Movie Reviews

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Review in a Hurry: A fecklessly lurid action-comedy from the inexplicably well-funded Uwe Boll, who's still batting a zero despite taking a mighty swing at this one.

The Bigger Picture: Here's a shooting spree for you: Postal director Uwe Boll has done six wide-release films in five years...every one an abject failure. Since those who can't entertain, instead provoke, Boll's gone all-out to make this one as offensively funny as possible. And, in a way, he's succeeded; once slated for release in more than a thousand theaters, Postal will now be seen in something like twelve. (Well, it will be shown, anyway.)

Caught between a doomsday cult (his uncle's) and another doomsday cult (the Taliban), fired postal worker Dude must stop an apocalypse. Since this is an action-comedy, this means he has to kill a lot of people; since this is an Uwe Boll film, this means he has to do it not very well. (Add Peckinpah, Sam to the list of people Boll has caused to roll over in their graves.)

Boll, anticipating the kind of criticism Postal might receive, even takes the stage himself to answer his detractors, but with a kind of take-my-wife-please desperation that only proves the point. There's a petition out there to get him to stop making films, but this is like chumming for an exceptionally dumb shark. Better would be Boll becoming the kind of artist he's so clearly born to be: the kind who only makes movies for himself. Then we can all be happy.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Dave Foley does the full monty. This is probably a sign of an actual apocalypse, so if you're into that kind of thing, you know where to go.