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There’s an old saying that goes, “You made your bed; now lie in it.” This adage couldn’t be more perfect to describe the career of Uwe Boll and the reaction that his movies now get. While Boll may be famous for making some of the worst theatrically released movies of all time, it has become clear that this reputation takes precedence over reality. Having seen all of Boll’s flicks since House of the Dead… which I was one of two people in the theater for… it’s obvious to me that Uwe Boll is one of the few directors out there who is actually improving his game. The only problem is that no one gives a fuck, because Boll laid the groundwork for his career by dropping deuce after deuce into movie theaters. Now that he’s making actual good movies, no one notices, and Uwe Boll actually received a Golden Raspberry for Tunnel Rats (along with In the Name of the King and Postal)… despite the fact that it was actually good. You almost have to feel sorry for Boll, whose bombastic personality and confident bravado has contributed to his plight. Despite the fact that Boll has rearranged his bed and filled it with his first quality blanket, critics and fans everywhere are still throwing burlap sacks on top of it and yelling, “Lie in it bitch.” It’s too bad that most people will never watch Tunnel Rats or appreciate the fact that here was a bad director who took it upon himself to become a good director. Tunnel Rats should mark the stunning emergence of Uwe Boll as a legitimate filmmaker… instead it is needlessly derided simply because of Uwe Boll’s terrible past.

Tunnel Rats is not based on a video game… like every other one of Boll’s American flicks. Instead, Boll gives us a solid tale of the horrors of war as we follow a group of soldiers who are investigating a series of tunnels during the Vietnam War. These soldiers must crawl into tunnels tighter than a virgin’s slime canal and take out enemy soldiers. Things don’t go as they plan, and events spiral out of control, escalating into a smorgasbord of brutality that doesn’t stop to ask who is right and who is wrong. It’s all about survival and this is a war story that goes from order and routine to complete anarchy within the blink of an eye.

Boll’s flick is amazingly well put together. There was a moment in the film, after I had been lulled to sleep by a long chunk of character development, where I sat up in my chair… shocked enough to pause the DVD just to take in the moment. From there, the movie kicked into high gear. This new flick is filled with an anarchistic spirit that Boll has developed over the last four or five years, a trend which is perhaps a result of all the shit this guy has taken. Boll doesn’t play favorites and everything in the film is fair game, which creates for an unpredictable spectacle of brutality and horror. It’s extreme enough that I don’t even consider this a war movie as much as I consider it a horror movie. To top it all off, Boll shows a surprising amount of subtlety and the end of the movie is about as good as they come.

The cast of the film is a little bit disappointing. Despite the fact that there is a bunch of character development at the beginning of the film, I don’t feel like I truly knew any of the characters. Maybe that’s the point of the film, and not being tied to any one character allows Boll a range of movement and freedom not typically afforded a war flick. The two standouts of the cast are Michael Paré and Jane Le. Paré plays a commander that is eerily similar to Tom Berenger’s character in Platoon… but he does it with a hard-edged glee that seems almost alien to the performer. Jane Le gives an awesome performance as a female Viet Cong. A deadly mix of beauty and survivalist, Le’s performance might be the best in the film, despite the fact that she doesn’t speak a word of English.

Tunnel Rats wouldn’t have the impact that it does if it weren’t for the crazy violent special effects. Most of the stuff here is practical with a few CGI touches, but it’s not the effects which make the violence so effective, but the way in which Boll films them. People are shot apart, blown up, lit on fire, and have shit rammed through their throats. It’s a stunning display of ultra-violence that reminds one of the last Rambo flick… only not on the same epic scale.

If you check out my other reviews of Boll flicks, you’ll find that I knew this day was coming… the day that I gave my seal of approval to an Uwe Boll flick. I wasn’t expecting it with Tunnel Rats, but here it is, bitches… “Uwe Boll made a good movie… and The Vocabulariast liked it.”

Final Synopsis: This movie rocks. It reminds me of a more brutal Hamburger Hill… with tunnels. Give it a watch if you like horror movies, war movies, or violence.

Points Lost: -1 for a weak cast, -1 for too much character development, -1 for too much Comando-esque warfare where dudes run out in plain sight of people with machine guns

Bonus Points: +1 for a shocking moment that sets the stage for the rest of the film

Lesson Learned: Always have someone else poke their head out of the tunnel.

Burning Question: Would you rather have a finger cut off or go digging around in a Vietnamese tunnel during the war?

Tunnel Rats
8/10

Tags: 2008, action, adventure, brutality, horror, jane le, latest movie reviews, michael pare, recent3, ultra-violence, uwe boll, uwe boll makes a good film!, vietnam, vietnam war, war, war movie