because look: I'm not a fucking retard like Michael Bay or other people running around in the business, or Eli Roth making the same shitty movies over and over again. If you really look at my movies you will see my real genius, you know?
And if you go on May 23 [to] Postal you will see that I deliver a movie that nobody else delivered in the last 10 years, what is way better as all that social-critic, George Clooney bullshit what you get every fucking weekend. You have to really wake up, and you have to see me what I am: I am the only genius in the whole fucking business. Goodbye.
No! Stay! Ironically, this really is the best movie Uwe Boll has ever made; tender yet assertive, painstakingly modest, beautifully shot (in focus!) with accomplished acting and mostly realistic dialogue. No "genius" would diss Eli Roth to boost his own profile, of course, but it seems like a minor quibble in the face of such towering integrity. It's almost enough to make us neutral — almost. Alas, someone must pay for BloodRayne. Do your part for justice, already. ]]>
Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:00:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=377880&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Be the Lucky Millionth Petitioner Who Ends Uwe Boll's Career ]]> uweboll.jpgBehind the facade of those vacant eyes and the kind of resume that would have had most filmmakers changing careers years ago, we knew there was a reasonable man hiding somewhere inside Uwe Boll. In a recent interview with the horror Web site FEARnet, the critic-boxing director of such celluloid atrocities as BloodRayne, In the Name of the King and Postal made a modest proposal for an early retirement we can all get behind:

FN: Are you aware that there is a petition online, signed by 18,000 people, requesting that you stop making movies?

UB: Yeah, I know that. 18,000 is not enough to convince me.

FN: How many would it take?

UB: One million. Now we have a new goal.

Naturally, the troops have mobilized around the Web: At the aforementioned petition, nearly 1,300 signatures have accrued in the 10 minutes it took to write this item, bringing the total to nearly 58,000 at press time. Considering that the average Boll film draws around 15,000 theatrical viewers, we don't imagine there are 1 million people in the world who would bother to be this offended by House of the Dead. However, you also can't turn off the lush bloom of fan democracy once it's on, so here's your pen. Do your duty.

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Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:30:00 PDT STV http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=376963&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ 'Postal' Director Uwe Boll Shares His Theory On The Eventual 9/11 Remake ]]>
From time to time, Defamer videographer Molly McAleer seeks out the temporary camaraderie of the friendly folks patrolling the red carpet of various Hollywood events, looking to make a connection with someone other than the abusive, controlling TiVo mascot with whom she's recently formed an unhealthy relationship. On Sunday night, Molly turned up at the ArcLight premiere of Postal, the latest addition to director Uwe Boll's video-game-derived cinematic canon, where she and the legendarily confrontational Boll seemed to hit it off.

Rather than challenging her to a fight or asking for an e-mail address at which he could berate her at his future convenience, he shared his belief that 9/11 was executed so badly by a doped pilot that they'll eventually "have to redo it." Say what you will about Boll's resume, but you're never going to hear anything that interesting come out of the mouth of Spielberg or Scorsese at one of their movie premieres.

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Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:54:52 PDT Mark http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=314247&view=rss&microfeed=true
<![CDATA[ Uwe Boll Now Pummeling Critics With Nasty E-Mail Instead Of Fists ]]> uwe-boll.jpgUwe Boll, Hollywood's go-to director when a studio absolutely, positively needs a video game adapted into a terrible movie that may one day show a profit in the home video market, is among the last of a dying breed of macho filmmakers who are utterly unafraid to fucking fight you if you write a review that displeases them. (Taking out a retaliatory full-page ad in Variety is, as you might guess, the pussified last refuge of the coward.) Upon reading Wired's negative assessment of Postal, Boll's latest contribution to the cinematic canon, he dashed off this love note to Chris Kohler, the piece's author:

chris your review shows me only that you dont understand anything about movies and that you are a untalented wanna bee filmmaker with no balls and no understanding what POSTAL is. you dont see courage because you are nothing. and no go to your mum and fuck her ...because she cooks for you now since 30 years ..so she deserves it.
people like you are the reason that independent movies have no chance anymore. uwe boll PS: POSTAL is R RATED . The MPAA understood the satire — you not — you dumb fuck

The rest of the amusing exchange between the writer and director (and briefly, a publicist) is here, but nothing that follows really approaches Boll's opening salvo. Kohler should just consider himself lucky that Boll merely invited him to violate his own mother instead of beckoning him into the ring for one of his legendary critic ass-whoopings. The momentary sting of those clever words is almost certainly less painful than a brutal pummeling by Boll's meaty, smirk-erasing fists.

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Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:13:40 PDT Mark http://defamer.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=289538&view=rss&microfeed=true