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The Top 7... Worst scenes in Uwe Boll movies

Cinematic crimes from the director gamers love to hate

Words: Mikel Reparaz, GamesRadar US

Movies based on videogames don’t have the best track record. We can think of one or two that are actually good, maybe a few more that are acceptably mediocre, but in general they’re awful piles of shit. And if there’s one man who’s added to that problem more than anyone else, it’s Uwe Boll.

Over the course of his prolific career, Boll (whose first name is pronounced “oovah”) has been responsible for no fewer than six videogame-to-movie adaptations. All six feature cheesy dialogue, shitty acting and (with a couple of exceptions) a total lack of knowledge as to where to put a camera during an action scene, and all six have earned the vehement hatred of seemingly every gamer on the internet.


Above: The director challenges his critics 

However, it’s also clear from reading comments that a lot of you aren’t actually watching the movies you profess to hate. And that’s no good – taking advice from critics is all well and fine, but can you really claim to hate a man’s work without having seen it?

Of course you can’t. But we’ve sat through all six of his videogame movies – twice - so we're totally qualified to hate them. To give you an idea of what you’re missing by staying the hell away whenever a Boll joint is released, we’ve compiled a list of what we consider the absolute worst scenes he’s ever produced. Bear in mind that we’re not judging the man or his filmmaking ability (in the interest of fairness, we also checked out one of Boll’s earlier, non-videogame films, Heart of America, which was OK); we’re just giving  you an idea of what you’re up against.

 

The game: A farmer becomes a powerful adventurer who wanders around diverse landscapes with a friendly mule, hacking monsters to death and stealing their loot.

 

The movie: A farmer named Farmer gets swept up in a war with savage, thinly veiled Orc stand-ins called “Krug,” which we know were in the game so shut up. After he wanders around fake landscapes with a friendly Ron Perlman, hacking the same rubber monster to death over and over again to avenge his family, he’s eventually made king by Burt Reynolds.


 
The worst scene: In the Name of the King is probably the closest thing Uwe Boll has ever produced to a good videogame movie, although that’s not to say it’s a good movie by any stretch. The main directive seems to have been “make Lord of the Rings, but stupid.” Beautifully executed CG effects clash with men in lifeless rubber suits. Otherwise competent action scenes (a Boll first!) rarely carry any weight or meaning, because the heroes are all mega-badasses and the bad guys have trouble walking in a straight line. The whole thing is held together only by the charm of its wildly inappropriate cast, who - despite being mostly talented - nonetheless hand in the worst performances of their careers.


Above: Seriously, Burt Reynolds? 

The best examples of this are Matthew Lillard and Ray Liotta, who play villains Duke Fallow and Gallian, respectively. Lillard spazzes and gurns his way through every appearance, clearly trying to eat as much scenery as possible before it’s taken away, while Liotta does his best impression of a block of wood with bipolar disorder.


Above: This about sums up his whole performance 


Above: So does this 

However, it’s the moments when the two are together onscreen that are pure gold, assuming you love watching two grown men aggressively competing to see who can deliver awful dialogue with less skill. The scene we’ve chosen here happens fairly early in the film, but it’s the best example of what happens when these two get together – and therefore, it’s the most awe-inspiringly terrible scene in the entire movie:


 
61 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Tasty_Pasta  - 1 year 2 months ago 
First! Wow I hate Uwe Boll. Tunnel Rats will be shit.
CuddlyBomber  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Holy crap yes! Thank you G-Radar for acknowledging are best friend Uwe's overall shittyness.
Holy Diver  - 1 year 2 months ago 
There must be some people here who watvh his movies. Studios wouldnt let him direct if his films didnt make any money
MW3M  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Bloodrayne 2 went straight to DVD. Any Uwe links there?

That said.. Postal the movie looks like big crispy dumb fun....
Gahmah  - 1 year 2 months ago 
look to the left

still seems better'n dat wee music.
Themis  - 1 year 2 months ago 
The House of the Dead is TRULY AWFUL. The worst I've seen. When I first saw the game footage spliced into the action scenes, I knew I'd witnessed a new low not just in big-screen videogame adaptations, but in the history of cinema.

There are moments where it is so bad that you can't help but speculate as to whether it isn't actually a genius parody of horror films.

It is not.
TheSuburbiaRuins  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Haha amazing top 7 Mikel, love it.
I love the music they play during the HoftheD sequence, it so doesn't fit at all.
And who knew people could die from getting shot in the dick? You learn somethin new everyday
Cynwyddon  - 1 year 2 months ago 
7 pages? How dare you do such a wrongful thing yet again, Gamesradar. I'm going to plagiarize this and post it on hundreds of forums without a single link or mention of the original source. Take that, 7pageRadar.
GamesRadarMikelReparaz  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Yeah, we're not crazy about the 7-page thing, either, but unfortunately it's not our call right now. We can, however, try to pack each page with enough stuff so that you don't feel cheated, which is what I hope I've done here.
iluvmyDS  - 1 year 2 months ago 
He summed it up, "I hate video games". As if we didn't know that already. Douche.
Cynwyddon  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Oh my, I apologize for my crude joke. I actually like that there are 7 pages, I prefer clicking to scrolling. Anyway, great article, I could never figure out why everybody hated this guy. I guess I simply needed to see some of his horrible work for myself. At least now I didn't actually have to pay for it.
bioshocker  - 1 year 2 months ago 
My uncle has worked on a bunch of these movies. He also worked on Farcry which he thinks won't change boll's reputation.
Tochy  - 1 year 2 months ago 
"I hate,videogames..." *falls*
otakupunk  - 1 year 2 months ago 
thank you gamesradar for giving me another reason the hate uwe boll
that crap he said about asians just pissed me off
NelosAngelos  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Hell better have a nice little spot for this guy when he gets sent down there.
kicking222  - 1 year 2 months ago 
That scene from "BloodRayne" might actually have the worst blood/gore/dismemberment effects I've ever seen in a "legit" film. That is... incredible. Wowwie wow wow.
Tymiegie  - 1 year 2 months ago 
Of course.... He hates video games. That's why he feels he has to make God-Awful game-based movies. It's so everyone else hates video games as much as he does
slickmcwilly  - 1 year 2 months ago 
The BloodRayne one made me totally just start hysterically laughing. That is one of the most unprofessional movie scenes I have ever witnessed.
BHT128  - 1 year 2 months ago 
I almost killed myself during the house of the dead vid, and nearly wet myself during the "Terrifying" special effects of Bloodrayne.
Fokker1138  - 1 year 2 months ago 
I haven't watched any of his movies outside of Postal, but as far as the comments of "no good goddamn reason", did he even play the game? That's pretty much the theme of Postal and Postal 2, random violence. It's a fun game just for the sheer mindlessness of it, sort of like going on a destructive bender in a GTA game. I think the movie was fairly true to the game and I enjoyed the absurdity of it.
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