Stop Uwe Boll

catwhowalksbyhimself · May 15, 2008, 10:29:14 PM

Stride's doing a stop Boll campaign and Boll's apparently promised to quit making movies is 1 million signatures appear on the online petition. They are at 275,000 right now. His counter petition is at 5,000.

No this is not some email being passed around that I've read. It's being reported by the scifi channel which makes it at least very likely to be true.

EDIT: Actually, there's a video of him saying this and as far as I can tell it's really him. Scifi linked to this video, but maybe someone knows better than I do. If I'm right and it is real, he's quite full of himself.

It's here, currently second video down on the menu.

stumpy · May 16, 2008, 05:10:00 AM

He is very foolish to make any promise based on an internet petition. Not that the petition in question is even vaguely legitimate. There are even people signed on it as Uwe Boll (can't link to it here because of inappropriate content, but an example is #261046). His counter-petition should take the form of counting people who see his movie.

Not that I would ever sign such a make-so-and-so-quit petition. Even if Boll were the worst director in the history of film, no one has a gun to my head forcing me to see his stuff. If enough people open their wallets when he puts out a movie to keep him in business, that's between him and them.

catwhowalksbyhimself · May 16, 2008, 06:41:10 AM

I personally doubt he'll quite even if (and I think it likely will) it reaches 1 million.

QuoteIf enough people open their wallets when he puts out a movie to keep him in business, that's between him and them.

They don't. His films consistently make less than they cost. He finances them himself with the help of German investors, and takes advantage of a German law that gives him a sizable tax break on any movie made completely in Germany that doesn't make a profit. In other words, him movies are just a way of saving on his taxes. They don't make money at all.

stumpy · May 16, 2008, 07:08:18 AM

One way or the other, that still keeps him in business, though not by a means I would consider honorable. Does the German government pay the US theaters to show his stuff and the distributors to put his DVDs on the shelves? Seems like there are a lot of people deciding to get his movies to market. But, without going somewhere inappropriate for the forum, if the German government sees fit to subsidize his movies, I don't really see how that's my concern.

The overall point being that I don't really see how it's my business (as a random movie-goer) to get this guy to stop making movies. If I thought I was being forced to pay for them or there was some substantial direct actual harm being done, then I would have a different take.

Although, I admit that part of the irksome nature of this is the idea that signatures on some unverifiable web petition are reason for anyone to do anything.

catwhowalksbyhimself · May 16, 2008, 09:58:10 AM

I personally don't care, nor am I signing the petition, but I found the idea amusing and his response to it gallingly arrogant.

Camma · May 16, 2008, 10:40:00 AM

NO. After seeing that Jason Statham movie, In the Name of the King, and wondering - besides the more obvious shortcomings (ie poor plot, poor characters, somewhat poor casting, poor continuity) - why i hated it so much, the answer was vomitted on me at the ending credits when the first screen is "A film by Ewe Boll". Then i said OOOOOOOOOOoooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, in that tone of having an epiphany, that explains EVERYTHING.

So again i say NO, you should care, and you should sign, even if he doesn't stick to his claim, even the most minute chance that he quits the entertainment industry far far outweighs the small amount of time and effort to sign the petition.

catwhowalksbyhimself · May 16, 2008, 10:55:12 AM

Actually, I was going to watch In the Name of the King, and finding this article let me know who made it. I did some checking and found out it got the same reaction as all his other movies. This has ended any desire on my part to watch this film.

stumpy · May 16, 2008, 03:03:54 PM

Yeah, I saw the DVD at the video store a few days ago and was thinking about renting it. The box had sort of a LotR look to it and Statham does action pretty well, not to mention several other fairly well-known actors.

My usual process is to put the title in my cell phone and then check IMDb for ratings and comments the next time I am online. Later, I saw the rating (3.8/10) and dropped it from consideration. It wasn't until this thread, when I was looking up Boll movies to see what the commotion was about, that I made the connection with the director. Checking some of his other movies, I have never seen any of them and it's doubtful (assuming that my process and his movie ratings don't change) that I ever will. ^_^

Pyroclasm · May 16, 2008, 05:21:41 PM

Simply put, if any movie bears his name, do not watch it.
Cat is right. Until recently, the german government was basically insuring movies made in their country through their tax laws. It was a way to try to boost their film industry. Investors in german movies knew that if a movie failed, they would basically get their money back. If they were successful, they'd see profits. Well, Uwe Boll took advantage of this. He would get investors to cough up the money knowing they couldn't lose out, and then he would buy the movie rights to various obscure licenses. Movie made, movie sucks, movie fails. The investors get their money back, he keeps what he didn't spend, and another license gets the Uwe Boll treatment. Yes, and from what I read, he never spends nearly the amount that is "budgeted".
I had the unfortunate occurrence of sitting through House of the Dead. I wasn't familiar with Uwe Boll at the time. I lost a couple of hours of my life, and even a skinny dipping scene with Erica Durance (pre-Smallville) couldn't make up for it. I have never heard a good thing about any of his movies since.

Ares_God_of_War · May 16, 2008, 05:21:47 PM

Signed :)

UnkoMan · May 16, 2008, 07:56:41 PM

In fact, in addition to what Pyro said, some have stated that this law was changed SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF Uwe Boll. Of course, that is most likely just an ugly rumour.

That doesn't discredit the fact that he blatantly buys up video game properties and makes horrible movies from them. I'll credit use of the actual video game footage in the movie (see House of the Dead), except for the fact that it made almost zero sense, context wise. Somebody axes a zombie on a tropical island, and we see a shot of a zombie getting shot in a city setting. Not to mention early House of the Dead graphics aren't exactly top notch. Neat idea, but horrible execution. The sad thing is, this is pretty much the only time I can say he HAD a neat idea.

On top of this, he's know for being an arrogant jerk. He's just a really unlikable person. Frankly, I'd be glad if he did drop out of the business, since all his movies do is give people a bad view on video game to movie adaptations... Well, actually, so do almost all video game to movie adaptations, but still!

zuludelta · May 16, 2008, 08:29:37 PM

Quote from: Pyroclasm on May 16, 2008, 05:21:41 PMI lost a couple of hours of my life, and even a skinny dipping scene with Erica Durance (pre-Smallville) couldn't make up for it.

The Department of Testosterone just called. They want you to turn in your man-card :lol:

Just screwing around with you Pyro... House of the Dead was one of the worst films I've ever seen (about as bereft of artistic merit as Turkish Superman, and not nearly as hilarious with drugs).

Conduit · May 16, 2008, 09:51:30 PM

Quote from: UnkoMan on May 16, 2008, 07:56:41 PM
In fact, in addition to what Pyro said, some have stated that this law was changed SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF Uwe Boll. Of course, that is most likely just an ugly rumour.

Yes, that's definitely just a rumor, the law was changed was because of American film companies. You see, shortly after the law was put in placed, executives realized that if you could get German investors to cover enough of the movie's budget, then they would benefit from the law too, and before you could say "tax shelter," the German government was financing a large portion of Hollywood productions. I remember reading an article about how this was done on the first Tomb Raider movie, and the resulting tax breaks made up for more than 75% of the budget.

TheMarvell · May 16, 2008, 11:17:14 PM

Tomb Raider looks like the best movie ever made compared to anything Boll has made.

Ok, well, I can't honestly bash the guy, as I have never seen one of his movies. But I have seen previews, most recently being the Dungeon Siege one, and if the movie was anything like the trailer, then this guy is one of the worst directors ever. A friend of mine saw House of the Dead and said it was one of the worst movies he's ever seen. So even though I can't "fairly" bash the guy, I don't have to have seen his movies to know that they suck. Although, I am sort of curious to see just *how* bad they really are, lol.

What I don't get is why does he keep making these movies when he has such a bad reputation. Does he actually think his movies are good? Or is he just doing it for a quick buck?

and really, the reason why I want him to quit is because he's just making the whole "videogame-based movies are terrible" reputation twice as bad, and we all know that there are a lot of videogames that have really great stories that could be turned into cool movies.